A founder story that started with five bookings in two years
At the fourth edition of Gründerszene × The Delta, GetYourGuide co-founder and CEO Johannes Reck joined the stage for an honest conversation about building through uncertainty, surviving crisis, and turning a struggling student project into one of Europe’s biggest travel tech success stories.
Today, GetYourGuide is a global leader in travel experiences, with more than 33 million experiences booked last year, around 1,000 employees, and a business worth billions. But as Johannes reminded the audience, the early days looked nothing like success.
In the company’s first two years, GetYourGuide had just five bookings. Three of them came from his mother.
What followed was not a straight line to growth, but sixteen years of hard work, pivots, relentless optimism, and a deep belief in solving a real problem.
A travel problem that became a company
The idea for GetYourGuide began during a student trip to Beijing.
Johannes arrived one day early after misbooking his ticket and found himself stuck in a hotel room, frustrated and unable to find meaningful things to do online. The next day, his co-founder Tao, who grew up in Beijing, showed him a completely different side of the city. Together, they explored places and experiences that never would have shown up in a standard search.
That contrast sparked the idea.
Why was it so hard to discover great travel experiences online?
At the time, Johannes and his team imagined building something closer to a travel social network. They were inspired by the rise of Facebook and initially thought student guides could offer local experiences to travellers. They even considered home sharing, but dismissed it as unrealistic. Later, Airbnb would prove otherwise.
Still, they stayed focused on experiences and that decision became the foundation of the company.
Building with no playbook
In the beginning, the team had no startup blueprint to follow.
They taught themselves everything, from coding and front end design to supplier acquisition, online marketing, and customer support. Their servers sat under their desks. If someone tripped over the power cable, the site went offline. Customer service ran through Skype and at night the calls were forwarded to their personal phones.
It was messy, manual, and far from glamorous.
But it was also the kind of early stage environment where founders learn fast because they have no other choice.
Johannes described those years with a lot of affection. For him, those first days of building are still some of the most joyful moments in the founder's journey because everything feels possible and every small win matters.
The pivot that changed everything
What kept the company alive was not early traction, but the ability to notice what was actually working.
While the original idea focused on student led tours, the team started seeing strong inbound demand from professional suppliers. River cruises, mountain guides, and local operators wanted to list on the platform and were even willing to pay.
At one point, a supplier became so frustrated by the slow onboarding process that he sent Johannes a €200 PayPal payment just to get listed faster. The company had made less revenue from actual bookings than from that single payment.
That was the wake up call.
Johannes and his co-founders stepped back, reassessed the market, and made a deliberate pivot toward professional travel experiences. That decision changed the future of the company.
It also reinforced one of the most important founder truths. Most successful businesses do not begin with a perfect idea. They fail, learn, and pivot their way into the right one.
Optimism, obsession, and founder DNA
When asked what got him through years of low traction and uncertainty, Johannes pointed to something deeper than tactics.
He believes successful founders are relentless optimists.
For him, building a company requires obsession. You have to care enough about the problem that you are willing to keep going for years, even when the external signals suggest you should stop. That kind of belief matters, but so does flexibility.
The challenge is not just staying committed. It is knowing when to change your assumptions without losing your conviction.
Johannes spoke openly about how difficult that was in the early years. But over time, he learned that even experts are often wrong about where the future is heading. Founders need strong beliefs, but they also need the agility to adapt when reality proves them wrong.
Choosing Europe on purpose
As GetYourGuide started gaining traction, Johannes received offers from investors in the U.S. who wanted the company to move to San Francisco.
He said no.
Part of that decision was strategic. Europe is the biggest inbound travel market in the world, making it the ideal place to build a company focused on global travel experiences. But it was also personal.
Johannes and his co-founders wanted to build in Europe. They had their networks here, their families here, and they believed they could create something meaningful without leaving.
That conviction shaped the company’s path and turned GetYourGuide into a European success story built from the heart of its market.
From startup pressure to long term legacy
Looking back, Johannes described the first ten years as a blur of fundraising, scaling, and nonstop pressure. Then came the pandemic, which forced a completely different kind of leadership.
Emerging from that period changed how he thinks about the company and his role within it.
Today, GetYourGuide is profitable and operating from a much longer time horizon. The goal is no longer just to prove the business can work. It is to build a generational company with staying power.
Johannes also reflected on how much he has changed personally. He spoke about becoming more human, more empathetic, and more focused on the team than on the founder image.
For him, the founder journey is not just about building a company. It is about growing alongside it.
Founder Learnings
- Real businesses often begin with weak traction and strong conviction.
- The best founders stay obsessed with the problem, not attached to the first idea.
- Product market fit often comes after a pivot, not before.
- Optimism matters, but flexibility matters just as much.
- Building in Europe can be a strategic advantage when your market is here.
If you’re ready to begin your founder journey, The Delta Campus is the right place to take your first step, so book a tour now or contact us.
Written by Alexandra Matthews
Chief Operating Officer
