The go-getter dreaming of global travel tech domination
Katherine MastersTTG Tomorrow’s Travel Leader Felix Ochefu is driving the creation of group travel technology that makes it easier to organise and book group trips. He shares his story and the inspiration behind his start-up with us.
Born in London to Nigerian parents, Felix’s schooling was divided between Nigeria and the UK. Early on there were signs of his entrepreneurial spirit. In sixth form, supported by national charity Young Enterprise, he sold handmade eco-friendly bracelets and bags. He taught himself German so he could use it on an interrailing trip with school friends. And he collaborated with friends on gamification for children in care homes to express their thoughts through avatar characters.
Felix then studied for a business and management degree at De Montfort University in Leicester, which include a placement year at Bosch.
In 2017, he was offered an academic-led trip to Silicon Valley in California, covered by a bursary, which opened his eyes to the world of start-ups and venture capitalists. “The ‘dream big, share ideas, don’t be scared to fail’ point of view really challenged how I thought about business,” he says.
Silicon Valley: home of innovation
Inspired by the energy of Silicon Valley, he co-founded Ideas Lab Global, supporting university student entrepreneurs. “My dream was for people to take student founders seriously,” he explains.
Another opportunity came along when he was selected by Odgers Berndtson executive search firm for its CEOx1 Day programme. He shadowed Michael Izza in his role as chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales: “It was an honour to learn from him,” he adds.
Admitting that he’s not a natural academic, Felix surpassed expectations, including his own, when he graduated with a First – and celebrated with another interrailing trip, exploring France in-depth.
“That was an incredible trip, and very reflective – what did I want to do with my life? I started to think about the experience of planning a group trip and why juggling different booking websites and messaging platforms made it so stressful.”
With an idea for a group travel technology platform bubbling away, combining booking and messaging, he embarked on a more corporate life. He was hired by a business and technology consultancy, where he was assigned to a project upgrading the tech stack of DWP job centres. “I found it very humbling – cutting-edge technology didn’t mean anything to people on the frontline of job centres but we could still see the impact of introducing new technology.”
In October 2020, Felix quit the consultancy to focus on entrepreneurship. Both Ideas Lab and an initial version of Kahana, his group travel idea, were coming together. In order to find the technological solution to group travel, he needed to research every single pain point involved in its planning.
“I made a poor choice with my first developers,” he concedes, which drained his finances and forced him to look for another job.
This time, he found employment closer to his heart. Joining MSDUK, he helped build a new accelerator programme for ethnic minority entrepreneurs.
Post-launch, he focused on Kahana full-time again. Both 2022 and 2023 were a struggle, he says. “I really had to double down and bet on myself, recruit my team, build my community and learn the technology.”
Validation for the Kahana vision
This year, his vision has turned a corner. He’s presented at technology conferences, pitched to investors and had international press coverage. Kahana now has 500 subscribers on its pre-launch wait list, and they will be the ones to test it, before an official launch next year. Felix has spent months testing the app himself, with a successful trip to Barcelona providing a pinch-me moment: “I was sat in departures at Gatwick, thinking to myself,
‘I’m the only person here who has booked my travel today with technology that my team and I have created’.”
He’s ambitious for Kahana to become the “category-defining product for group travel” but is only too aware he needs capital to make it scalable.
“Group travel technology is a graveyard of products – why do I believe my vision will succeed in this space? Fundamentally I think the world needs this, and it will help connect people.
“Sure, Kahana might fail, but the person I’ve become on this journey – that can’t be taken away from me. Either way I’ve become who I’m supposed to be.”
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