The Entrepreneurs

Home stretch

Downtown Dubai is a neighbourhood that needs little introduction. World-class shopping and architectural icons such as the Burj Khalifa have ensured that the area is firmly on people’s itineraries. But don’t let the scale of the city’s commercial heart mislead you – this is an ideal neighbourhood in which to put down roots, establish a business and enjoy the best that Dubai has to offer.

At its centre is the Old Town, built in 2006 (the name is a nod to the traditional architectural style of the region, rather than its age). “What I like about the area is that it has a feeling of seclusion and privacy,” says Jola Chudy, a communications consultant who moved here more than 10 years ago. “Inside the neighbourhood, it’s all interconnected by cobbled walkways so it’s completely pedestrianised with a lot of greenery, communal areas and shops.”

The nearby Safa Park provides shade and greenery in a city where both are scarce and, for the early risers, a run along the Al Jaddaf canal is the perfect start to a day spent inside an office. “It’s a real escape from the daily grind,” says Chudy, who tells Monocle that it is possible to mix business with pleasure here. “I’ve grown my business a lot through my running community,” she says. “Dubai is great for building strong networks. It’s just such a dynamic and interesting place to be.”

One of the key areas for business in the city is the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), next to Downtown Dubai. The two areas combined create a super-neighbourhood where retail, hospitality and industry thrive. One such example is Lulu & the Beanstalk, a café, restaurant and bookshop opened in 2022 by sisters Wafa Tajdin and Amirah Tajdin. The pair, originally from Kenya, have also lived in South Africa; they eventually settled in the uae and decided to open the space. “It’s such a busy city, so we wanted to create somewhere people could meet, have great food and relax,” says Wafa. The venue’s colourful interiors are courtesy of Bofink Design Studio from Sweden and the huge bookcase that covers one of the walls hides a DJ booth for when coffees are swapped for cocktails.

The district’s sea of steel and glass might make it difficult to imagine what goes on inside of the buildings that constitute the difc. The office towers are full but a simple stroll through the area’s promenades and interconnected walkways shows you that this is a place bustling with life: the hundreds of restaurants are always packed and galleries such as Tabari Artspace, founded by collector Maliha Tabari in 2003, regularly rotate their exhibitions to cater to a hungry creative crowd.

Though this is a car-centric city, Downtown Dubai and the difc have direct access to the Metro and are separated by just one stop on the red line – so going from your home to a café can be both hassle- and car-free. “It has become increasingly easier to establish a business here,” says Chudy. “There’s a real ‘can do’ and ‘why not?’ attitude. It’s a very entrepreneurial place and that is palpable.”

Life’s a beach

The laidback low-rise neighbourhood that runs along Jumeirah Beach Road is everything that Downtown Dubai isn’t. Back in the 1970s, it was one of the city’s first residential communities, benefiting from space and proximity to the beach. Today the 26km-long road runs roughly from the Dubai Dry Docks in the northeast down to Dubai Marina in the southwest, but when most people refer to the “Beach Road” they usually mean the stretch between the seaside neighbourhoods of Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim.

This is one of Dubai’s most liveable areas (for those with deeper pockets, at least), home to a mix of Emiratis and international residents who live in smart villa compounds, small apartment complexes or standalone beach homes. “Our bungalow is on the corner of a beautiful ungated community of 118 villas built in 1991,” says resident Akshay Sardana, director of cfs Group. “It’s reminiscent of a time when houses in the uae were built solid on larger plots of land, ceilings were high and every room accessed the garden.” Having grown up in the area, Sardana knew that he wanted to raise his family here. “Our kids skate, bike and walk to school. If you ask our seven-year-old, Rai, what makes his neighbourhood special, he’ll tell you it’s his friends from all over the world, perhaps with a skew towards the French in our quarter.”

At first glance, the Beach Road seems like a strip of cosmetic surgery clinics and a handful of luxury resorts – but there’s way more to it. The neighbourhood is home to the Etihad Museum, commemorating the 1971 signing of the treaty that united the emirates, as well as the largely overlooked ruins of a 1,000-year-old caravanserai (an ancient roadside inn where travellers rested). It’s also a treat for birdwatchers – hoopoes, bee-eaters and bulbuls flutter around the flower-filled gardens of the compounds, as if mimicking the residents who flock to the area’s many speciality coffee shops.

If you’re here to explore, start at one of the old-school villas now reborn as cafés and concept stores, such as Café Villa 515 – which has a leafy courtyard and on-site perfume lab – or Heal, beloved by Jumeirah locals for its breakfasts and peanut-butter tarts. Or seek out To The Moon & Back, a cosy café, hidden in a retro low-rise apartment block, which draws a creative crowd to its Australian-style coffee and pop-up pie days. For eclectic fashion, accessories and homeware, visit Comptoir 102 and Kulture House, a pair of stylishly renovated villas almost next door to each other. The former houses an organic café, while the latter offers comfort food and lavender lattes.

For a more substantial meal, Chef Akmal Anuar’s 11 Woodfire breathes new life into a former garden centre. Its menu of flame-cooked veggies, seafood and meat, served alongside creative alcohol-free cocktails, earned the restaurant a Michelin star just months after opening. Anuar has had his family home in the neighbourhood for the past few years. “The best part of living here is that I feel I’m in between the old and the new Dubai,” he says.

Living in Fujairah
Heritage sites and eastern influences.

