Postcards from Elsewhere: Dubai, UAE

The war is the best argument for Dubai I can give you.

When the region destabilized during the latest US-Israeli war on Iran, expat founders did not flee. The people who have been around for years see this city as home, and when things got hard, leaving did not even cross their minds. It confirmed something I already believed: we are united here, and we are united in ambition.

That loyalty makes more sense once you see what this place offers entrepreneurs. You have real business opportunities and direct flights to Europe, Asia, and the US. Working across time zones is easy. The quality of life is lovely. I have been here for 20 years, so believe me when I say this place is a founder’s dream. A lot of that comes down to who is actually building here.

Expats are roughly 80% of the population, including me. I am Ukrainian and Lebanese. But despite that, people aren’t here to fly in and fly out. They are here to stay. The Emirati population is small and tends to hold governmental posts or senior roles in corporations, which leaves the entrepreneurial scene wide open to people from everywhere else. The founder base is international.

Fundraising is different here, too. Capital is institutionally heavy, anchored by sovereign wealth funds, government vehicles, and quasi- or semi-government entities, like telecom operators; they can be meaningful capital sources, sometimes writing very large checks!  Back in 2021 and 2022 the money was easy and it was all growth at all costs, with few people asking about unit economics or profit.

Then, 2023 brought a VC winter. Valuations were sky-high while the underlying economics were not, and founders had to recalibrate. Today the checks are being written again and the numbers are climbing, but investors are cautious. They want proof, not promises.

Here is the part outsiders get wrong: cold LinkedIn messages and cold emails go nowhere, because everyone is drowning in them. Even at Endeavor, when we get an investor or partner or founder on a Zoom call, they are only half-listening, because pitches are coming at them from every direction. But suggest lunch or coffee, and the whole conversation changes.

The real networking happens after hours, in the pubs and restaurants around the Dubai International Financial Centre. People here want to know you as a person before they put money behind you or go into business with you. I tell every expat founder the same thing: build the relationship first, then ask for the money.

We are an ecosystem built of outsiders, and that is exactly what holds us together. The war proved it. Not one person said, “I came here to build a business, so now I will fly out.” People build their base here, their home, their company, their family. That is why relationships matter more than anything else in this city.