David Chait

Co-Founder & CEO Travefy

Last Reviewed: September 18, 2026

Executive Summary

David Chait is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Travefy, a Lincoln, Nebraska software company that builds the operating platform travel advisors and agencies run their businesses on — itinerary management, client proposals and quotes, CRM and custom forms, and advisor websites and marketing. The company was founded in 2012, originally around consumer group travel planning, and has since repositioned squarely on the travel professional as its customer. That shift has been the substance of Chait’s leadership: travel advisors did not disappear with the arrival of online booking, but they were left assembling client-facing itineraries and proposals out of spreadsheets, email and word processors, and Travefy’s product replaces that improvisation with a single professional toolkit. The company has appeared on the Inc. 5000 for three consecutive years and states that tens of thousands of travel brands use it. Chait’s route to founding was unusual for travel technology — he came from McKinsey and then from a senior policy role at the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Career Highlights

• Co-founder and CEO of Travefy, founded in 2012 in Lincoln, Nebraska.
• Travefy named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private US companies in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
• Built a customer base that the company describes as tens of thousands of travel brands, spanning travel agents, agencies, tour operators, destination management companies and tourism organizations.
• Senior Policy Advisor to the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, covering small business credit conditions, the small business economic environment and international trade.
• Consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York, advising Fortune 500 companies, governments and non-profits on strategy and operations.
• Graduated magna cum laude from Columbia College and took an MBA with Dean’s Honors from Columbia Business School.

Professional Journey

Chait read economics-political science at Columbia College, graduating magna cum laude, and later took an MBA with Dean’s Honors at Columbia Business School. He began his career in management consulting, joining McKinsey & Company’s New York office, where he worked with Fortune 500 companies, government bodies and non-profit organizations on strategy and operational improvement.

He then moved into government, serving as Senior Policy Advisor to the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The remit covered the small business credit and economic environment and international trade among other areas — in other words, the conditions under which small businesses in America succeed or fail. That is a relevant apprenticeship for what came next, because Travefy’s customers are overwhelmingly small businesses: independent travel advisors and small agencies operating on thin margins with limited technology budgets.

Travefy was founded in 2012 and is based in Lincoln, Nebraska, a deliberate choice of location outside the usual technology centres. Chris Davis is consistently identified as a co-founder and the company’s chief technology officer. Sources differ on the rest of the founding group — some list only Chait and Davis, others add Wayne Ting, who subsequently became chief executive of Lime, and a company podcast refers to Scott Rutz as a founding team member. The precise composition is not settled by available sources.

The company’s original product was aimed at consumers planning group trips, solving the coordination problem of shared itineraries, payments and logistics. Over time the business found that its most valuable users were the professionals — travel advisors who needed to produce polished itineraries and proposals for clients — and it repositioned accordingly. Travefy now presents itself as the core platform for travel advisors and agencies, with itinerary management, proposals and quotes, CRM and custom forms, and website and marketing tools, alongside an education arm.

That repositioning has coincided with sustained growth. Travefy has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private American companies in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and reports use by tens of thousands of travel brands worldwide. Chait remains a visible advocate for the travel advisor segment, arguing publicly that travel technology is only now receiving the attention it merits.

Education

Columbia College, Columbia University

BA, magna cum laude, Economics-Political Science

Columbia Business School

MBA, with Dean’s Honors