Trundle around the rocky Hajar mountains to the east of the UAE and you’ll reach the emirate of Fujairah. It is located entirely on the east coast that hugs the Gulf of Oman for about 70km from the capital, Fujairah City, to Dibba in the North. The emirate is best known for resort hotels, natural beauty and tourist attractions, but with a population of more than 300,000 there is a lively community and plenty of people moving to this quieter corner of the UAE. Local industries include cement and mining, which supply materials for the building industry across the country but Fujairah is also home to a free-trade zone and offers people who don’t need to commute with beautiful surroundings. Being the only emirate to entirely overlook the east coast of the UAE, there’s also an onus on goods that come across the Indian Ocean, to and from more than 50 countries. There are plenty of housing options, including villas and apartments, which are often much more affordable than their equivalents in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The suburb of Al Faseel in northern Fujairah is a family-friendly place with plenty of amenities and its modern infrastructure provides ease of commuting to neighbouring areas of the city. There are also plenty of good places to eat – often linked to resort hotels and malls – but one that stands out is The Orangery. Located in Fujairah Tower it offers a home away from home taste of European cuisine. History is extremely important in the area, which is home to the nation’s oldest standing mosque: Al Bidya. This Unesco World Heritage site was built in the 15th century and remains in use today.

A nose for business

“Scent is one of the most powerful means by which to capture and relive memories, holding the power to transport a person to a moment,” Amna Al Habtoor, the founder of Arcadia, tells Monocle. Having launched her perfume line in Dubai in 2017, Al Habtoor knew that she wanted to specialise in scents to build on the notion of nostalgia. “When I create a fragrance, it’s to be reminded of a place, a time or an emotion that is precious to me – and relatable to others.” All draw inspiration from the uae and the wider region, with notes of saffron, amber, musk and oakmoss frequently found across the brand’s collections.

While Arcadia might be an artisanal perfumery, this is not a sector to be sniffed at. Recent numbers have put the value of the uae’s fragrance market at $913.7m (€867.4), numbers which are expected to grow to $1.6bn (€1.52bn) by the end of 2030. “There is a very big demand in this market, every day you see new brands come up,” says Asim Al Qassim, the founder of Anfas, who became the first certified Emirati perfumer when his brand was founded in 2014. “Fragrance has become an essential part of every human being, it’s part of our identity.”

For Al Qassim, the layering of a perfume is everything. “In the Middle East we like to mix scents and overlay,” he tells Monocle. As a result, all the Anfas collections are designed to be mixed and combined to deliver a single fragrance. “If you overlay [Anfas perfumes] Salam or Rahaba, and then add the second and third collections, you will be smelling a very well-balanced single perfume,” says Al Qassim, revelling in the playfulness of the idea before offering a warning. “To do it well you need to deeply understand the raw materials, which might not be what you expect,” he adds. “I like to use tonka bean, vanilla and mandarin.”

It’s not just about delivering something pleasant to the nose, there’s science behind it too. “We’re the first brand in the region to create wellbeing fragrances, based on the knowledge that scent really does play an immense role in how you feel,” says Michelle Wranik-Hicks, who co-founded wellbeing fragrance brand Appellation in the uae in 2020.

Contrary to Al Habtoor and Al Qassim, Wranik-Hicks creates scents not to be spritzed onto your skin but diffused into the air. “In Emirati culture, it’s very common to use scent as a sign of hospitality,” she says. “It’s very ritualistic but also a sign of the strong reverence for natural materials.” Having moved from Australia to the UAE in 2014, her travels in the Middle East have inspired the scents that form the basis of Appellation today.

“Frankincense is one that I discovered and fell in love with while living here,” she says with relish. “This region is all about potent aromas: agalwood, oud and bakhoor [scented wood chips]. They are very pungent, aromatic scents that are becoming more common as people start to understand their beauty.”
arcadiabyamna.com; anfascollection.com; appellation.co

Meet your makers

Latifa Saeed
Artist and product designer

Emirati artist and product designer Latifa Saeed anchors her work in her native uae and its often overlooked craft and heritage. “It’s important to document our identity and reflect on what is happening in this moment,” she says, as she shows Monocle around her studio in Dubai’s Ras Al Khor neighbourhood.

As we tour her workshop on the ground floor, one material immediately stands out: sand. Saeed has gathered more than 250 containers of it from across the uae, with samples sourced everywhere, from the desert to the sea. “Sand has been around for eight billion years and holds a lot of stories,” she says. “With all of the construction that is happening right now, we will have less access to the desert in the future. This is one way of documenting it, honouring it and capturing the landscape.”

Saeed collaborated with scientists in order to research the properties of sand in the uae. As a third-generation Emirati artist, she knows how crucial it is to have support from the community and has launched her own residency programme with the aim of helping other emerging creatives. “Twice a year we gather in the studio and discuss topics relating to art, business and sustainability,” she says.

As for what comes next, Saeed is hoping to continue putting Emirati heritage on the map. “I’m interested in the documentation and accessing of personal archives,” she says. “There are families who have private records and I want to help create publications and show them to the public.”
latifasaeed.com

Adam and Viara Nicholson
Co-founders, Plyconcept

“We like going into people’s homes and being part of their lives,” says Adam Nicholson, who launched sustainable furniture brand Plyconcept in 2020 with his partner, Viara. Every piece that it makes – ranging from sideboards and credenzas to playful coat hangers and Christmas decorations – is handmade from responsibly sourced and formaldehyde-free Baltic birch, which is treated with water-based sealants and stainers to limit harmful chemicals. “I wanted to create something that revolved around the basics and that wasn’t plastered with veneers or toxic materials,” says Viara, who was born in Bahrain and has a Milanese design background, as she shows Monocle around the Plyconcept factory.

One of the advantages of a handmade furniture range is that it is highly customisable, which means that the team can easily adapt its products to clients’ requests. “That is something that has really made a difference to people,” says Adam, who was born and raised in Dubai. “They find a product that they like – and if it’s not quite right, we can change it.”

