Kai Feller is an award-winning entrepreneur and business leader, who co-founded the world’s fastest growing online services marketplace, Bark.com with Andrew Michael in 2014. Bark grew exponentially over 7 years and by 2022 had revenue of £70million and profits of £15million. In April 2022 whilst Kai was 30 years old, the business was acquired for £240million. Its quick success was driven by an innovative use of technology and automation across product and operations which enabled Bark to grow a substantial global business with less than 100 employees. The business was bootstrapped and received no external funding, which makes its success even rarer.
Kai was born in 1991 in Exeter, England, to medical professional parents. From an early age, he displayed an entrepreneurial flair and set up multiple schemes and ways to make money at school and during university. He was a dedicated footballer but turned down a professional sporting career with Yeovil Town FC to study Mechanical Engineering at Cardiff University. He graduated with a 1st Class Honours and top of his class, and despite having opportunities to continue his education, having received a place at Cambridge University for a Master’s in Energy Technologies, or to pursue a career in investment banking with JP Morgan; he decided to continue on his entrepreneurial path and start a business. During his last year at university in 2012, he co-founded his first start-up, Socialite, a mobile app connecting users with events relating to sports and entertainment. This first venture taught him valuable lessons and is where he learnt to code (which was self-taught) and grew his technology and digital expertise.
In 2014, aged 22, Kai started Bark.com with Andrew Michael. Bark was created to make buying and selling services (e.g. anything from plumbers, piano teachers to personal trainers) much faster and more efficient. Kai & Andrew utilised technology to make the whole process far more automated and efficient, resulting in an extremely scalable business. This enabled them to provide a product internationally without a physical presence in other countries. This included the US, which in turn became their biggest market, despite not having any employees on the ground working there. In 2020, Bark.com went on to be featured in The Times Tech Track 100 (which tracks the top 100 fastest growing technology companies) at number six after growing 200% a year for 3 years in a row, and in turn led to a flurry of interest to acquire the venture.
Eight years after the launch of Bark in April 2022, Kai and Andrew sold the business for £240 million. Kai remained as CEO of Bark until September 2023, building Bark’s first ever executive team and scaling the business from 100 to 250 employees in 1.5 years. He remains a non-exec and advisor to the business.
Outside of work, he enjoys football and boxing, for which he has competed in amateur fights and has a record of 1-0. He also bought his childhood local pub in Devon to invest back into the local community and regenerate a 200 year-old listed building.