The Group Trip that inspired a Startup
“Lads..rather than taking the train to Cannes, why don’t we cycle it?!”
It sounded like a fantastic idea, right up to the point where we checked how long the journey would be. Huddled around the kitchen island of our small but eccentric Airbnb in Nice, a short 10 minutes walk from Promenade de Anglais; my friends and I discovered, much to my dismay, that “just cycling it” was a gross understatement for how long the journey actually was.
Lord help me.
We would need to cycle 32 kilometres alongside the French Riviera to get to Cannes before sunset. Admittedly, I’m no olympic level cyclist so I knew this was a WILD idea, but was I going to let myself be outdone by my friends??
Hell no. So, allons-y.
The journey of 32km begins with the first step.
The next morning, armed with sturdy rented bicycles, pink helmets and my UE Boom 2 mini speaker in my side bag for riding music (main character energy right?), we set off on our epic adventure.
An adventure that would change how I looked at group travel forever.
Riding along the pebble beaches and crystal blue waters of the Nice Riviera was obscenely breathtaking. The weather was perfect as we cycled with locals and tourists taking a similar scenic route to various destinations en-route Cannes.
Hopes, dreams, and croissants.
About 2 hours in, the weather took a sudden turn for the worst, so we took shelter in a small cafe outside Antibes. As we tucked into brie filled croissants and waited out the rain, I started thinking about how grateful I was to have the opportunity to travel and share this amazing experience with my friends. Since we had all finished university the summer before this trip, we talked about life’s next steps. We shared our hopes, dreams for the future, fears and aspirations.
Personally, I knew I wanted to build a tech startup that solved an important problem for the world. I wouldn't realise until much later that I had already stumbled upon the problem.
Once the rain cleared up, we continued our journey, pumped and motivated to take on the world.
As we rode gallantly into the narrow, hilly streets of Antibes town, we planned to soak up as much of our environment and connect with as many people as we could. At this point in the journey, I had fallen significantly behind my friends because, how do I put this lightly..my legs were on f*cking FIRE.
Right before I give up my ghost, we stopped for a much needed break at Juan-Le-Pin, parked our bicycles and jumped into the calm waves on the quieter side of Plage Hielos. A few minutes of cooling my sore leg muscles in the water was exactly what I needed.
After this, we continued the final leg of our 35km journey to Cannes, and we were determined to get there to watch the sunset.
Almost there now.
The final stretch was a pure physical battle for me. The closer we got to Cannes, the more my body wanted to give up. In those moments, I had to embrace the pain and the fatigue. I couldn’t let myself give up now when I was so close to the finish line.
To be real honest with you though, the real mental battle was ignoring the seductive whispers in my mind telling me to drop my bike in a ditch somewhere and order an Uber. Oh how enticing those whispers were.
We made it, barely.
I ignored those whispers and eventually we reached Cannes, just as the sun was setting. We sat at Miramar beach and watched the sky transition from a deep blue to a purple colour streaked with bronze and copper hues. I soaked in the ocean breeze and felt pride for completing one of the toughest physical challenges of my life.
It was pure bliss.
After scouring the back streets of Cannes for some affordable food, we found a decent kebab spot and made our way back to the beach. Sat on the sand, we tucked into our mixed doner wraps with chilli sauce and gazed out to the inky blackness of the French Riviera, while a Bain and Company beach party raged on nearby. This was exactly what we needed after a strenuous 32km ride. And yes, we did try to sneak into that beach party.
I started reflecting, kebab in mouth. I had completed this life changing, super challenging ride from Nice to Cannes, waded the waters at Juan Le Pin, tried to gatecrash a Bain and Company beach party, connected with locals and much more, all in 24 hours. Incredible scenes.
It dawned on me that I was genuinely having one of the best experiences of my life, and I felt blessed to be sharing it with my closest friends. This was what a group holiday was all about.
The euphoria slowly faded away and revealed a nagging feeling, a feeling that had been in the back of my mind the whole trip. Even though the trip was incredible, the experience of actually setting it up was super stressful.
