Mona Ataya
Founder and CEO, Mumzworld
Omar Al Mheiri
Co-founder and CTO, Letswork
Jad Antoun
Co-founder and CEO, Huspy
Dubai has rapidly become one of the most desirable destinations for ambitious expat professionals and their families
According to Resonance’s World’s Best Cities Report, the emirate is recently ranked as one of the top 10 cities for livability and prosperity in 2024. With year-round sun, world - class services, and commitment to continuous innovation, it’s easy to see the appeal for international tech talent. We met with three founders to hear their stories about why they chose Dubai to start and grow their businesses.
The Dubai founders group
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Dubai DET
So, first thing’s first: Why Dubai?Typing ...
Mona Ataya
Dubai represented the ideal springboard for my ventures.Typing ...
The vision top down to establish Dubai as the digital hub for the region made me confident that I would have the right enablers in place to build digital assets, or at least the right regulatory support and DNA to create these enablers.
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Omar Al Mheiri
I’m Emirati, and I’ve always wanted to grow something here and own a business here. My high-level vision was to bring what I learned when I studied in the US back to the country.Typing ...
Jad Antoun
I’m born and raised in the region, so I already have a lot of emotion and affinity to this part of the world.Typing ...
When you go to a new country, you can feel directly if it's growth-minded or not, and that’s incredibly attractive for me as well.
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Omar Al Mheiri
Dubai is such a cool location 🔥. It connects the east to the west and we have so many interesting people coming in and out.Typing ...
Jad Antoun
In my opinion, Dubai is the best of both worlds. You have the quality of life that Europe and the West has, the open-mindedness and ease.Typing ...
But also you have a lot of the regional things that I love, like family values, friendship values and closeness to your circles.
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Omar Al Mheiri
I’m seeing more people come in and actually stay and use Dubai as a HQ. It’s so easy to set up Dubai as a base.Typing ...
Mona Ataya
I set up Mumzworld in 3 weeks – the company was incorporated, licenses were in hand, banking was set up, first hires secured, and offices rented.Typing ...
This would have not been possible anywhere else in 2011.
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Jad Antoun
Relocation is also super easy as well 🧘♂️Typing ...
In two to three weeks, you have residency.
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Dubai DET
What does Dubai offer that other cities cannot compete with?Typing ...
Jad Antoun
I’ve lived in some of the best cities in the world and I think Dubai can compete with any city out there.Typing ...
Dubai and GCC feels like you’re the center of the world right now – everyone’s coming here.
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The quality of intellectual talent coming into Dubai is improving very quickly.
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Some of the top hedge funds are moving here, some of the big VCs are setting up offices here, the big banks are moving here.
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And why it’s happening is incredibly simple – people make much more for the same amount of work.
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It’s the tax-free environment and the quality of life.
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Omar Al Mheiri
Setting up a licence is really easy, and I think it was something that was always top of mind for Dubai.Typing ...
Right now it's as simple as just going online.
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There's also the ease of doing business, which is crazy as well.
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And the events – we are a bit spoilt for choice here.
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There's always something happening so even if you're new here, or even if you're old here, there's always some sort of community you can join in with.
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Jad Antoun
All of my technology team is sitting in Dubai today which is, you know, phenomenal.Typing ...
The ease to attract someone here is incredible.
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Dubai DET
Why else do you think that is? What do expats love about Dubai?Typing ...
Jad Antoun
The standard of living has always been very high.Typing ...
Security, quality of services, quality of restaurants and all that have always been world class.
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Omar Al Mheiri
We have so many services that you can’t even imagine.Typing ...
I think when expats come and move here, it’s a big surprise. For example, there’s an app called CAFU where, if your car’s parked somewhere, a truck will come and fill up your gas.
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Mona Ataya
There’s also great schooling across all curriculums, graduating high school students into top global universities.Typing ...
There’s sun year-round, a robust real estate ecosystem with housing availability across all demographic profiles and foreign ownership, and competitive salaries to global standards.
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Dubai DET
How has Dubai’s startup ecosystem evolved since you’ve been here?Typing ...
Mona Ataya
The city has entrepreneurship in its DNA, starting from its leadership, and I have been fortunate enough to be among the early witnesses of this startup revolution.Typing ...
