A founder’s story

Why I built LicencePath

by George Oyelokiki Egbedayo, Founder, Rainfame Technologies Ltd

Part one: the hidden journey

Some journeys look simple from the outside. Getting a driving licence is one of them.

You apply for a provisional. You revise a bit of theory. You take some lessons. You book a test. You pass. That’s the story everyone tells. It is not the story most people live.

I was working six days a week when I started learning. Every spare hour was scattered across a different app or website. Theory practice lived in one place. Hazard perception in another. Instructors were found on a third. Booking happened on GOV.UK. My progress lived nowhere at all, except in my own head, where it was easy to lose.

Then I failed my first test. That stung, but it happens. What I didn’t expect was what came next: my theory pass has a two-year shelf life, and while life got busy, it quietly expired. I had to sit it again before I could even rebook the practical. Months of momentum, gone, because nothing was tracking the one deadline that mattered.

The second time around brought its own obstacles: the scramble for instructor availability, the guesswork about whether I was actually ready, and not knowing which test centre gave me the best chance. As I talked to other people, I realised my experience wasn’t unusual. Everyone had a version of the same story: an expired certificate, a no-show instructor, a test booked too early out of impatience, or too late out of fear.

The rules kept shifting underneath us too. When the DVSA tightened booking rules in 2026 to fight the bots reselling cancellation slots, ordinary learners were caught in the crossfire: more friction, more confusion, less clarity about how to do the right thing.

Why is there no single place for this journey?

That question wouldn’t leave me alone. What if one place knew where you were and what to do next? What if a readiness score told you the truth about when to book, instead of a guess? What if your instructor’s marks shaped what you practised at home, and you could choose a test centre based on actual pass rates instead of rumour?

Part two: the building

I am not a career software engineer. I taught myself, one problem at a time, because the product I wanted didn’t exist and no one was going to build it for me.

I built it with Claude as a coding assistant. It was not magic. It was steady work: design a feature, build it, break it, fix it, ship it, and do the honest thing even when the easy thing was right there.

Part three: where LicencePath is today

The part that matters most came later. An instructor can connect the pupils they already teach, record what actually happened in a lesson, assign the theory or hazard work that follows from it, and see what the pupil completed before the next lesson. What happens in the car shapes what gets practised between lessons, and what gets practised between lessons is visible in the car. That loop was the missing piece.

Instructors get a professional toolkit too: their pupils, diary, lesson notes, skill assessments, payments they record, CPD tracking and progress reports. Driving schools can invite their instructors and see the whole school in one place.

Today, a learner on LicencePath can:

• Practise theory questions, road signs and flashcards.
• Train hazard perception with clips that explain why each hazard develops.
• See a readiness score broken down by theory, hazard and the practical skills their instructor has assessed.
• Choose a test centre using DVSA pass-rate statistics and routes other learners have reported.
• Connect the instructor they already have, or find one who has joined.
• Share a private, read-only progress link with a parent or supervisor.
• Get ready to book, then book their own test on GOV.UK.

Part four: where we plan to go

Passing the test is the beginning, not the end. The licence is the first step into a lifetime of driving, and that part is just as fragmented as learning was.

These are plans, not features you can use today. We want LicencePath to stay with you after you pass: help with insurance you can afford, choosing a sensible first car, understanding the true cost of owning it, and staying on top of MOT and renewals.

Part five: the invitation

LicencePath is in its early days, and the people who join now shape what it becomes. Everyone who joins while we launch gets full access free. We will never charge without telling you first.

Closing

I built LicencePath because I lived the problem: the expired certificate, the missing instructor, the test booked on a guess, the silence where guidance should have been. No learner should have to navigate that alone, and no instructor should have to teach without knowing what their pupil did between lessons.

LicencePath is my answer.