The Group Travel Problem
We hated having to search for hotels across 3 different apps and websites. Sharing the research and communicating in our Whatsapp group chat was messy, and managing our shared finances from 3 separate accounts didn’t make sense. I sat on the beach wishing that the trip hadn’t been so difficult to organise in the first place. I felt that if the experience was more seamless, my friends and I would have spent more time getting excited for the holiday and less time getting lost in Airbnb links on Whatsapp.
Now imagine we were 8 people? What about 15? The planning and booking process would have damn near been impossible to manage easily.
That thought right there, and my entire holiday experience in France, planted the seed in my brain that kicked off the Kahana journey. What if I could create an app that made it incredibly easy to organise and book a group trip?
Why build an app though? Well, I want more people around the world to feel what I felt with my friends in Cannes; millions more. I want people to have a truly life changing experience that leaves their hearts smiling, with memories and stories that stand the test of time. I want more people to have the opportunity to explore far flung corners of our beautiful world and deeply connect with the local people, with their rich histories and diverse cuisine.
As a technologist, I understood then, as much as I do now, that technology is the best way to achieve everything I’ve mentioned in the last paragraph, at scale.
Our world needs people to immerse themselves in foreign cultures and languages, as a way to build cultural bridges and empathy. Bridges that can genuinely connect cultures in a world that seems to be increasingly fragmented.
Why the current tech sucks.
But, the current travel technology we use to plan and book trips isn’t built for groups. There’s a clear lack of community understanding and soul in the travel technology that’s supposed to connect people with the world. People can’t truly vibe with technology that isn’t built with them in mind, that hasn’t been shaped by the people the technology is meant to serve.
There are a couple existing and new players attempting to solve this problem, but none have been successful at scale. The execution has been lacking and it shows, because travel lovers are still badly underserved.
Another issue is that, respectfully, the incumbents don’t see a problem with their current model, and the few startups building in this space are being led by insiders. I believe true innovation requires a balance bewteen the insight of an insider, and an outsiders creativity. To solve the group travel problem, one needs to think bottom up and deeply understand the intersection between technology and community. They need to be part of that community.
Fortunately, I have spent the last few years building and scaling global communities as cofounder of IdeasLab Global, building an Accelerator and managing its community of founders at MSDUK, member of communities like Founders of the Future and Gen Z VC (London), and executing multi-billion dollar technology projects as a consultant. This experience, coupled with my deep love for travel, and my team being part of the community we want to serve, creates a super unique edge for solving the group travel problem.
Now picture this..
If only there was a solution that made it super easy for anyone to organise and book a group trip, then more people would plan these trips more often. Travellers can spend less time being frustrated at the planning stage of the holiday. Travel lovers can avoid expensive travel agents and create trips exactly how they want it.
Imagine a world where that long awaited weekend getaway with your friends could be organised and booked in minutes, not weeks. Stag and Hen dos can be seamlessly organised, giving you back time you can spend to celebrate. What about a community of founders setting up a week-long retreat in Lisbon to discuss world domination? You could put that together in less time it takes to run a sprint retrospective.
All this is possible with technology that has been built with community at its heart, technology that empowers communities to explore the world. That’s what Kahana is building. That’s the Kahana way.
If you got this far, thank you for reading! This is probably one of the wordiest, but most candid pieces I’ve shared in a while and I was nervous posting it, but I enjoyed creating it. Kahana is pre-launch, with a proof of concept in development. We’re rapidly building our waitlist ahead of a soft launch this summer, and we’re raising investment!
I have a few cheeky asks.
Do you want pre-launch access to the Kahana app before anyone else, join our waitlist here. You’ll also be kept up to date with our progress!
Are you interested in investing? We’re raising on a Seedfast (similar to a US SAFE). Schedule an introductory call with me here so I can share more.
Know any investors who would be keen on us? Feel free to make an intro with my email felixochefu@joinkahana.com, or dm me on Linkedin.