The team works out of a studio in the city’s industrial Al Quoz neighbourhood. Here, Viara sketches out and designs every item before Adam heads to the joinery at the back of the building to make the pieces with the assistance of their small team of skilled carpenters and joiners. “We don’t outsource production,” says Viara. “Everything is done by our team right here. When we tell people that our furniture is made in Dubai, we really do mean it.”
plyconcept.ae

Nicole Farrelly
Founder, Cole & Cinder

Nicole Farrelly moved to the UAE from the UK more than 10 years ago and founded Cole & Cinder in 2020. After she started several businesses, which ranged from creating kimonos to making hand-woven baskets, Cole & Cinder was her way of bringing her design ideas together under a single brand.

Farrelly creates her handmade pieces at OKA Ceramics, a fetching public studio where resident artists rub shoulders with enthusiastic amateurs. Her ceramics often reflect nature; ribbed lines of clay balance on top of each other, subtly evoking the contours of a topographic map.

Her Fossil collection leaves the clay untreated, while the Silk range uses fine, twice-glazed porcelain with a glossy finish. “The neutral tones accentuate the complexity of the shapes,” says Farrelly. “The texture helps to make them the showpiece.”

The vases and bowls have been hugely popular with Emirati and Saudi collectors, says Farrelly, whose handcrafted approach means that every piece is a one-of-a-kind work. “The coiled element is now my signature, which people are beginning to recognise.”

Her larger works have become a favourite of interior designers who are looking for evocative and unique objects to bring spaces to life. Her fans have included designer Nada Debs, who has a cluster of Cole & Cinder pieces displayed on her built-in shelves at home. Farrelly’s is a talent that needs to be handled with care.
coleandcinder.com

Rabah Saeid
Founder, Styled Habitat

Interior designer Rabah Saeid moved from the US to the uae in 2012. After working for large architectural firms for several years, she was ready for the next step in her career. In 2016 she launched interior design practice Styled Habitat, based in Dubai’s D3 Design District. “I was missing the collaborative small-studio environment, which is more inspiring and challenging,” she says.

The studio employs a team of eight. Saeid’s aesthetic is simple and high-end. “I like to work with honest materials that improve with time,” she says. “If I use stone the sheen will soften, leather will patina and lacquered items will age beautifully.” She also likes to evoke a sense of nostalgia, something that she believes has struck a chord with clients in the uae, where many spaces are modern. “We’re so hungry for that feeling because we’re such a new city.”

The cosmopolitanism of the uae has benefited Saeid, as no two clients are alike. “Their backgrounds, education and where they have lived varies so much that they reference places all over the world and that’s exciting,” she says. “When your skyline is so new, it can feel a little soulless. But if you make things feel attainable and approachable while using simple materials, it can be beautiful.”
styledhabitat.com

Aljoud Lootah
Founder, Aljoud Lootah Design Studio

Emirati designer Aljoud Lootah’s knack for distilling cultural references into functional forms has earned her acclaim from around the world. “We have been fortunate enough to tour international design fairs,” she says. “In doing so, we have opened up a world of opportunities – collaborating with manufacturers using materials from Carrara marble to porcelain from Stoke-on-Trent.”

The shelves in Lootah’s studio present just a fraction of the work that’s done here. The breadth of materials and forms can make the studio’s specific design language hard to gauge. “We’ll work with any material or form, as long as we’re confident that it can be precisely executed,” says Lootah. Previous works include a camel-leather chest, which was chosen by the uae government to house the title deed to the country’s first church, before being given to Pope Francis.

Perhaps her best-known design is the Takya bench, a pared-back piece with four layers of cushions. “It’s quintessentially Emirati and plays on the tendency of children here to stack up rectangular cushions to build play areas,” says Lootah. Her references might be domestic but her work is being appreciated in all corners of the country: even the ministry of presidential affairs has one.
aljoudlootah.com

Culture club

There’s something symbiotic about the crisp lines of Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal’s white kandura (ROBE) and the minimalist architecture of Concrete, a high-ceilinged warehouse designed by Rem Koolhaas’s OMA that occupies a central space in Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue. Concrete is one of a series of warehouses – some original, some built later – in this former industrial complex that has become a beacon for the creative industries in the UAE, spearheaded by its founder. But Alserkal, who has an infectious laugh that echoes around Concrete’s interior, is quick to credit his staff. “We share the same spirit,” he says. “These are not my team; they are my family. We are creative, we think outside the box and we might be slightly on the crazy side.”

Alserkal says that his earliest memories were of escaping into different worlds as he leafed through the pages of books filled with paintings by the Old Masters. A combination of passion and opportunity led the arts patron and businessman to open Alserkal Avenue in 2008. Located on the site of an old marble factory in the Al Quoz neighbourhood, it’s flanked by dusty streets populated by a network of workshops, garages and poorly signposted businesses. Alserkal set about transforming the area, welcoming galleries, institutions and foundations. Nowadays the Avenue is often buzzing with festivals, music performances or outdoor film screenings in the winter months when temperatures allow.

The space continues to evolve as businesses, from architecture firms to cafés, move in. The family also established the philanthropic Alserkal Arts Foundation in 2019. But Alserkal is once again keen to point out that nothing would have been possible without the effort of his international team, who hail from everywhere from Egypt to Lithuania. “There was an opportunity to fill a gap,” he says of the Avenue’s beginnings. “But it was the team who shaped the vision and made it what it is today.”

From left to right in the above image:

1.
Vilma Jurkute
Executive Director, Alserkal Initiatives
“The driving force behind Alserkal’s evolution and our unconventional approach for 12 years.”

