The Twenty Minute VCGetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 2:53
From Beijing travel pain to the first (failed) GetYourGuide concept
Johannes recounts the origin story: arriving in Beijing early, being unable to find good things to do online, and realizing how powerful local guidance is. Back at ETH, he and Tao start building a travel product—initially a community for peer-to-peer guides—which fails to gain real usage.
- •Beijing trip sparks the idea: discovery and planning for activities was broken
- •Founders’ background at ETH (not travel) and early builder mindset
- •First product: a social network/community for guides
- •Early validation was weak: tiny guide base and minimal demand
- •Early pivots begin as they search for product-market fit
- 2:53 – 4:44
“5 bookings in 2 years”: why the first approach didn’t work and what they learned
They confront the reality of near-zero traction while finishing university, but extract a key insight: experiences in Europe are massive and largely undigitized. This realization becomes the basis for a more ambitious pivot from a guide community to an experiences marketplace.
- •Only 3–5 bookings in two years; three from Johannes’s mother
- •They could afford to fail while still students, building at night
- •Key market insight: huge ‘things to do’ inventory, especially in Europe
- •Experiences were not digitized in 2009–2010
- •Decision to pivot toward the larger, non-digital experiences market
- 4:44 – 7:43
Going all-in: the remortgage moment and committing after graduation
Johannes argues you ultimately must go all-in to build a real company. After graduation, with an unproven prototype and limited seed funding availability in Europe, he asks his parents to effectively fund the next phase—despite the prior failures—driven largely by conviction and team cohesion.
- •Debate: building on the side vs going all-in; Johannes says all-in is required
- •Post-degree shift: full-time focus needed for supply, marketing, execution
- •Funding gap in Europe: no easy seed capital for students with unproven idea
- •Asks parents for financial backing via remortgage to extend runway
- •Mindset: “failure is non-optional” and staying focused like a race car driver
- 7:43 – 9:33
Cold-starting supply: signing the Vatican tour and early breakout traction
The company begins to work once they focus on onboarding real suppliers through cold outreach and in-person hustle. A Vatican tour goes live and bookings start to tick in; major attractions follow, and the business discovers both revenue potential and travel seasonality risk.
- •Supplier acquisition via cold calls and traveling to sign partners
- •Breakthrough supplier: Vatican tours—major attraction not sold online yet
- •Landing recognizable inventory (e.g., London Eye / Merlin, Madame Tussauds)
- •Early revenue growth to ~half a million in commission/net revenue in 2010
- •Seasonality lesson: winters nearly bankrupt them repeatedly
- 9:33 – 11:31
Europe’s early VC desert and the ‘copycat’ problem: rejections and persistence
Despite traction, fundraising is extremely difficult in 2010–2012 Europe, especially for a company without a clear US analog. Johannes describes repeated rejections, the Rocket Internet era dynamics, and the core fundraising lesson: tenacity plus iterating your story with today’s broader support ecosystem.
- •No meaningful inbound VC interest despite growth
- •Investors wanted a US equivalent; ‘no copycat’ hurt fundability
- •Rocket Internet context and the Berlin ecosystem’s early formation
- •100+ rejections; travel seen as unattractive/complex by many VCs
- •Advice: persistence, refine narrative/PMF, lean on mentors and ecosystem
- 11:31 – 16:13
First funding and credibility: Brent Hoberman’s seed and the Spark-led Series A
A chance interaction at LeWeb leads to Brent Hoberman’s seed investment, which then unlocks US investor access and credibility. Spark Capital’s Alex Finkelstein ultimately leads the Series A, marking a major step-change in the company’s visibility and ambition.