In less than 20 years, we went from a city that had limited startup funding, scarce tech talent, unsophisticated supply chain infrastructure and limited digital success stories to a robust supply chain and tech ecosystem and a growing VC pool – attracting some of the best global talent into tax favorable jobs with long term visas.
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Jad Antoun
There’s so much capital in the markets now it’s absurd, and the quality of capital is improving like crazy.Typing ...
For the first time, you have tier 1 funds setting up funds in Dubai; the likes of Sequoia Capital Atlantic.
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These types of funds never looked at this part of the world before.
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Omar Al Mheiri
An incredible, incredible amount of investment has gone into the UAE in the last four years alone.Typing ...
And think it'll just keep growing as more startups decide to use this as their HQ.
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Dubai DET
What do you think is behind this?Typing ...
Mona Ataya
Significant investments were made in infrastructure and technology, and lots of government think tanks and initiatives were put in place to enable digital disruption.Typing ...
The government is also actively involved in conversations around digital enhancement and enablers with SMEs and entrepreneurs to have a true pulse on what is needed for continued evolution.
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Omar Al Mheiri
Right after Amazon acquired Souq, a lot of VCs and foreign investment ended up coming here to look at what people are doing.Typing ...
People used to think it’s too small of a market, but what's interesting is you're creating such amazing products that actually relate to the diversity that we have in the country.
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So it’s a great testing ground and a good HQ location of which you can create something really amazing and spread it out.
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Mona Ataya
Dubai has truly established itself as a hub for startups and entrepreneurs.Typing ...
It has a thriving community of startup incubators and accelerators, many of which offer bespoke programs for every stage of the startup lifecycle.
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Dubai DET
Do you have any experience of using these accelerators?Typing ...
Omar Al Mheiri
We were lucky enough to be part of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF). These accelerator programs are a big catalyst happening in Dubai. Working in an organization is 100 times different than actually starting up your own thing, so the mentorship and handholding you get, having a sounding board, is probably the best thing – especially for solo founders.Typing ...
Another good thing about the accelerators is they give you that kind of badge of recognition or badge of trustworthiness, which then will allow you to go and unlock different VC funds.
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Dubai DET
What about your growth ambitions?Typing ...
Do you think you can fulfil these in Dubai?
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Jad Antoun
We’re a very ambitious company.Typing ...
My KPI internally is to build a global brand from Dubai.
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Without this city, I do not think it would be possible.
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There are things you don’t think of that are incredibly important for you to build a large business, that are just a given in Dubai:
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Security
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Infrastructure
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Taxation
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Registration
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Banking
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Moving people here and knowing for sure they’re going to get residency.
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You don’t have a big headache that other companies in different cities have.
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Even if one day we have a big bulk of business coming from markets outside of the UAE, I don’t see why we’d leave Dubai from a HQ perspective.
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Dubai DET
What’s networking like here?Typing ...
Mona Ataya
There are many networking opportunities here and I am actively involved in ones that have supported my business transitions over the years.Typing ...
I was the first woman selected as an Endeavor entrepreneur in the region and have served on boards of both EO (Entrepreneur Organisation) and YPO (Young Presidents Organisation) for many years.
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Omar Al Mheiri
There are so many conferences and events here every year too.Typing ...
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You bump shoulders with some of the big startup founders and the big VCs.
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That is without fail the best thing about the Dubai community that has been created: everyone is one or two contacts away from someone else.
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There’s even a WhatsApp group for all founders.
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Jad Antoun
The people here are super friendly and welcoming, and the system is very smooth.Typing ...
If you want to get connected, someone will find a way.
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If you don’t know the person directly, you’ll know someone who knows them.
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That’s the culture that we have in the region. That’s our strength.
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Dubai DET
Do you have any advice for someone thinking of starting a business here?Typing ...
Mona Ataya
The world is fast changing with technology and AI shifting our paradigms and the way we operate, creating new normals.Typing ...
An entrepreneur who can identify these shifting trends and is bold and brave to positively disrupt the ecosystem will succeed – and Dubai infrastructure is the best playground to do that.
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Omar Al Mheiri
Don’t try to do it alone. 😂Typing ...
There are so many communities, accelerators and incubators that I think will help massively.
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Try to tap into the community before you try launching a business.
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You always have to make mistakes as a part of the journey, but this will help you make less mistakes.
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And then, whatever you have may serve a lot of the people within the community.
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So take them as your first customer.
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