2.
Saadia Zahid
Project director
“She keeps us all on time and within budget. Not all heroes wear capes.”

3.
Gilda Gilantash
Director of events, programming and partnerships
“With 17 years of experience, our events are iconic because of her.”

4.
Nada Raza
Director, Alserkal Arts Foundation
“An alternative-learning advocate and defender of the artists’ perspective.”

5.
Sandy Zavzavadjian
Head of brand and design
“A creative force: from redefining our brand to designing her own jewellery.”

6.
Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal
Founder, Alserkal Initiatives
Bin Eisa Alserkal founded Alserkal Initiatives in 2007, a year before the Avenue opened, and he has been helping transform the cultural landscape of the UAE ever since.
“To have the opportunity to be part of the cultural legacy of my home city is a blessing,” he says.

7.
Caroline White
Executive assistant
“All activities coming from the executive office start with Caroline.”

8.
Uzma Irtiza
Director, finance and operations
“A full-time financial guru. She’s always the first to arrive and the last to leave.”

9.
Fiza Akram
Director, Alserkal Advisory
“Leading the Alserkal cultural agenda beyond the avenue.”

10.
Basmah El Bittar
Director, community relations
“Makes our community what it is today.”

11. Kevin Jones
Director of strategy
“He has been instrumental in defining our brand, ethos and direction.”

+
Reshma Mehra (not pictured)
Deputy director, Alserkal Initiatives
“She keeps our creative energy high and our engine running day in, day out.”

I wish I’d known

1.
Scott Chambers
Surfing Dubai

What it does:
The Sharjah-born entrepreneur’s watersports company offers rentals, repairs and lessons, from surfing to paddle-boarding, as well as the Single Fin Café.

What he wishes he’d known:
“I was young when we first launched. Starting a surfing company in the desert was uncharted territory. The idea of betting the kitchen sink on it and trying things that might not work was intimidating in the early years. I didn’t realise that there would be failures along the way and, out of the 50 things that I would try, only one or two might really stick. Be bold enough to follow through.”
surfingdubai.com

2.
Jane Harvey
Savii

What it does:
Scottish-born Harvey has co-founded a financial platform – a banking app and card – for young people over 13 years of age across the Mena region.

What she wishes she’d known:
“Focus on the customers. Satisfaction from consumers should always be at the core of a business. Continue to gather feedback, both good and bad, adapt and pivot the product to people’s needs and go above and beyond when it comes to service. Fall in love with your customers, not the product. If they’re happy, they will become your biggest advocates.”
saviibanking.com

3.
Hussain Moloobhoy
Sole

What it does:
Sole is a live entertainment and media platform that connects commerce and culture. It started as a blog by three friends but is now the region’s foremost experiential, brand-building company.

What he wishes he’d known:
“Don’t sacrifice parts of your life for success. Too often, entrepreneurs focus on their careers and wealth but striking a balance is key.”
sole.digital

4.
Alamira Noor Bani Hashim
The Dinner Club by No57

What it does:
With her business partner, Buthaina Al Mazrui, Abu Dhabi-born entrepreneur Hashim founded a brand hosting supper clubs in 2012; they also run a café.

What she wishes she’d known:
“I was daring. We never took no for an answer and truly believed that anything was possible. However, having the right team is one of the most important aspects of any business.”
no57.co

5.
Mark Chahwan
Sarwa

What it does:
The Lebanese-Canadian analyst co-founded a financial platform that allows you to trade, save and invest all in one place.

What he wishes he’d known:
“It’s important to keep things simple as you grow, as fintech is still a complex area to navigate. There are many things that are still being developed and this can create a lot of admin. Ideally you would have one company to serve the same market.”
sarwa.co

6.
Div Turakhia
Media.net

What it does:
Mumbai-raised entrepreneur Turakhia is a UAE-based investor behind several companies including Media.net, from which he stepped down as CEO in 2019. Under his watch, he built Media.net to be one of the world’s largest online advertising businesses. It was sold in 2016 for $900m (€858m).

What he wishes he’d known:
“A great idea works well in a film but in real life it’s never the main thing: it’s basically about how to operate more efficiently and make something better, rather than the thing itself. It’s the many little things that you do every day, not the one turning point. Keep moving the ship forward and you learn more from it; this allows you to create more value. That’s what makes the difference.

People who are around you might have your best interests at heart but you must also consider that the things that they’re saying come from their own personal experience and might or might not apply to you. Every business that I’ve run fails every day until it doesn’t. When you start out, there are many things that work and many that don’t. It’s never about something super strategic; it’s a lot of things that you need to put in place. Eventually, with time, the compounding effect creates significant value.

Every country has an advantage. As an entrepreneur you have to identify the advantages that you need to run your business. In the UAE, we can get high-quality talent from around the world who understand how to build something in this geography. The UAE is like a start-up and it knows that it’s young compared to other countries. That means being nimble to change and open to feedback. It’s looking for things to replicate from around the world; you have to iterate and see where it goes.”
media.net

7.
Jay Sadiq
FortyGuard

What it does:
Founded by Sadiq in 2020 in Abu Dhabi, FortyGuard is a technology start-up that uses AI to provide detailed outdoor-temperature insights to help reduce street-level heat.

What he wishes he’d known:
“I wish that I had been forewarned about the emotional roller-coaster ride of entrepreneurship. The highs are exciting but the lows can be equally profound. It’s essential to build a robust support system and always remember the ‘why’ behind your venture. That becomes really important during challenging times.”
fortyguard.com

8.
Hind Al Mulla
Home Bakery

What it does:
The Emirati owner and director is behind Dubai’s Home Bakery, a venue with a focus on local ingredients. Al Mulla recently added to the stable with café Home Bakery Kitchen, opening in Abu Dhabi’s Marina Mall.

