Johannes Reck is the Founder and CEO of GetYourGuide, the $2BN company that started with a holiday to China and nothing to do. For the first two years, GetYourGuide received only 5 bookings. Today the platform is worth $2BN. They have raised from some of the best, including an amazing story with Masa Son and Softbank.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
01:45 – “I Regret Our Series A — Too Much Dilution”
03:50 – US vs Europe: Why European Founders Are Tougher
06:10 – “Germany Spends €100B on Pensions, €7B on VC – It’s Insane”
08:40 – Why Europe Fails to Build $10B Startups
10:25 – 90% of Our Team in Berlin Aren’t German. Here’s Why.
12:20 – Recruiting Netflix’s Head of Growth Nearly Killed Me
16:20 – “We Had 5 Bookings in 2 Years. 3 Were My Mum.”
18:00 – “I Asked My Parents to Remortgage Their House for a Pivot”
21:15 – The Vatican Tour That Changed Everything
23:30 – Why VCs Rejected GetYourGuide 100+ Times
28:30 – The $14M Series A That Nearly Killed the Company
31:00 – “I Hired All the Wrong People – Then Laid Off 30%”
36:30 – The $450M SoftBank Deal... Then COVID Hit
40:00 – “We Went to $0 in Revenue in 3 Weeks”
42:10 – The Sequoia Tree Mindset: Grow Through Fire
49:30 – What SoftBank’s Masa Son Was Really Like in Person
52:00 – How He Thinks About Secondary, Wealth, and Not Losing His Soul
55:30 – “My Worst Hires Came from Listening to VCs Too Much”
58:30 – Angel Investing in Trade Republic and TravelPerk: My Lessons
01:01:00 – Do You Have to Work 7 Days a Week to Win?