There is a question i get asked a lot. While the jist remains the same, the version differs from each one. Why here? Why plant a tech company in the UAE when there are older, louder markets you could have picked instead? My answer never really changes. Because this place moves. And it does not ask you to say sorry for wanting more.
The Idea That Was "Too Early"
I have pitched ideas in rooms where half the faces said it was too early. Too ambitious. A bit much. And then, a year or so later, some of those same people were quietly asking how they could get in. That happens here in a way I have not seen anywhere else. The distance between a wild idea and a real project is short. Sometimes uncomfortably short, which is exactly the point.
What This Region Does Differently
If you have never built here, a few things will surprise you:
- The government does not sit on its hands. While others form committees to think about AI, Dubai is already wiring it into how the city runs.
- There are real targets and real money behind the ambition, not just slogans.
- When the people at the top move fast, everyone underneath gets permission to move fast too.
The Part I Will Be Honest About
That pace can be brutal if you are not built for it. Standing still is not neutral here. Standing still means falling behind while the guy next to you ships. But if you have a bit of ambition and you are willing to do the work, there is not a better runway on the planet right now. I mean that.
You Do Not Always Notice History From Inside It
I did not just watch this place grow. I got to have a small hand in it, and that is a strange kind of privilege. You are too busy chasing invoices and calming clients down to notice. But every so often you look up and realise the whole board has shifted, and you were one of the pieces that moved it.
That is a lot of what I want to bring to the stage on the 22nd of October. Not a tourism pitch for Dubai. More like a straight account of what it actually feels like to build something here, the good and the genuinely hard, from someone still doing it every single day.
Come Find Me If You Are Thinking About It
If you are eyeing this region, or you are already here and wondering whether you have aimed high enough, come and talk to me. I will give you the honest version, not the brochure.
The date is the 22nd of October, in Dubai, and the city is ready. The only open question is whether you will be in that room with the rest of us who take this seriously. I hope the answer is yes.
