Episode 5 - Guesty - Revolutionizing Short Term Rentals Globally - >$100 mm ARR

Founded in 2013 by twins Amiad and Koby Soto, Guesty graduated from Y Combinator and set out to revolutionize the emerging short term rental industry. Starting out as a service to automate management, Amiad and Koby had to pivot from service to software, and eventually came to dominate the software market for managing short term rentals around the world. Seven acquisitions later, with $400 million in equity and 750 people in 15 offices - Guesty is by far the market leader, proudly helping rental managers increase their own revenues and profits.

COVID wasn't the only challenge - as Koby transitioned out of an active role in Guesty after four years, Amiad learned that he had to relentlessly challenge himself and continually adapt his own role.

"If you don't make those transitions in your role, you get penalized with bad numbers and either you wake up and change, or the board will wake you up and change you."

Favorite quotes

• "I surround myself with really amazing talent and I learn from them."
• "The best way to know if you are on track is by the level of success in achieving your goals each year. If you are not, then you need to think if you have the right skill set... I constantly question what I am doing."
• "I would have told my younger self in 2013, to surround himself with the best talent and focus on that alone. But I would definitely support creating Guesty."
• "You need to continually 'take out the garbage,' meaning, over the years you collect a lot of esoteric features for this client or the other, and it grows."