What she wishes she’d known:
“Keep going because it gets easier. At one point I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel because I was taking on more than I could handle. But we made it in the end.”
homebakery.ae

9.
Ammar Kalor
Kalo

What it does:
Kalo is a designer and architect. His eponymous firm focuses on the relationship between digital technology and traditional craft. He is also a faculty member of the American University of Sharjah.

What he wishes he’d known:
“Start small. Why? Because having a narrow focus forces entrepreneurs to really dig into what makes their business special and introduce its most fundamental essence in its first offerings, whether it’s a service or product.”
ammarkalo.com

10.
Izu Ani
YSeventy7

What it does:
Nigeria-born, Dubai-based Ani, known as “Chef Izu”, is a household name, having been head chef at restaurants such as La Petite Maison and La Serre Bistro & Boulangerie. He has set up several restaurants, including Fika, and is the founder of YSeventy7, a consultancy specialising in F&B.

What he wishes he’d known:
“We can’t pour from an empty cup. It’s so important to make time for yourself, hit the reset button and clear your mind. I cycle every morning; my time on the bike is my meditation and it sets me up for the day.”
yseventy7.com

11.
Murshed Mohamed Ahmed
Drivu

What it does:
Ahmed is the co-founder of a company whose technology helps restaurants and coffee shops to have a drive-through facility. It currently works with about 1,000 other businesses around the UAE.

What he wishes he’d known:
“Observing market changes is vital. For example, between about 2010 and 2014 there was a big movement towards smartphones and this led to a lot of behavioural changes. Observing these market changes and then taking the necessary steps will make or break you.”
drivu.co

12.
Anna Seaman
Morrow Collective

What it does: Seaman, originally from the UK, is the co-founder of Morrow Collective, an art consultancy founded in 2021 specialising in NFTs.

What she wishes she’d known:
“Make sure that you are set up to handle growth. It sounds odd but if you grow too quickly, it’s as hard as if you don’t grow at all. This is a country where circumstances can change rapidly – like everything else.”
morrow-collective.com

13.
Yasmin Atassi
Green Art Gallery

What it does: Atassi is the director of Green Art Gallery, one of the first galleries in the UAE, which launched in Dubai in 1995. Atassi has been at the helm since the venue relaunched as a contemporary art gallery on Alserkal Avenue in 2010.

What she wishes she’d known: “You need to have some kind of vision and play the long game. You can create the content that you want and people will eventually follow, whether that’s through sales or artists joining the gallery.”
gagallery.com

14.
Rachael Brown
Capsule Arts

What it does:
Brown is the co-founder and creative director of Dubai-based arts consultancy Capsule Arts. Established in 2012, the consultancy specialises in designing and producing art and accessory packages for commercial design projects. With a team of more than 30, Capsule Arts also works in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait and as far afield as the Seychelles and Uganda.

What she wishes she’d known:
“Try to do yourself out of a job. What I mean is: you need to become a business owner rather than simply someone who has a job in your own business. About four or five years into establishing Capsule Arts, we started to have that change of mindset; if the business requires you to be there on a day-to-day basis, you have a job and not a business. It’s important from day one to have that in your strategy. How do I replace myself so I can focus on the business?

If you are going to have an investor, make sure that you’re aligned on things beyond finances. What does that investor do for you beyond just putting up some capital? How will they propel you or help you grow? We had a business partner and bought them out early on and wished that there had been more synergy.

HR is one of the big challenges. What we do is so niche and there are no issues hiring fresh-to-the-table graduates, but bringing someone in who has leadership experience is harder. You need to be constantly hiring and looking for the right people. You might suddenly land two projects and have to double the size of your team.”
capsulearts.com

15.
Adam Ridgeway
One Moto

What it does:
Pioneers two-wheeled electric vehicles in the GCC region. Ridgeway, the CEO, has helped to raise $190m (€181m) in asset financing and launched numerous model types along the way. After initially being founded in the UK, it officially launched in the UAE in 2020.

What he wishes he’d known:
“It was a long road from setting up my first company at 16 and establishing my company in the UAE aged 28. If you find something that you love, give it as much as you can for as long as possible and that will lead to success. Being an entrepreneur is a spirit – you need tenacity, self-confidence and a bit of ego in the early years.”
one-moto.com

16.
Stasha Toncev
21grams

What it does:
Toncev, who has a background in marketing, hospitality and events, started contemporary Balkan restaurant 21grams, which opened in Dubai in 2018.

What she wishes she’d known:
“Stay true to your values and purpose. Remember that you don’t have to do everything by yourself. It’s perfectly alright to lean on others when you need it. As founder, it’s only natural to want to oversee every aspect of your business. But building close ties with your team and community, whether it’s through delegation or simply reaching out for assistance, not only lightens your workload but also nurtures a more collaborative and thriving environment.”
21grams.me

17.
Grace Hauser
Oda Concepts

What it does:
Hauser is the founder of Oda Concepts, a boutique creative consultancy with a global reach. She has also been director of Dubai’s XVA Gallery and Hotel since 2020.

What she wishes she’d known:
“Slow and progressive growth is really important. Don’t get overly zealous with plans and ambitions. You always need to keep your eyes on where you want to go and work towards what that initial goal was – even though things can of course change.”
odaconcepts.com

18.
Ladi Delano
Moove Africa

What it does:
Co-founder and CEO Delano oversees a company that provides vehicle financing to ride-hailing drivers in sub-Saharan Africa. He lives in the UAE.