- •Brent Hoberman invests after a brief but decisive meeting
- •Seed round: ~$1M at ~$5–6M pre-money (early lifeline)
- •Brent’s referral catalyzes US VC meetings and higher-quality interest
- •Spark Capital’s Alex Finkelstein leads the Series A in 2013
- •Business at Series A: ~2M net revenue, 2–3x YoY growth, ~25% take rate
- 16:13 – 20:36
The $14M Series A “nearly killed us”: dilution, celebrity effect, and strategy drift
Johannes reflects on over-raising and over-dilution at Series A and how it warped incentives and decision-making. Flush with cash and status, the team listened too much to VCs, expanded too broadly, hired the wrong senior people, and saw growth slow while costs exploded—forcing a painful reset.
- •Series A: ~$14M at ~$30–35M pre; Johannes regrets the dilution level
- •Sudden ‘superstar’ status changed how the ecosystem treated them
- •Core mistake: over-relying on board/VC direction instead of on-the-ground truth
- •Strategy drift: too many initiatives (SaaS, multi-market, segments) too early
- •Outcome: expenses surged, growth slowed, and layoffs became necessary
- 20:36 – 26:10
Reboot and mentorship: layoffs, Kees Koolen’s intervention, and focus on the core
Facing the consequences of mis-hiring and overexpansion, Johannes lays off ~30% and refocuses on the business’s core. A pivotal call from Booking.com’s former CEO Kees Koolen brings mentorship, board support, and a personal investment—helping re-anchor strategy around depth over breadth.
- •Layoff of ~30% to stop the spiral and regain focus
- •Kees Koolen calls, deep-dives metrics, shows up Saturday to whiteboard strategy
- •Kees joins board and invests $1M, becoming a key mentor
- •Lesson: hire for the company stage; big-tech/public-company profiles often mismatch early stage
- •Strategic principle: the ‘no department’—say no to distractions, obsess on the core
- 26:10 – 30:30
Comeback playbook: promote from within, narrow focus, and a smoother Series B
The company rebounds by promoting high-performing internal talent and refocusing on core categories and European capitals. Growth and unit economics improve dramatically, enabling a stronger fundraising position and a Series B co-led by Spark and Highland Europe.
- •Promoting strong internal performers beats importing expensive execs too early
- •Operational focus: attraction tickets + guided tours in core cities (Rome/Paris/London)
- •Return to >100% YoY growth with better unit economics
- •Series B: ~ $25M at ~ $90–100M valuation (co-led Spark + Highland Europe)
- •Board-management lesson: being opinionated and pushing back can increase investor respect
- 30:30 – 31:19
Scaling choices: rinse-and-repeat growth, premature US push, and setting up the SoftBank era
After Series B, GetYourGuide expands supply and demand across Europe and begins building a US foothold—Johannes later calls it premature but not fatal. This period of consistent execution ultimately sets the stage for a massive growth round from SoftBank Vision Fund and Temasek in 2019.
- •Multi-year scaling via repeatable playbook (supply + demand growth)
- •US expansion acknowledged as early; Europe focus could have yielded more growth/profit
- •Building some US presence still provided strategic resilience later
- •Market maturation: experiences category becomes more established
- •Leads directly into SoftBank/Temasek growth round discussions
- 31:19 – 36:51
Raising $450M: SoftBank diligence, meeting Masa, and why the round mattered
Johannes describes a metrics-heavy SoftBank process (not a ‘30-minute check’) and a memorable meeting with Masa at his home. The round totals ~$450M (mix of primary and some secondary) at roughly a $1.5–1.6B valuation—and becomes existentially important when COVID hits soon after.
- •SoftBank marketplace team ran deep, traditional growth-equity diligence
- •Masa meeting: calm, financially rigorous (PNL-focused) and visionary about AI/VR/UX
- •Total raised: ~ $450M from SoftBank Vision Fund + Temasek; not all primary
- •Valuation: ~ $1.5–1.6B
- •Johannes notes the ‘celebrity’ effect after big rounds and its risks
- 36:51 – 40:50
COVID shock: revenue to zero in 3 weeks and the ‘Sequoia tree’ resilience mindset
COVID collapses demand almost instantly, dropping GetYourGuide to near-zero bookings while employing 600–700 people. Johannes shifts into crisis ‘surgeon’ mode, rejects advice to lay off everyone, and rallies the team with the sequoia-after-wildfire metaphor: survive, keep building, and be first out of the gates.
