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20VC: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank | Why My Biggest Mistakes Came From Listening to VCs | Why 100 VCs Turned Us Down | Why European Founders Are Tougher Than US Founders with Johannes Reck, GetYourGuide

Overview

Shownote

Highlights

Transcript

Chapters

Pins

20VC: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank | Why My Biggest Mistakes Came From Listening to VCs | Why 100 VCs Turned Us Down | Why European Founders Are Tougher Than US Founders with Johannes Reck, GetYourGuide

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

2025/06/23
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

2025/06/23
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

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 is worth $2BN. They have raised from some of t...

Highlights

Johannes Reck, the founder and CEO of GetYourGuide, shares the remarkable journey of building a travel experiences platform from just five bookings in two years to a $2 billion company. Along the way, he faced immense challenges — from fundraising hurdles and strategic missteps to global crises like the pandemic. His story highlights resilience, adaptability, and hard-earned lessons from scaling a business in Europe’s evolving startup ecosystem.
06:12
Europe needs more innovation investment to compete with US capital pools
08:40
Tax incentives are proposed to attract global talent to Europe.
10:28
Visa restrictions hinder the growth of the tech ecosystem in Europe.
14:40
Tech leaders should speak out despite blowback to bring progress closer to people
16:22
Johannes' early arrival in Beijing led to the idea for GetYourGuide
20:24
Being fully committed was crucial after two years of setbacks with an unproven prototype
21:15
Johannes Reck asked his parents to remortgage their house for funding due to lack of seed capital
25:59
Brent invested after regretting not buying Booking.com at seed-stage
28:32
Securing a large Series A transformed the company's status from unknown to standout.
33:37
A million-dollar investment came during a critical company reboot phase
39:03
Series B round was secured easily due to strong positioning after refocus
40:01
GetYourGuide raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Highland Europe and Spark
44:45
Received $450 million from SoftBank Vision Fund and Temasek, shaping the company's survival during the pandemic
54:43
Having top-tier VCs on the cap table can signal credibility and ease future fundraising.
57:47
Raised $100 million in 2023 despite existing cash reserves
1:00:43
Using financial gains to improve health and performance through better lifestyle choices
1:06:16
Building a successful business takes decades and requires a sustainable lifestyle.

Chapters

Johannes Reck on Scaling GetYourGuide
00:00
I Regret Our Series A — Too Much Dilution
01:45
US vs Europe: Why European Founders Are Tougher
03:50
Germany Spends €100B on Pensions, €7B on VC – It’s Insane
06:10
Why Europe Fails to Build $10B Startups
08:40
90% of Our Team in Berlin Aren’t German. Here’s Why.
10:25
Recruiting Netflix’s Head of Growth Nearly Killed Me
12:20
We Had 5 Bookings in 2 Years. 3 Were My Mum.
16:20
I Asked My Parents to Remortgage Their House for a Pivot
18:00
The Vatican Tour That Changed Everything
21:15
Why VCs Rejected GetYourGuide 100+ Times
23:30
The $14M Series A That Nearly Killed the Company
28:30
I Hired All the Wrong People – Then Laid Off 30%
31:00
The $450M SoftBank Deal... Then COVID Hit
36:30
We Went to $0 in Revenue in 3 Weeks
40:00
The Sequoia Tree Mindset: Grow Through Fire
42:10
What SoftBank’s Masa Son Was Really Like in Person
49:30
How He Thinks About Secondary, Wealth, and Not Losing His Soul
52:00
My Worst Hires Came from Listening to VCs Too Much
55:30
Angel Investing in Trade Republic and TravelPerk: My Lessons
58:30
Do You Have to Work 7 Days a Week to Win?
1:01:00

Transcript

Johannes Reck: I would have not raced as big of a Series A. Looking back, I think it was too much dilution. What did change was that suddenly I felt like a celebrity. That was the moment when I made the biggest mistakes. If you have a Sequoia Capital or an...