What he wishes he’d known:
“Start-up founders have the ability to visualise something that doesn’t exist today. If you go into a room and say, ‘This is my vision,’ 90 per cent of people will tell you that they don’t see it and won’t end up supporting you. So being able to continue to push on and believe in your ideas is a powerful force.”
moove.io

19.
Mohamad Orfali
Orfali Bros

What it does:
Orfali, originally from Aleppo, is the chef behind Orfali Bros restaurant, an establishment that has won numerous accolades and regularly appears in “best of” lists. He founded the restaurant with his two brothers, Wassim and Omar.

What he wishes he’d known:
“Dubai is not an easy city; competition in the F&B space is very high and there are at least 20,000 restaurants here. So start with the right concept that fits the market and blends well.”
orfalibros.com

20.
Ahmad AlMuhassin
Villa Aumédan

What it does:
Villa Aumédan is a concept shop featuring art, emerging regional design, flowers and coffee. Ahmad AlMuhassin is its founder and creative director and his sister Noura is managing director.

What he wishes he’d known:
“I wish I had been more aware of the abundant opportunities available to local entrepreneurs in the UAE. From financial support and tailored strategy plans to expertly crafted business plans and marketing assistance, the ecosystem here is brimming with resources.”

Notice boards

Sheikh Zayed Road is the Dubai stretch of the E11, the UAE’s longest motorway, which stretches from the Saudi Arabian border all the way to Oman’s Musandam peninsula. It is also a rather large advertising opportunity that is constantly pulsing with traffic, as people commute back and forth between Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah. Every big-name advertiser worth its salt wants a presence here – if it can afford it. “It’s the most important road in the Middle East,” says Smitta Ozha, CEO of Dubai-based outdoor advertising company Media247. “There are 600,000 to 700,000 cars a day on it.”

While online advertising is the industry’s largest segment in the region, its outdoor equivalent remains a hard-to-ignore component when it comes to capturing people’s attention when phones are away. According to a 2022 report by Ipsos, about 22 per cent of the UAE’s total advertising spend goes on outdoor spots. Drive along busy roads and you’ll notice giant hoardings announcing the latest mobile-phone packages or fast-food deals; there are giant images of “sneakers like no others” and alluring renderings of properties with ad copy promising that you too could “wake up to this view every day”. It’s simple stuff but that’s deliberate. “You just need five seconds to deliver the message and the rest can go on digital,” says Joe Lahham, managing director of Dubai-based agency TBWARAAD. “You just want to entice the conversation.”

That’s not to say that there isn’t any innovation in the realm of outdoor advertising. Brands are becoming increasingly creative with the format, making use of building wraps and even taxis (Media247 offers ad space on 4,500 Dubai taxis), alongside giant hoardings and smaller unipole billboards. Digital outdoor screens are also getting smarter in engaging audiences (as well as gauging their reactions and interactions), employing tools such as QR codes. Given that it is an easy medium to tweak, digital allows advertisers to move into what Lahham rather ominously refers to as “specific targeting and geofencing”. In other words, a message can be adapted to suit the interests of different communities or neighbourhoods, with one for, say, Deira and another for Al Ain.

Probably the UAE’s most cutting-edge outdoor advertising campaign in recent years was led by TBWARAAD, not long after the Louvre Abu Dhabi was inaugurated in 2017. The museum wanted to raise awareness and increase footfall in a part of the world where attendance at such institutions is far from a given. “We said, ‘What if, on the highway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where a gazillion trips happen daily, we could increase awareness, educate people and bring the museum to them while they are driving?’” says Lahham. Motorway billboards showed images of key pieces from the museum’s permanent collection and drivers were asked to tune in to an FM frequency that would give a commentary on every artwork, organised in such a way that it would change as each motorist reached a new billboard. Now that’s what we call driving the conversation.

Toon town

Mohammed Saeed Harib was working in marketing and dreaming of bigger things when he got his break. Harib, who had studied arts and animation in Boston, had recently returned to the uae with sketches of characters drawn from the culture of his homeland. But he wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. “We grew up watching Japanese and Western dubbed shows,” he says. “Nobody knew how to make an Arab animation.” That was about to change.

Harib founded Lammtara Studio in 2005. Based in a warehouse in Dubai’s Al Quoz area, a formerly industrial neighbourhood that now houses a host of creative companies, it is initially difficult to locate. There are no signs outside and a nearby business points Monocle in the wrong direction (at one point, we find ourselves in a yoga studio that’s full of people doing the downward dog). Once we finally make it through the internal car park and into the offices, Harib, dressed in a sparkling-white kandura, greets us and tells us more about his backstory.

Though his ideas were initially quite raw, they were exciting enough to grab the attention of Abdulhamid Juwa, the then-head of Dubai Media City, in whose marketing department Harib had been working. Juwa encouraged him to develop his characters into an animated series and seek funding. What followed was a challenging five-year process that tested Harib’s entrepreneurial skills and powers of persuasion. Doors were hard to open as it was an expensive idea in a country without much of an animation industry. He also didn’t have any relevant experience.

“I hadn’t directed anything,” says Harib. “I was in marketing. So people would ask me, ‘Why should we give you that kind of money? Where is your team? Do you even know how to direct? Do you have a business plan?’”

However, Harib’s perseverance paid off and he secured funding from the Dubai sme organisation and local telecoms giant Du, which agreed to sponsor the first three seasons of his comedy show, Freej (meaning “Neighbourhood”). “It’s one thing to get the loan and cover your costs but it’s another thing to prove that you’re an artist and for the programme to go on to be a cultural phenomenon,” he tells Monocle.

Harib isn’t exaggerating when he says that Freej, which first aired on Dubai TV in 2006, was a phenomenon. It resonated not just with Emirati audiences and those in the region but also with people further afield. “It went to Japan, becoming the first-ever Arabic animation there,” he says, proud of exporting his work to a market whose animations he avidly consumed as a child.

