In the matter of a month during the pandemic, travel planning company Trivago’s revenue forecast plummeted from $1 billion to virtually zero.
“After you have a near-death experience and three years of depression, you have a team that doesn’t believe anymore,” Thomas, who was brought in as CEO to turn the company around in 2023, tells Fortune.
But for Thomas and other executives, what’s notable about their experiences is not their most recent roles—it’s how they started their careers.
Thomas first joined Trivago in 2011 as an intern working in online marketing, and he’s quietly assembled other former interns, including Chief Financial Officer Wolf Schmuhl and Chief Marketing Officer Jasmine Ezz. Thomas says having leaders who understand the business and its culture from the ground up are key to returning the company to its former glory.
And while Trivago’s revenue for 2024 was still half what it was five years ago in 2019, first quarter 2025 revenues increased by 22% to $124 million.
“(We’re) trying to build an ecosystem—a culture and environment where young people can grow and where people can thrive,” Thomas says.
That’s another reason why Trivago’s C-suite is not stacked with Gen Xers, but instead millennials who understand how young people think, spend, and travel. According to Thomas, the average Trivago customer is 34 years old, and 20% have families.
By focusing on young people as a company, Trivago not only is able to tap into a customer market, but also an employee talent market.
“You get rock stars on the senior level football team,” Thomas says. “And then you have a second team of young talents that have a chance to grow in this combination we try to execute on.”
Trivago is not the only company that realized that those with the strongest roots to their company are the best leaders.
And while focusing on hard work as an intern may set your path in motion to one day become chief executive, Lores admits that there’s also an element of luck.
