From Zero to IPO: Building eDreams Before the Playbooks

Part 2. Business Fundaments: Building Something Real

In 1999,

Mauricio Prieto

, Javier Pérez-Tenessa, James Hare, and the small team behind eDreams faced a world with no startup playbooks. No lean startup methodology. No frameworks for customer discovery or product-market fit. They had one guiding principle: align with your customers’ needs, no matter what it takes.

This is the story of how they built eDreams into Spain’s first unicorn—a company that reached $5.5 billion in bookings, $550+ million in revenue, and $150+ million in EBITDA, leading to a successful $1.5 billion IPO.

Mauricio takes us behind the scenes, revealing lessons learned before frameworks existed and why these lessons might be even more relevant today:

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In case you missed it, please find Part 1 - Finding Your Way (When The Map Doesn't Exist) here

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1. The Brand Building We Didn't Do

Today's playbook says to focus on brand building early. Create emotional connections. Tell your story. We did almost none of that.

Instead, we obsessed over the product. It wasn't the perfect approach (we probably under-invested in brand), but it worked because:

- Reliable product execution built trust

- Great customer service created natural word-of-mouth

- Constant product improvements kept customers coming back

- We let our product quality speak for itself

Excellent execution creates its own kind of brand. A great product can overcome weak branding, but great branding can't save a mediocre product.

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2. Skipping the Startup Scene

"Network actively. Attend startup events. Build your presence in the ecosystem." That's the advice everyone gets today.

We were too busy…

- Building actual features

- Serving actual customers

- Solving actual problems

- Building relationships with airlines and travel partners

The best networking happened naturally as we built the business. Real success came from serving real customers and building a real business that makes a lot of money, not from being seen at the right events.

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3. The Business Model That Wasn't "Clean"

Today's investors love clean, focused business models. We built something messier – and more innovative.

We pioneered several "messy but powerful" approaches in the online travel industry:

• First OTA to combine low-cost and traditional carriers on one platform (initially through web-scraping, later via APIs)

• Incorporated non-air products (such as trains) in our "flights" booking engine because customers wanted to find the best way to get from point A to point B, not just from Airport A to Airport B

• When airlines brought their commissions to agents to 0, many gave up. We saw it as the best opportunity to control our revenue and align our interests with our customers'. By introducing service fees instead of relying on airline commissions, we could focus on finding the best possible flights for customers rather than pushing the ones that paid us the highest commissions. We were the first to make this move, and it became both a crucial revenue stream and a competitive advantage. It was a perfect example of our core belief: aligning our interests with our customers'.

• First to extensively leverage the Google AdWords disruption when others were still figuring out the internet and pundits claimed that Google meant the end of OTAs

• Built a parallel media/advertising business alongside our core booking platform

• First to launch a hybrid OTA-Meta business, which was then followed by all metas

None of these fit neatly into the "pure OTA" business model that investors preferred. Web-scraping wasn't elegant. Mixing carrier types and products created complexity. Service fees weren't "clean." Building a media business seemed unfocused.

But we didn't optimize for clean. We optimized for what worked. These "messy" innovations gave us multiple revenue streams and competitive advantages that made us more resilient. It might not have looked neat in a pitch deck, but it gave us more ways to win.

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4. Multi-Market Launch vs. Finding a Wedge

Today's playbook is clear: find a beachhead market, start small, get a wedge into your initial customer base, then expand. We did the opposite, launching in Spain, Italy, France, and UK simultaneously. Quite a large wedge…

When the internet bubble burst, we had to make a strategic choice about our multi-market approach. Instead of trying to maintain a thin presence everywhere, we focused our resources on making Spain and Italy profitable. This wasn't about finding a wedge; it was about proving our model could work at scale.

Once we had demonstrated profitability in two major markets, we had a proven model that we could replicate. We returned to France and UK with confidence, eventually expanding to 40+ countries.

Our approach wasn't what Y Combinator or modern startup advisors would recommend, but it worked. Sometimes there are multiple paths to building a successful company.

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5. Real Growth, Real Profits

In the 2000s, but also since 2010, the mantra was "growth at all costs." Raise more money. Hit that billion-dollar valuation. Worry about profits... someday.

We chose a different path:

• Focused on unit economics from day one

• Built for profitable growth, not just growth

• Aimed for a profitable billion-dollar company, not just a billion-dollar valuation

• Made decisions based on real business metrics, not stories for the next funding round

• EBITDA wasn't just a metric, it was our north star. It drove everything from project prioritization to engineering allocation to how we structured incentives and bonuses.

This approach wasn't popular in the era of 'get big fast', though ironically, our focus on profitability didn't stop us from growing rapidly. It gave us control over our destiny, and when we reached unicorn status, it wasn't just on paper. We had built a real business with real profits.

The thing about fundamentals is that they're, well, fundamental. Tools, frameworks, and advice change. Markets shift. But building something customers want, delivering it well, and doing it profitably… that never goes out of style.

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Looking Back, Looking Forward

We didn't follow clear frameworks or established playbooks, but we did follow one fundamental rule: build a fast-growing global company that generates real profits. Maybe not having other playbooks was a gift because it forced us to focus on what actually worked for our customers and our business, rather than what the conventional wisdom said should work.

Today's startup advice isn't wrong. Frameworks for customer discovery, organizational culture, and growth strategies can help founders avoid common mistakes. Having a roadmap can make the journey less daunting.

But perhaps the most important lesson from our experience at eDreams is this: building a successful company isn't about following any particular playbook. It's about:

• Being alert to what customers actually do (not just what they say) and measuring their behavior every second, even when it contradicts your original vision

• Adapting to reality rather than forcing reality to adapt to your vision

• Finding opportunities in what others dismiss

• Building something real and sustainable (i.e. profitable)

We became Spain's first unicorn and one of the largest online travel companies in the world not by following best practices (they didn't exist yet), but by staying focused on the fundamentals: creating real value for customers and building a business that made economic sense. Everything else was just details.

Sometimes the best path forward is the one that isn't in any playbook.

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Mauricio Prieto co-founded eDreams in 1999 and served as CMO and board member until 2015, when it grew to become one of the world's largest online travel companies.

Today, he runs Travel Tech Essentialist, an innovation platform that helps travel founders and investors make better decisions. His Travel Tech Essentialist newsletter reaches 13,000+ founders, entrepreneurs and investors.

He dedicates about 15% of his time to helping the next generation of entrepreneurs as a professor of entrepreneurship at IESE Business School (Barcelona) and Tulane University (New Orleans) and as a mentor at Stanford's Lean Launchpad program, where he teaches student entrepreneurs how to build real businesses that create lasting value.

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