Founder Spotlight: Kella Chan, Nomad-Home.com

How do the incredibly well-travelled go on holiday??Today, I sat down with a founder who seemingly has the answer.

If I gave you a blank cheque to go anywhere in the world, to do anything you want and for as long as you like, what would you do?

This might seem fantastical, but for a niche group of permanent jet setters, this location-agnostic lifestyle is actually reality. They’re successful founders, sought-after creatives and highly skilled remote workers. And they’re all living the dream.

But, novelty wears thin when it becomes your everyday life. So the question is: how do the incredibly well-travelled go on holiday??

Today, I sat down with a founder who seemingly has the answer. Kella Chan , of Nomad-Home.com , is building a name for herself in the luxury travel world by curating unique culinary retreats for communities of affluent young remote workers.

Tapping into the wants and needs of these wealthy nomads, Kella crafts exclusive, small-group, community-focused experiences set with the whole world as their playground.

From personalised cooking sessions with Michelin-starred chefs, through caviar and champagne tastings, to foraging with a 3rd generation truffle hunter. And the lodgings are not too shabby either, with guests laying their heads in vineyards, historic villas and even castles. Nomad Home provides experiences that can’t be booked anywhere else, bringing together accomplished and passionate foodies from across the globe.

Attendees are carefully selected from a long list of applicants to ensure everyone is of a like-minded nature. As Kella puts it ‘You’re going to be stuck in a castle with them for 7 days, so the vibes have to be there’

Kicking off our conversation, I ask Kella what inspired her to make such a bold leap into the luxury travel world.

“I built this company because community and who we surround ourselves with is the most important thing in life. Yet, because I primarily solo travelled, I struggled to find a community with people who were location agnostic like-minded in their love of food and unique travel experiences, and committed to professional and personal growth.” says Kella.

Having explored over 50 countries and remote worked in 22 of them, Kella saw first-hand the growing demand for slow travel - a type of holiday focused on lingering long enough in a place to form real connections and build community. She spotted an opportunity to combine this with her passion for food.

I wanted to know how she went about starting, and building, a successful luxury travel company. With this notoriously hard-to-reach and hard-to-please demographic, it’s surely no small undertaking.

“As I’d already built this incredible community of chefs, artists and table stylists just by being present in the scene, when it came to building Nomad Home, it was the most natural decision in the world to build from my community,” Kella says.

Launching in July 2023 her strategy was simple: take the most incredible people she knew in the creative food scene, book a venue somewhere far away and beautiful, and use their following to build the initial exclusive customer base.

What Kella achieves at Nomad Home that no one else does is the uniqueness of their events.

She tells me, “We’re creating off-the-beaten-path experiences you simply cannot do on your own. They’re not available for booking anywhere else in the world. Flying a Michelin star chef in to a castle to teach you about the local cuisine is not something you can book with a quick Google search.”

But Nomad Home’s real magic is its ability to build a tight-knit community, in an ultra-exclusive space.

Speaking about how she’s growing her business, Kella explains that while Nomad Home is investing in advertising, its growth has mainly come from on-the-ground community building and referrals.?

Using referrals, Nomad Home has been able to successfully build a space where a very niche group can find like-minded people - business founders and creatives alike - and come together to live life to its fullest.

“Importantly, the people who attend are building real, deep friendships. Some members now schedule monthly dinners, book reunions, and have even gone on to form businesses together” say Kella.

Demand for her exclusive retreats has exploded, and Kella plans to keep the supply limited. As any great luxury brand knows: for people who have everything, making your service hard to get defines its value.

With the 2024 schedule already looking oversubscribed, Kella tells me there are some big plans in place for her luxury travel startup.

“We’re going to have 3 different locations this year. But what’s really exciting is we’ll be experimenting with different formats of events, cuisines, themes and chefs. I think our community is going to love it.”

What Kella Chan is offering through Nomad Home is once-in-a-lifetime culinary experiences even the world’s most well-travelled can’t get enough of. Breaking into a famously hard industry to crack, Kella has seemingly got the secret sauce. And I for one am very excited to see what’s next for Nomad Home.?

Salivating at just the thought? Check out their retreats https://www.nomad-home.com/retreats

or book a meeting directly with the founder www.nomad-home.com/book-now