Johannes Reck, CEO of travel booking platform GetYourGuide, explains how Airbnb's struggles in experiences validated GetYourGuide's model to SoftBank investors.
“Airbnb had tried experiences From 2015 onwards, they had failed.”
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More from Johannes Reck
Opinion
Johannes Reck calls Peter Thiel's critique of European founder ambition "BS"
“I think it's bullshit to be honest when people say European entrepreneurs don't work as hard, are not as ambitious. You know, I've heard Peter Thiel and like others say that, but I think that's BS to be honest.”
Johannes ReckJun 23, 2025▶ 1:07:12GetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AssertionNot checkable as stated
US VCs Refused to Fund GetYourGuide Unless They Relocated to America
“For the people that I met in the U S most people said, you know, move over here or we're not going to give you funding.”
Johannes ReckJun 23, 2025▶ 13:45GetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Reck: Masayoshi Son is a skilled financial investor
“So I was surprised because, you know, you have these stories of Masa that he's just this crazy person, but he's actually a really good financial investor as well. So don't know, don't be kidded by like all of the headlines. He knows what he's doing.”
Johannes ReckJun 23, 2025▶ 33:38GetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Investors urged Johannes Reck to lay off GetYourGuide's entire staff during COVID
“The bad thing was I had a lot of investors who basically called me up and said, you have to lay off the entire company immediately to save all of the dollars you have on the balance sheet.”
Johannes ReckJun 23, 2025▶ 39:02GetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Johannes Reck says hiring scale executive product talent in Europe is impossible
“If I want to hire, let's say the next chief product officer, At Get Your Guide, it's almost impossible to do that in Europe and need to go to Silicon Valley because the density of people who have done that scale have served tens of millions of customers a year…”
Johannes ReckJun 23, 2025▶ 1:07:54GetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AssertionSupported
Germany subsidizes pensions with €100B yearly but invests only €7B in VC
“Germany subsidizes its retirement system every year with a hundred billion, right? But we don't, we have seven billion invested in VC, a hundred billion subsidies in retirement system.”
Johannes ReckJun 23, 2025▶ 1:09:00GetYourGuide CEO & Founder, Johannes Reck: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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