GetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank

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 does 33,000 per day and 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:

• “I Regret Our Series A — Too Much Dilution”

• “Germany Spends €100B on Pensions, €7B on VC – It’s Insane”

• Why Europe Fails to Build $10B Startups

• 90% of Our Team in Berlin Aren’t German. Here’s Why.

• Recruiting Netflix’s Head of Growth Nearly Killed Me

• “We Had 5 Bookings in 2 Years. 3 Were My Mum.”

• “I Asked My Parents to Remortgage Their House for a Pivot”

• The Vatican Tour That Changed Everything

• Why VCs Rejected GetYourGuide 100+ Times

• The $14M Series A That Nearly Killed the Company

• “I Hired All the Wrong People – Then Laid Off 30%”

• The $450M SoftBank Deal… Then COVID Hit

• “We Went to $0 in Revenue in 3 Weeks”

• The Sequoia Tree Mindset: Grow Through Fire

• What SoftBank’s Masa Son Was Really Like in Person

• How He Thinks About Secondary, Wealth, and Not Losing His Soul

• “My Worst Hires Came from Listening to VCs Too Much”

• Angel Investing in Trade Republic and TravelPerk: My Lessons

• Do You Have to Work 7 Days a Week to Win?

• US vs Europe: Why European Founders Are Tougher

• Quick-Fire Round