May 29, 2020 · 29m · 20vc
20VC: TravelPerk's Avi Meir on Why 2021 Will Be A Record Year For Business Travel, The 3 Priorities For All Founders During COVID, What VCs Can Do To Really Support Their Founders In A Recession
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In this episode of The 20 Minute VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews TravelPerk founder and CEO Avi Meir to discuss navigating COVID-19 disruptions, founder strategies for crisis survival, and why business travel will experience a strong rebound post-pandemic.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 31.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 2.6 Guest teaching 4.7 Guest disagreement 2.9 Harry pushing back 2.4
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 5:00 Avi rejecting Twitter narrative on lockdowns
Avi dismisses common social media discourse on stay-at-home orders, claiming that if people on Twitter disagree with you, you are probably right, and highlights how remote work privilege ignores factory and frontline workers.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 10:17 Harry refusing travel industry comparison to SARS and 9/11Harry explicitly rejects the common founder trope comparing COVID-19 to previous crises, pointing out that travel has never faced a simultaneous supply and demand collapse.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:30 Avi re-educating on the mathematical reality of curve flatteningAvi corrects public misunderstanding around epidemiological curves, explaining mathematically that flattening the curve merely delays infection spread to preserve ICU capacity rather than decreasing overall infection area.
Harry holds his own ▶ 10:17 Harry displaying industry insights on demand-supply shockHarry demonstrates keen macroeconomic knowledge of the travel industry by challenging guest consensus and pointing out why COVID-19 represents a uniquely catastrophic structural shock compared to past events.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avi Meir's Background and Founding TravelPerk | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | Harry introduces Avi and asks about TravelPerk's background. Avi forcefully critiques Twitter echo-chambers regarding COVID-19 lockdowns, using labor statistics from Spain and the UK to highlight that nearly 70 percent of workers cannot work remotely. | |
| Government Response and the Swedish Approach | 1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | Harry asks what Avi would do if he were running the government. Avi advocates for Sweden's approach and educates listeners on the mathematical definition of flattening the curve as delaying infection rather than eliminating cases. | |
| Evaluating COVID-19's Impact on the Travel Industry | 6 | 5 | 3 | 6 | Harry pushes back against travel founders comparing COVID-19 to SARS or 9/11, arguing this is an unprecedented simultaneous demand and supply shock. Avi agrees with Harry's observation while detailing TravelPerk's Q1 performance and offering a bet on 2021 travel growth. | |
| Three Priorities for Founders in a Crisis | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Harry asks how early-stage founders with idle workforces should navigate cash preservation. Avi outlines his three-part crisis playbook (survive, emerge strong, turn lemons into lemonade) and shares lessons on transparent leadership. | |
| Personal Resilience and Stoic Philosophy | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Harry inquires about maintaining psychological resilience during uncertainty. Avi discusses Stoic philosophy before predicting specific future travel trends, such as domestic train travel recovering faster than international flights. | |
| Consolidation and the Startup Graveyard | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Harry asks about potential consolidation in travel startups and VC expectations. Avi shares a story about LocalGlobe offering immediate emergency capital, while Harry points out VCs' fiduciary duties in ambiguous portfolio situations. | |
| Quick Fire Round | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | During the quick fire round, Avi criticizes the lengthy VC fundraising diligence process and humorously suggests a 'Snapchat for data rooms.' Harry notes that founders could assemble comprehensive info packs to mitigate this delay. |
Statements from this episode (17)
Meir: Disagreeing with Twitter consensus usually means you are right
“So first I would say if people on Twitter would disagree with you, you're probably right.”
Meir: TravelPerk lost great engineers due to strict office-only policy
“We actually never did remote work as a company. We always believed in being in the same office, having this kind of serendipity that you get by bumping into people and having an interesting discussion, waiting for the coffee or something. So we never did remot…”
Meir: TravelPerk went remote weeks before Spain mandated lockdowns
“We stopped using the office a week or two before it was mandatory here in Spain.”
Avi Meir: Sweden found the right balance in its COVID-19 response
“So if you look at Swedish approach, it seems right this moment, and again, it might change in a week, so who knows, but right now it seems that they have found a good balance between Protecting, allowing those who need protection to be protected, those who hav…”
Avi Meir: Flattening the curve delays COVID infections without reducing total cases
“Flattening the curve means that the surface below the curve still is the same. You just delay. If you're going to get it, you're still going to get it. You just want to catch it when ICU beds are available and there's a ventilator waiting for you if you need o…”
Meir: Global travel demand dropped below 5% during COVID lockdowns
“We're talking about demand going probably, and I'm being generous here. Probably below five percent globally for travel right now. Some areas just zero, right?”
Avi Meir: TravelPerk grew Q1 2020 revenue multi-fold year-over-year
“But we actually grew very, very well multiples year and year in Q-one, right, in revenue. So Q-one was an amazing quarter for us in growth, even though we had, of course, not so great March.”
Avi Meir: Business travel in 2021 will surpass 2019 levels
“I'm willing to bet That business travel will grow in twenty-twenty-one. Not based on twenty-twenty, based on twenty-nineteen.”
Meir: Cutting workforce capacity too deeply will delay post-pandemic rebuilding
“As I said, it's going to end, and people will go back to traveling, and I don't want to lose 12 months after lockdowns are lifted in rebuilding the capacity, rebuilding the muscle that we have lost if we went and did too deep of a cut.”
Avi Meir: Startups are sports teams, not families
“It's not a family, right? And if you have to use a cliche, the family one, I like sports team one, right? So in a sports team, you have to sometimes give hard news, difficult news and deal with it instead of trying to be liked and protective. And I think the b…”
Avi Meir: Domestic business travel will recover faster than international travel
“Domestic travel will emerge faster and sooner than international travel.”
Avi Meir: Rail bookings will exceed domestic flights during travel recovery
“Rail will be bigger than flights, at least by the number of bookings, because it's just more convenient to travel domestically, in many cases, in train versus flight.”
Meir: First-round venture funding for travel startups is dead for a while
“First money into travel company, probably dead for a while.”
Meir: TravelPerk is actively seeking acquisition opportunities during the pandemic
“We're definitely, any deal of this, we're definitely looking more and more into that direction, yeah.”
LocalGlobe offered TravelPerk emergency capital without asking for terms during COVID
“As the crisis started, they sent me an email and they said, We have X million waiting for you. Tell us when to wire them. They didn't ask about terms. They didn't ask about if I actually need the money.”
Avi Meir: VCs should proactively fund top portfolio startups during market shocks
“The first thing visitors should do if they are able to, and the company is good, is reach out and sign a check to their current portfolio. I think that's one of the best helps, because it gives you the oxygen to breathe, it gives you the oxygen to think clearl…”