20VC: How Founders Can Really Get The Most Out of Their Board, Why Culture Fit At The Board Level Is Not Discussed Enough & Why Growth and Culture Are 2 Sides of The Same Coin with Avi Meir, Founder & CEO @ TravelPerk
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2019
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Avi Meir is the Founder & CEO @ TravelPerk, the startup that allows you to book, manage and report all your business travel in one place. To date, Avi has raised over $73m with TravelPerk from the likes of Felix Capital, Yuri Milner, Spark Capital, Sunstone and LocalGlobe to name a few. Before founding TravelPerk, Avi founded HotelNinjas, a web-based hotel management software platform that was ultimately acquired by Booking.com. Prior to that, Avi was VP Product at Budgetplaces.com, which was acquired by Palamon in 2011.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Avi made his way from the world of hotels to the world of founding startups and what was his entry point? How did Avi's experience with HotelNinja's impact his operating mindset with TravelPerk today?
2.) How does Avi think about attaining the right board composition? What is the ideal structure? How important is it to have industrial experience around the table? What are the 2 other core skills that Avi believes are required on the board? What can founders do to ensure plasticity of mindset at a board level?
3.) What makes the truly special board members? What do they do both in the good and the bad times to make them so good? What does Avi believe makes the more challenging board members to work with? Why does Avi believe that culture fit at the board level is not discussed enough? What can be done by the founder to improve this?
4.) TravelPerk has now raised over $75m in funding, what does Avi believe they have done well to date to allow them to raise this? For the next round, what would Avi like to improve upon and pushback on further? What advice does Avi have for founders entering negotiations when it comes to both valuation and option pool?
5.) Why does Avi believe that culture and growth are 2 sides of the same coin? What have been some of the biggest challenges in scaling the team with the scaling of the company? How does one retain startup culture when no longer a startup? What would Avi do differently with regards to expansion with the benefit of hindsight?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Avi’s Fave Book: Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Avi on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You are listening to The 20 Minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and the first Founders Friday episode of 2019. |
| 0:05.9 | And to this show today, and I have to say, some episodes, they're just more fun than others to record. |
| 0:10.3 | And this one really was a huge amount of fun. |
| 0:12.3 | And so I'm thrilled to welcome Avi Meir to the hot seat today. |
| 0:15.1 | Now, Avi is the founder and CEO at Travel Perk. |
| 0:17.9 | The startup that allows you to book, manage and report all your business travel |
| 0:21.7 | in one place. And to date, Avi's raised over $73 million with Travel Perk from the likes of Felix |
| 0:27.5 | Capital, Uri Milner, Spark Capital, Sunstone, and Local Globe, just to name a few. Before founding |
| 0:33.2 | Travel Perk, Avi founded Hotel Ninjas, a web-based hotel management software platform that was |
| 0:38.1 | ultimately acquired by booking.com. And prior to that, Avi was VP of product at budgetplaces.com, |
| 0:44.0 | which was acquired by Palamon in 2011. I'd also want to say a huge thank you to Antoine at Felix, |
| 0:49.1 | Alex at Spock, and Tom at DST for the fantastic question suggestions today. I really do so appreciate that. |
| 0:55.2 | But before we dive into the show with Avi today, are you thinking about life insurance in the |
| 0:59.3 | new year? If so, you have to check out Ladder. It's the smart and easy way to get term life |
| 1:03.9 | insurance online. Ladder recognizes that it's the 21st century and you shouldn't have to wait |
| 1:08.6 | for weeks to get your life insurance in place. |
| 1:11.2 | And that's why with Ladder, there are no commissioned agents and no policy fees. |
| 1:15.1 | You can be done in minutes. |
| 1:16.5 | Even better, coverage can start today if you qualify and you can cancel any time. |
| 1:20.7 | Ladder is licensed and backed by trusted partners with billions in coverage and you can visit |
| 1:25.5 | ladder today at ladder.com to apply and get an |
| 1:28.7 | instant decision on fully underwritten term life insurance and check life insurance off your list |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Twenty Minute VC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Twenty Minute VC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.