Startup Talks at HPI

Johannes Reck is the CEO of GetYourGuide.

Johannes graduated as Master of Science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in January 2009 with highest honors. While still in university, he co-founded GetYourGuide with the vision to empower travelers to find and book attractions & activities anywhere in the world.

GetYourGuide has since become the leading booking platform for attractions & activities, serving millions of travelers per year. GetYourGuide is headquartered in Berlin and employs more than 300 people in offices across the globe. The company has raised a total of $100M from investors such as KKR, Spark Capital and Highland Europe.

André Eggert ist Partner von LACORE. Er berät Unternehmen und Unternehmer, sowie Investoren. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt auf der Begleitung von M&A- und Finanzierungs-Transaktionen. Herr Eggert hat besondere Kenntnisse in der Private Equity Finanzierung, sowie mit eigenkapitalähnlichen Instrumenten. Eine große Rolle spielt darüber hinaus die Verhandlung und Gestaltung von Joint-Venture- und Kooperationsvereinbarungen. Herr Eggert hat einschlägige Erfahrungen aus der Begleitung einer Vielzahl von internationalen Transaktionen mit Parteien aus dem anglo-amerikanischen Rechtskreis. Darüber hinaus verfügt er über spezifisches Branchenwissen in der Tech-Industrie sowie im Entertainment-Bereich. Herr Eggert hat Rechtswissenschaften an der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn studiert. Im Rahmen eines Postgraduiertenprogramms an den Universitäten von Rotterdam (NL), Gent (BEL) und Aix-en-Provence (F) hat er zudem wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Kenntnisse erworben. Die rechtliche Beratung von Herrn Eggert ist in besonderem Maße von einer kaufmännisch-unternehmerischen Perspektive geprägt.

Christophe F. Maire is the Founding Partner and CEO of Atlantic Labs, a Berlin-based seed investor dedicated to identifying and investing in innovative digital startup companies. In the last 20+ years, Christophe has built an international track record both as a founder; including gate5 (sold first to Nokia and later developed into HERE and sold to the German automotive industry) and Plazes.com (also sold to Nokia); and as a farsighted investor named best “European Seed Investor” by Techcrunch two years running. Exited investments include Brands4Friends (eBay), Readmill (Dropbox), Soundcloud, StudiVZ, Fyber and Plista. Recent investments led by Atlantic Labs include Medigo, Clue, Jodel, and Campanda, amongst others. Christophe remains actively involved in all his investments, including as a board member of EyeEm and Monoqi, and an active promoter of the Berlin startup ecosystem.

Born in Bangalore, India, Shaam has an MBA from Harvard University and worked in the auto industry and financial services before moving to Berlin in 2012.

As a passionate traveler, it was while backpacking around Europe in 2010 after completing his studies that Shaam first became aware of the need to improve the transport booking system across the continent. Although the trip was a fantastic experience, Shaam found he was spending too much time planning the trips rather than enjoying them.

There was no centralised, clear platform, to find, compare and book train, bus and flight options. The travel operators were not all presented in one place, and each country had very different ways of presenting data and managing user experience, making it a very challenging process in desperate need of change. The inspiration behind GoEuro was born and Shaam packed up his life in New York, moved to Berlin and the GoEuro journey began.