20VC: TravelPerk’s Avi Meir on Why 2021 Will Be A Record Year For Business Travel, The 3 Priorities For All Founders During COVID, What VCs Can Do To Really Support Their Founders In A Recession
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2020
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
Avi Meir is the Founder & CEO @ TravelPerk, the travel management platform that combines the best of leisure and corporate travel into one smooth experience. To date, Avi has raised over $134m with TravelPerk from the likes of DST, Spark Capital, Felix Capital and Heartcore to name a few. Prior to founding TravelPerk, Avi co-founded HotelNinjas, a hotel management product that was acquired by Booking.com. Before that Avi was VP Product at budgetplaces where he managed a team of 50 across product and marketing.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Avi made his way into the world of startups and came to change the way we think of corporate travel with TravelPerk?
2.) Why has Avi advocated for the re-opening of society much sooner than others have done? If Avi were in government, what would he advocate for and do? How does Avi try and effectively assess the core risks of COVID both from a societal and economic perspective?
3.) How does Avi feel when he hears the comparison of COVID to Saars or 9/11 when it comes to their impact on travel? Why is this so different? Why does Avi believe 2021 will be a bigger year for business travel than 2019?
4.) How does Avi advise founders heavily impacted by COVID to really effectively analyse their spend and optimise runway? How does Avi think approach the element that sales and marketing is now non-revenue driving? How does Avi approach resource allocation as a result?
5.) Does Avi believe we will see a fundamental re-shaping of corporate travel? What will change? How does domestic travel change? What will the landscape look like on the other side? Who will survive? Who will thrive? Does Avi feel now is an opportune time for M&A?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We are back and welcome to the 20 Minute VC and Founders Friday with me, Harry Stebbings, |
| 0:03.8 | and last week on Founders Friday, we had Ariel Cohen, founder and CEO at Tripactions on the show |
| 0:08.5 | to discuss the impact of COVID, and I thought it only right to have his counterpart in the world |
| 0:12.4 | of corporate travel management on the show to hear his thoughts. And so I'm delighted to welcome |
| 0:16.2 | back to the show, a friend and former guest, Avie Meir, found and CEO at TravelPerk, the travel management |
| 0:21.7 | platform that combines the best of leisure and corporate travel into one smooth experience. To |
| 0:26.5 | date, Avi's raised over $134 million with Travel Perk, from the lights of DST, Spark Capital, |
| 0:32.3 | Felix Capital, and Heartcore, to name a few. Prior to founding Travel Perk, Avi co-founded Hotel |
| 0:37.2 | Ninjas, a hotel management |
| 0:38.7 | product that was acquired by booking.com. Before that, Avi was VP of Product at Budget Places, |
| 0:43.6 | where he managed a team of 50 people across product and marketing. I'd also want to say a huge thank |
| 0:48.2 | you to Alex at Spark, Antoine at Felix, and Max at Heartcore for some fantastic question |
| 0:52.6 | suggestions today. I really do appreciate |
| 0:54.6 | that. But before we move into the show today, I'm sure you've heard about it, but my word, I just |
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| 1:29.5 | there will be 1.4 million job openings for developers in 2020? And that's where my friends at |
| 1:34.6 | Terminal come in. Terminal is a remote teams engine for fast-growing companies, connecting you |
... |
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