- •Board flagged contingency risk early (Asia visibility); reality hit fast in Europe/US
- •Revenue effectively goes to zero in three weeks; traffic disappears
- •Investor pressure to lay off entire company vs scenario-based resilience planning
- •Strategic intent: preserve capabilities to win the rebound
- •Company-wide narrative: sequoias grow stronger after wildfires
- 40:50 – 44:49
Operating through the pandemic: salary-for-equity swaps, limited layoffs, and rebuilding product
To preserve the core team, GetYourGuide negotiates major salary reductions in exchange for equity—especially in product and engineering—while using government short-time labor mechanisms elsewhere. They keep building, protect supply relationships, and emerge with improved contracts and a stronger product foundation.
- •Engineering/product staff reduce salaries ~30%+ for shares; leadership even more
- •Leverage European labor programs to reduce burn without gutting the org
- •Total layoffs limited to ~15–20% over ~two years; no product/engineering layoffs
- •Continued investment in product and supplier support during downturn
- •Positioning for rebound: retain supply, improve terms, streamline base
- 44:49 – 1:05:39
Rebound and capital strategy: 10x growth, convertible debt, 2023 funding, and profitability discipline
Travel demand returns sharply in 2022; GetYourGuide grows 10x in months and reaches double 2019 volume that year, then scales further while becoming profitable. Johannes explains using convertible debt as a buffer, raising again in 2023 at an up round, and how profitability creates focus and better capital allocation discipline.
- •2021 still ~50% below 2019; rebound accelerates dramatically in early 2022
- •Late 2021 to March 2022: ~10x growth; 2022 hits ~2x 2019 volumes
- •Raised ~ $100M convertible debt during the pandemic as reserve capital
- •2023: convert note and raise an additional ~ $100M at an up round; break-even achieved
- •Framework: no universal ‘always take the money’ rule; avoid early over-raising but fund big opportunities with discipline
- 1:05:39 – 1:19:25
Europe’s scale-up gap: growth capital, immigration, bureaucracy, and building a competitive talent flywheel
The conversation shifts to Europe’s structural disadvantages at the growth and pre-IPO stages: fewer mega-funds, weaker public-market capital pools, and lower talent density for senior roles. Johannes argues Europe should radically boost growth funding and attract global talent through incentives and simpler immigration—using GetYourGuide’s Berlin workforce as proof.
- •US investors’ home-run dynamics reduce pressure and enable bigger thinking
- •Europe lacks growth/pre-IPO/public pools of capital; scaling and listing are harder
- •Policy critique: Germany spends ~€100B on pensions vs ~€7B on VC—misaligned priorities
- •Talent argument: 90% of GetYourGuide’s Berlin team are non-German due to shortages
- •Fixes proposed: tax incentives for skilled immigrants, reduce visa/red-tape delays, protect open society to attract talent
- 1:19:25 – 1:24:26
Quick-fire: AI impact, new supply categories, leadership evolution, and legacy
In the closing rapid-fire, Johannes shares tactical views on AI’s impact (especially on supplier onboarding), new vertical opportunities (shows and events), and his personal evolution as a CEO. He ends with reflections on parenting, sustainable ambition, and wanting to be remembered for building human connection.
- •Board addition choice: Jeff Bezos for customer rigor and marketplace mastery
- •AI impact strongest on supply-side onboarding, pricing/availability, and supplier insights
- •New category focus: touristic shows and events (distinct from core ticketing)
- •Leadership growth: more humility, awareness of deficiencies, more inclusivity
- •Legacy goal: creating more human connection—via product and Europe’s future