Freej‘s success largely comes down to the characters that Harib finessed over the show’s five-year incubation period. It focuses on the lives of four Emirati grandmothers, all of whom wear traditional burqas that accentuate their large eyes. Harib felt that such women’s stories were seldom told and, when they were, they were often misrepresented. “The grandmother was never portrayed in the right way,” he says. So he decided to celebrate them for their strength, wisdom and quirks.

The leader of the quartet is Um Saeed (“Saeed’s mother”), who is a coffee addict and likes to recite poetry to her friends. Um Saloom, meanwhile, suffers from memory loss. Then there’s Um Allawi, who is tech-savvy and speaks several languages. The final member is Um Khammas, the most rebellious of the grandmothers, who has been widowed three times.

Harib hopes that his show will one day be viewed as an Emirati answer to Disney’s Mickey Mouse cartoons but The Simpsons might be a better comparison, given its appeal to multiple generations, serving up adult jokes while aiming at 15-to-35-year-olds. The release of Freej was also a watershed moment in the uae, where presenting women as leading characters in films or TV series was previously considered taboo. Harib says that he probably only got away with it because it was animated. “We used to glorify our grandfathers who go on pearl-diving trips [but] never talked about the mothers who stayed and raised these kids who are now astronauts and ministers.”

Over the course of the show’s five seasons, Harib helped to build an animation industry in the uae from the ground up. Story writing and both pre- and post- production were done in-house, while the studio looked overseas for the large numbers of staff that it needed to provide the animation firepower (many of Freej‘s team of about 500 were hired from Singapore).

The show has been off the air for 10 years now but the grandmothers certainly haven’t gone away. Judging by the merchandise strewn all over Lammtara Studio, they are alive and kicking. Indeed, they have gone on to feature in a safety video for Fly Dubai, one of the projects that Harib has subsequently worked on, alongside the likes of culture-focused television series Mandoos (“Treasure Box”) and a segment in Roger Allers’ animated film The Prophet.

Harib has also moved into other fields. He produced the mascots for the Dubai Expo and made a foray into live-action film-making with the 2019 comedy Rashid & Rajab, produced by Image Nation. “I diversified because I wanted to learn,” he says. “From everything that you create, you can take a small bit of knowledge and mix it with something else that you’re creating.”

Despite all of the other work, Harib acknowledges that he has never quite escaped the success of Freej, which he jokes probably came too early in his career. As we talk, he drops a bombshell: the animation will be returning for a new season during Ramadan in 2024 on regional streaming giant Shahid, giving it a chance to resonate with a whole new generation of viewers. “I’m a bit rusty but the team has been over the moon,” he says, grinning. “They have been itching to do the show.”
lammtarastudio.com

In on the action

The devastation in front of us is overwhelming. Cars have been reduced to charred shells, signs have been ripped from shopfronts and buildings are skeletons with exposed columns. Bits of flooring dangle perilously over the street below. There are piles of rubble everywhere we turn. Except, on closer inspection, the grey chunks turn out to be made from painted Styrofoam rather than concrete. “Movie magic!” says Derek Hall, with a grin.

We are not actually in the middle of a war-torn city. Instead, we’re out in the United Arab Emirates’ scrubby desert, roughly a 20-minute drive from Abu Dhabi, at one of five outdoor standing sets in a backlot belonging to multimedia company Twofour54. Hall, an affable Australian who is the firm’s acting chief of studios, has been charged with giving Monocle a tour of the 300,000 sq m complex.

We jump in an electric buggy with Hall at the wheel. In the back is a cooler loaded with ice-cold bottles of water to keep us hydrated in the intensifying morning heat. We gently manoeuvre our way around the different worlds. One moment we’re on the streets of Mumbai; the next we’re in the warren-like alleys of old Damascus, which with a few tweaks could easily look like Venice. At a set known as The Crossroads, we’re shown the spot where a gas truck flipped over a tank in the Bollywood movie Tiger Zinda Hai, causing a huge explosion. We pass a covered prop from Hollywood film Dune: Part Two, which was partly filmed in Abu Dhabi. The backlot, meanwhile, has welcomed productions including Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

The backlot is the epicentre of the uae’s bid to be a major player in the film business, as it seeks to attract foreign talent while cranking up its own content too. In terms of the latter, the market is growing rapidly – both the uae and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, where cinemas were only reintroduced in 2018, are set to join the top-10 moviegoing markets by 2030. Coupled with the uae’s desire to diversify its economy, the creative industries are set to play an ever more prominent role.

However, we have not seen everything yet. Hall points to a chunk of desert beyond a chain-link fence, opposite a building housing the backlot’s one existing soundstage. It’s here that Twofour54 will soon break ground on a new studio set to rival those of Europe and the US. Due for completion by 2025, it will have a further 10 soundstages and six standing sets. Its rather breathless PR blurb describes it as a “futureproof, virtual-production-ready, metaverse-enabled and fully fledged production destination”. What’s clear is that its aspirations are global.

“We see ourselves as really trying to put Abu Dhabi on the map,” says Twofour54’s towering British CEO, Mark Whitehead. “We are focused on developing a large studio that can be world-class, with a size and scale that can attract Hollywood, Bollywood or big European films to be based here for a longer period.” In other words, instead of productions coming to the backlot to film a smattering of scenes over a few weeks, the uae is hoping to lure them to come to film in the country from the start of a picture to the finish.

