The Twenty Minute VCGetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank
Harry Stebbings and Johannes Reck on from Student Side-Project To SoftBank Unicorn: GetYourGuide’s Wild Ride.
In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Johannes Reck and Harry Stebbings, GetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank explores from Student Side-Project To SoftBank Unicorn: GetYourGuide’s Wild Ride Johannes Reck, co-founder and CEO of GetYourGuide, recounts the company’s journey from a failed university side-project to a multi-billion-dollar global experiences marketplace backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
From Student Side-Project To SoftBank Unicorn: GetYourGuide’s Wild Ride
- Johannes Reck, co-founder and CEO of GetYourGuide, recounts the company’s journey from a failed university side-project to a multi-billion-dollar global experiences marketplace backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
- He describes multiple pivots before finding product-market fit, brutal early years of near-bankruptcy, and the transformational impact—both positive and negative—of large US-led funding rounds.
- The conversation dives into lessons on dilution, founder re-ups, hiring at different stages, managing boards, and surviving existential crises like COVID, which wiped revenues to zero for over a year.
- Reck also reflects on angel investing, European tech’s structural weaknesses, and what Europe must do—capital, immigration, and policy—to compete with the US and China.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasDon’t over-raise early; manage dilution deliberately.
Reck now believes his large Series A was too dilutive, creating cap table complexity and misaligned incentives, and advises founders to raise what they can productively deploy at that stage rather than maximizing headline round size.
As a founder, you must set strategy—don’t outsource it to VCs.
After the Series A, GetYourGuide tried to follow board-driven ideas (SaaS for vendors, many markets, many segments), hired the wrong senior people, and saw growth fall; Reck only regained momentum when he pushed back, narrowed focus, and reasserted his own strategy.
Match leadership hires to stage; big-company stars often fail early stage.
Reck learned that executives from large, mature companies can be disastrous in a 30–50 person startup still searching for deep product-market fit; early-stage firms need highly entrepreneurial, hands-on builders rather than process-heavy managers.
In crises, build scenarios and optimize for survival plus rebound.
When COVID dropped revenues to nearly zero in three weeks, Reck rejected advice to fire almost everyone; instead, he modeled multiple scenarios, preserved core product and engineering, cut selectively, and used equity-for-salary reductions to be ready for the eventual travel surge.
Large, reputable US funds materially change perception and access.
The Spark-led Series A turned GetYourGuide from a “nobody” into a visible European startup, dramatically improving hiring and making subsequent rounds easier; Reck notes that having top-tier names like Spark, Sequoia, or Index on the cap table is a powerful signal.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesWe went from a nobody to a superstar literally overnight.
— Johannes Reck
We listened way too much to the VCs and completely lost our way.
— Johannes Reck
At Booking, the innovation department had one person – me – and it was called the ‘no department’.
— Johannes Reck (quoting Kees Koolen)
It took three weeks from that board meeting to us being at zero revenues.
— Johannes Reck
I want to be that sequoia after the COVID crisis, so let’s build that sequoia now.
— Johannes Reck
QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE
5 questionsHow can founders distinguish between valuable board input and advice that will distract them from their core strategy?
Johannes Reck, co-founder and CEO of GetYourGuide, recounts the company’s journey from a failed university side-project to a multi-billion-dollar global experiences marketplace backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
What practical criteria should early-stage founders use to decide whether a senior hire from a big tech company will actually fit a 30–50 person startup?
He describes multiple pivots before finding product-market fit, brutal early years of near-bankruptcy, and the transformational impact—both positive and negative—of large US-led funding rounds.
In a crisis like COVID, how do you balance empathy for employees with the hard financial decisions required to survive?
The conversation dives into lessons on dilution, founder re-ups, hiring at different stages, managing boards, and surviving existential crises like COVID, which wiped revenues to zero for over a year.
Given his experience with SoftBank, how would Reck advise a founder approached today with a very large growth round offer?
Reck also reflects on angel investing, European tech’s structural weaknesses, and what Europe must do—capital, immigration, and policy—to compete with the US and China.
What specific policy changes does Reck believe European governments should implement first to meaningfully boost growth-stage capital and tech immigration?
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
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