Boris Hodakel: His journey to taking wellness brand Feel global

Serial tech entrepreneur Boris Hodakel talks about his journey to taking rapidly-expanding wellness brand Feel global

“At one point, I was close to losing everything, taking on loans and delaying tax payments to keep the dream alive.”

Arriving in the UK 10 years ago with just €3,000 to set up his first company, serial tech entrepreneur Boris Hodakel has grown five-year-old digital health and wellness subscription brand Feel into a global business with an eight-figure annual turnover and almost two million products sold worldwide.                                                                                               

Three years after receiving £14m in venture capital funding, the rapidly-expanding business now has a seven-figure monthly revenue, tens of thousands of active customers, has just announced expansion into the UAE and is on track for double-digit EBITDA in 2025.

London-based Feel has a presence in six global markets and was the first in the world to launch  vegan collagen – clinically validated as the most effective in the world*. It is also poised to announce the launch of Feel Pro Metabolic this month, its highly-anticipated weight management  product.

Moving to the UK from Latvia a decade ago, founder Hodakel has built three businesses, but it wasn’t always that way and at one point he was close to losing everything.

He explained: “In 2015, I arrived in the UK with just €3,000 to start my first business. That wasn’t even my own money. I convinced a factory owner to let me use my first three months’ salary to bring their clothing brand to the UK. With that, I built a website and a concept from scratch, working alone in a small room for six months, mastering digital marketing and SEO.”  

Back then, seeing the challenge, he pivoted. Instead of selling the brand directly, he built an agency specialising in SME/start-up brand manufacturing using the factory’s capabilities while expanding his own network. This shift was successful and he secured prominent clients, including The Vampire’s Wife by Susie Cave, a brand worn by well-known celebrities.

That business, with just one employee, generated £56K in its first year, £120K in the second and £300K in the third. Every profit was reinvested into his second business – a SaaS marketplace that later secured VC funding.

Hokadel said: “At one point, I was close to losing everything, taking on loans and delaying tax payments to keep the dream alive. I was saved at the last moment when a VC investment came through the day before I would have had to put my first company into administration – a real godsend.”

As the number of projects grew, the workload became overwhelming. He saw the need for automation and poured all of his savings into building his new SaaS platform business – one that connected brands directly with manufacturers. At the time, it was one of the first platforms of its kind and a revolutionary concept in the industry.

He explained: “Like many early-stage concepts, it lacked scalability. Fashion start-ups are notoriously unpredictable, difficult to work with and often lack experience, making revenue inconsistent.

“After a year of building a world-class IT team across four countries, we made the tough decision to let the business go. But the lessons we learned were invaluable – and out of that experience, Feel was born.”

In 2019, Boris launched Feel with one goal in mind: to provide modern-day solutions for the beauty-from-within space.

Under his leadership, the brand has become a trailblazer in women’s health, with innovative products like the world’s most effective collagen and ground-breaking menopause support supplements.

With a philosophy centred on empowering customers to take control of their health journey with clarity and confidence, Feel’s award-winning range provides products for skin, anti-ageing, hair, menopause, mood, gut health and soon weight management.

Feel’s commitment to its customers is rooted in rigorous scientific research. The company works closely with leading experts and scientists to develop formulas that are backed by extensive studies and clinical trials. Every ingredient they use is carefully selected based on its proven benefits, ensuring that each supplement is effective and safe.

Feel is 60% a software business and 40% a beauty-from-within business, delivering data-first and data-led personalised solutions and experiences for its global customer base. Its goal is to implement machine learning and AI into processes to automate and curate the user journey more effectively.

The brand plans to further strengthen its software by using the power of customer data to better tailor and suggest more relevant health products to its customer base. Thanks to these features – and an industry-leading 95% recurring revenue rate – Feel is on a rapid trajectory to becoming a global household name.

As the company continues to expand globally, Hodakel is focused on staying ahead of the curve in both innovation and customer care. “The future of wellness isn’t about one-size-fits-all solutions. It’s about understanding people’s unique needs and meeting them with products that genuinely make a difference.”

“Ultimately, our mission is about helping customers feel their best – whether that’s through glowing skin, better energy or feeling strong from within. We provide customers with the most innovative ingredients in the supplement space with the most seamless and intuitive experience of buying online, creating trust for products”

For Hodakel, it’s never been about following trends. It’s about leading a movement – a movement that prioritises results, transparency and the wellbeing of people everywhere.

He added: “It’s not just about living longer; it’s about living better.”