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

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 the best, including an amazing story with Masa Son and Softbank. 

In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

01:45 – “I Regret Our Series A — Too Much Dilution”

03:50 – US vs Europe: Why European Founders Are Tougher

06:10 – “Germany Spends €100B on Pensions, €7B on VC – It’s Insane”

08:40 – Why Europe Fails to Build $10B Startups

10:25 – 90% of Our Team in Berlin Aren’t German. Here’s Why.

12:20 – Recruiting Netflix’s Head of Growth Nearly Killed Me

16:20 – “We Had 5 Bookings in 2 Years. 3 Were My Mum.”

18:00 – “I Asked My Parents to Remortgage Their House for a Pivot”

21:15 – The Vatican Tour That Changed Everything

23:30 – Why VCs Rejected GetYourGuide 100+ Times

28:30 – The $14M Series A That Nearly Killed the Company

31:00 – “I Hired All the Wrong People – Then Laid Off 30%”

36:30 – The $450M SoftBank Deal... Then COVID Hit

40:00 – “We Went to $0 in Revenue in 3 Weeks”

42:10 – The Sequoia Tree Mindset: Grow Through Fire

49:30 – What SoftBank’s Masa Son Was Really Like in Person

52:00 – How He Thinks About Secondary, Wealth, and Not Losing His Soul

55:30 – “My Worst Hires Came from Listening to VCs Too Much”

58:30 – Angel Investing in Trade Republic and TravelPerk: My Lessons

01:01:00 – Do You Have to Work 7 Days a Week to Win?