▶Get Your Guide has a well-documented funding history, including a $14M Series A in 2013, a ~$25M Series B, and a ~$450M round in 2019 led by SoftBank that valued it at $1.5-$1.6 billion.Mar 2026

▶The COVID-19 pandemic had a catastrophic initial impact, with revenues dropping to nearly zero, but the company navigated the crisis by raising a $100M convertible note and implementing voluntary employee salary cuts in exchange for shares.Mar 2026

▶The company experienced a dramatic post-pandemic recovery, with 2022 business volume doubling its 2019 levels, and by mid-2024, the company was five times its pre-pandemic size and profitable.Mar 2026

▶The company's early history involved significant strategic errors, including a failed peer-to-peer prototype and a post-Series A expansion strategy that led to a 30% staff layoff.Mar 2026

▶There is an internal tension between the CEO's view that the company's Series A was too large and dilutive, leading to strategic missteps, and the company's later acceptance of a much larger $450M round from SoftBank to fuel hyper-growth.Mar 2026

▶A contrast exists between the company's severe external shock during the pandemic (revenue dropping to zero) and its internal strategic resilience, where it minimized layoffs (15-20% over two years) and retained all engineering and product staff.

▶The company's identity as a European tech firm based in Berlin is contrasted with its stated difficulty in hiring senior product leadership locally, forcing it to recruit from Silicon Valley and navigate significant bureaucratic hurdles.Mar 2026

▶The company's early performance, where it was nearly profitable with half a million in revenue in its first year, contrasts sharply with the subsequent VC-funded growth strategy that involved significant cash burn and a painful restructuring.Mar 2026