Customer-first, experiment-led: How Tristan Cossio, VP of Data, thinks about data (and AI) at GetYourGuide

In December ‘25, we welcomed our new VP of Data, Tristan Cossio, to GetYourGuide. With a career spanning some of the world’s most innovative companies — from launching rockets at SpaceX, to shaping content strategy at Netflix and Disney+, to building communities at Discord — Tristan brings a blend of technical depth, strategic thinking, and bold leadership to our data teams.

We sat down with Tristan to talk about what drew him to the travel industry, his first months in Berlin, and how AI is changing the way we think about personalization for our travelers. 

Read on to learn how his vision will empower our customers all over the world to discover experiences worth traveling for. 

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Background

You’ve had an incredible career journey so far. What drew you to GetYourGuide and the travel industry more generally?

“I didn’t travel much as a kid. Growing up in Miami, I knew Florida well — but hadn’t really traveled outside of the state, even within the US. (I still remember my first cross-country flight, when I was a high school student considering going to a college in California).

Later in life, as I started going on more trips — solo, with friends, with family — I loved getting exposure to different cultures, different locales, and different experiences. The idea of contributing to similar experiences for others was truly motivating and inspiring.

For GetYourGuide specifically, I was really impressed by the team that Johannes & co have assembled. Every conversation left me more impressed with the team’s knowledge, passion, and ambition. I also saw huge potential for the company beyond what it had already achieved — and I wanted to take on the challenge of doing what I could to help on that journey.”

What’s one thing about your background we won’t learn from your LinkedIn profile?

“I’ve really found joy in mentoring and coaching throughout my life, well before I started my professional career. Both of my parents were teachers, and as an undergraduate and graduate student, I often volunteered to help fellow students grow their technical and non-technical skills.

I bring this mindset to my leadership today — I see my role not just as setting strategy, but as helping team members level up and unlock their potential. Some of my proudest career moments have been about seeing folks on the team grow into new skills and responsibilities, rather than driving some specific business outcome.”

Vision for Data at GetYourGuide

What are your initial observations about how we use data?

“We use data quite extensively across the company — and have a huge appetite to leverage it more. From the ranking algorithms that power the product to the experimentation frameworks that help teams test and iterate, data is deeply embedded in how we operate.

What impressed me most is the culture of rigorous experimentation — critically through the lens of the ‘customer’ — to ensure we’re driving positive outcomes for our users and suppliers. That customer-first mindset is the proper foundation to build on.”

Where do you see the most significant opportunities?

“There are tons of opportunities, but two major ones come to mind:

First, Data playing a bigger role in understanding and steering our marketplace. Given its nature, Data is uniquely positioned to connect the dots across Marketing, Product, and Supply — and make all of our work more impactful through compounding leverage and focus. We have great analysts embedded in each area, and we have the opportunity to better learn from one another and partner on solving the biggest challenges.

Second, AI is also obviously a huge opportunity. AI is already affecting all of our lives, professionally and otherwise — and GetYourGuide has an opportunity to be at the forefront of leveraging AI to improve the customer experience and make us more productive and effective in how we work together.”

How to become AI-first

What are some of the unique AI challenges/opportunities in the travel industry?

“Data sparsity is definitely a unique challenge in thinking about personalization. The frequency that people travel is much less than watching a video online or making purchases in a consumer goods marketplace, which means industry-wide, we have far less data to train our algorithms.

There are a ton of choices for any given trip, but each one has much higher stakes than picking a TV show. Get it wrong, and you’ve affected someone’s vacation — maybe a once-in-a-lifetime trip that they’ve been looking forward to for years.

The opportunity, though, is that when you get it right, the impact is profound. We’re not filling time; we’re helping create memories.”

What excites you the most about our approach to AI internally? How is our team already leveraging AI to supercharge our work and platform?

“What excites me most is the human-centricity of our approach. There’s enthusiasm about AI, but it’s grounded — teams are asking the right questions: Where will the newest technology actually drive value? What problems are we uniquely positioned to solve?

That discipline is critical because AI hype is everywhere, yet across the industry, successful AI implementation remains somewhat rare. We’re using AI to augment our own creative and technical capabilities.

For the Data team, it’s created both opportunity and responsibility. We’re central to helping the organization separate signal from noise — building the right foundations, identifying high-impact use cases, and making sure we’re measuring what matters. It’s frankly energizing — folks want to work on this new frontier, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.”

Teams and culture

What makes a great data team? What do you look for when building your team?

“My answer might be surprising — I believe that communication, business acumen, and collaboration are absolutely essential to being a great data team. Technical excellence has to be a given, of course, but that’s table stakes.

What separates good data teams from great ones is the ability to influence decisions, tell compelling stories, and solve real customer problems. It’s important that we have a team that is as curious about the business problems to solve as they are about technical solutions.”

Finally, tell us about your most memorable travel experience!

“It’s hard to pick just one! If I had to choose, though, I’d pick my first major international trip — which was a 6-week solo backpacking adventure to New Zealand in 2007.

I met so many kind people on my journey across the North and South Islands and the little-known Stewart Island. Taking my time to see the country at my own pace was so rewarding — mixing hikes to beautiful lakeside hostels with high-adrenaline activities like skydiving over Lake Taupo.

I’ll never forget this trip — and I’m supremely grateful for the lifelong passion for travel that it instilled in me.”

Welcome to GetYourGuide, Tristan!

Data plays a vital strategic role, connecting the dots within the organization to achieve alignment and provide actionable insights across our marketplace. With Tristan on board, we’ll continue to build a data organization that stays customer-first, experiments rigorously, and uses AI in a grounded, human-centric way to measure what matters. 

Curious about joining our innovative team? Explore open roles here and discover a new career path on the cutting edge of the travel experience industry.

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