Insights, stories, and updates from Europe's leading startup ecosystem
From five bookings in two years to 33 million experiences annually, GetYourGuide CEO Johannes Reck shared the unfiltered founder journey behind one of Europe’s biggest travel tech companies at Gründerszene × The Delta. In this conversation, he reflects on early failures, the pivot that changed everything, and why optimism, flexibility, and long term conviction are essential to building a generational company.

Your first office is not just a place to work. It is an early operating decision that leaves a long shadow. Move too early and you create pressure to perform growth. Move too late and you quietly lose momentum. The real question is simple. Would being together make your work better right now. Here is what founders should consider before committing.

From Berlin to Europe: Building campuses, professionalising venture building at scale.

Early Go-To-Market is where many startups lose momentum, not because they stop, but because they do too much without learning enough. The first twenty to fifty customers do not come from scale. They come from trust, clarity, and founder led conversations that reveal what actually matters. The goal is not to build a machine too early. It is to get specific, learn fast, and earn the right to scale.

AI is shrinking the gap between intent and execution. What used to take months can now take weeks, and in some cases a focused team can ship an MVP in 30 days. But speed only works when it is paired with judgment. The real advantage is not moving fast, it is choosing clearly and building with enough structure to learn and scale.

Something is shifting in Berlin’s event and innovation culture. The most interesting rooms are no longer defined by corporate polish or staged panels. They are defined by participation, unfinished ideas, and diverse audiences that make real collaboration possible. Increasingly, that energy is concentrated in Neukölln, where culture and innovation overlap naturally and founders, creators, and challengers build side by side.

A quiet shift is changing how products get built. More founders are starting with intent, not code, using AI to turn ideas into wireframes, flows, and early scaffolds through conversation. Vibe coding is not about replacing engineering, it is about accelerating clarity. The founders who win will be the ones who can think strategically, communicate clearly, and turn fast outputs into systems that last.

Most founders start with a problem, not a product. But the moment that determines whether a startup becomes a business is strategic clarity. Before building, founders need to answer a few hard questions: who the customer is, what pain is urgent enough to pay for, how the business makes money, and what success looks like in the next year. Strategy must precede product. Without it, teams move fast but rebuild often.

In 2026, the best event spaces in Berlin are not defined by capacity or technical specs. They are defined by atmosphere, context, and the kind of interaction they make possible. From monumental industrial landmarks to community driven hubs like The Delta Campus, these five spaces stand out for hosting events that feel connected to the city and designed around people, not performance.