We have left the desert behind for the welcome air-conditioning of the company’s headquarters on Yas Island. Here, Twofour54 hosts a much bigger project within a vast complex of metal-and-glass buildings dominated by four towers. Completed in 2022, its Yas Creative Hub is essentially an incubator for television, film, media and gaming, and includes podcast-recording studios and television production sets. About 1,000 freelancers are based in Yas, many of whom use a co-working space where a neon sign declares, “Ignite your spark.” There are some 800 companies and organisations on campus, from CNN and Vice to the Korean Cultural Center.

“We have a very clear mandate to develop and grow the industry,” says Whitehead. “We create the support across the board and that’s everything from office space and community-hub areas to television studios, film studios and the backlot.” The firm is both a provider of facilities and a facilitator of other services. Its Tawasol agency, for example, helps to book flights and hotels for crews, as well as tackling any paperwork should you wish to, say, flip a truck over a tank and blow it up.

There are obvious economic benefits to encouraging foreign productions to come and spend time in the uae. As in several other places around the globe, tax incentives play their part – Abu Dhabi offers a 30 per cent cashback on production spend. This is based on the assumption that the money will be recuperated through trickle-down benefits for the likes of taxi drivers, hotels and restaurants who will all have more work as a result.

But jump-starting local industry has its own set of benefits too. Film is a big soft-power tool for a nation that wants to have a bigger role on the world stage. Just as the US brought stonewash jeans and the American Dream to the world through Hollywood, so the uae wants the chance to tell its own stories on a global platform. Getting the industry to where it is today has admittedly happened in fits and starts. Some lament the fact that the future studio wasn’t built earlier (Saudi Arabia has now got in on the act, having announced in 2022 its own mega-complex, near the city of AlUla), or the fact that the Dubai International Film Festival, which was a beacon for the region, ended after the 2017 edition. But the uae seems determined to look forward rather than back.

A turning point for uae film was 2021’s Al Kameen (“The Ambush”), a sort of Emirati Black Hawk Down, which tells the true story of a rescue mission to save uae soldiers trapped in an ambush in Yemen. The most successful uae film ever, it was produced by government-backed production company Image Nation, which is based on the same floor as Twofour54 at Yas Creative Hub.

For former Hollywood studio executive Derek Dauchy, Image Nation’s head of content, the film could be “a tide that raises all ships” – a real watershed moment. “That became the new standard for us,” he says at his office, which is covered with posters from recent productions. “If we’re going to do a large-budget action film, it’s got to be like that – we have established the bar. Every time out, we have to do better.”

Dauchy says that there are clearly financial benefits to producing films that might pique the interests of international tourists enough to visit the uae for its landscapes or cultural offerings. But at the end of the day, he’s about content. “I look at this as a similar sort of golden age to the one that Hollywood went through,” he says. “This is a very young country; there’s a whole new generation of film-makers who want to tell authentic stories from the region.”

A homegrown industry is nothing without talent, something that almost everyone we talk to agrees is not quite there yet. But Dauchy says that this is changing, thanks to people gaining valuable experience at Hollywood or Bollywood shoots on Twofour54’s backlot, as well as Image Nation’s Arab Film Studio (AFS), which trains the next generation of talent through courses and workshops.

Dauchy says that more than 350 film-makers have emerged over the past 11 years. He cites an example of a recently completed uae film that he won’t name. He says that the idea came from an afs writing programme; the screenplay was then written by an afs graduate and a novice female film-maker was given the task of shooting a scene. Image Nation was so pleased with the results that it drew up a budget and handed her the entire film to make.

Abu Dhabi-based film-maker Nancy Paton, originally from Australia, agrees that experience is the key to the future of the uae’s film industry. Paton is something of a rarity in the Emirates: an indie film-maker reliant on private funders. Though there are some limited funds, such as a short-film grant from Sharjah Art Foundation, Paton thinks that helping get independent film off the ground is something that the country can and will improve on in coming years.

Paton’s Desert Rose Films tells unusual stories from the region with the goal of getting more women into the industry. She has recently wrapped up a new feature called Mountain Boy, a family-friendly movie about an autistic boy’s adventures, filmed in Fujairah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It was also the debut of female director Zainab Shaheen. Though she won’t give too much away, Paton says that there is going to be a further government push in entertainment soon, calling it “an exciting time for talent”.

However, alongside any support at the top, Paton argues that there needs to be a mentality switch away from solely thinking in terms of big-budget blockbusters. “We need to make a lot of medium-budget films to sustain the ecosystem of the film industry, constantly driving the whole machine,” she says. With such a goal, the uae could be making more films and potentially employing thousands of production staff every year.

“We’re working with local film-makers,” says Image Nation’s Derek Dauchy, back in his poster-filled office. “And the goal is that they can tell their kids, ‘Hey, getting into the entertainment business here is a real job now.’” One gets the feeling that this is an industry that’s only getting started.

Sartorial start-ups

Sole goals
Tamashee

Mohammed Kazim’s knowledge of the Emirates is encyclopaedic. Ask him anything about petroglyphs, the history of the pearl trade or an obscure local recipe and the chances are that he will have an answer. As co-founder of Tamashee, a Dubai-based brand making sandals worn across the region, he’s also making strides in the commercial world.

“When we looked at old pictures of sheikhs in the UAE and around the Gulf, they were always wearing these,” he says, gesturing to his sought-after sandals. Tamashee was launched by Kazim and co-founder Muneera Al-Tamimi in 2013 to bring back the traditional silhouette of the sandal with comfort and style. Featuring soft leather and bold colours, from fuchsia to olive or mustard, these items of footwear for men and women work just as well on a beach in Bali or the cobbled lanes of Mykonos as they do in the UAE.

Kazim takes inspiration from his country’s mountains, oases and coastline, each of which has given birth to its own cultures, patterns and visual elements that have made their way onto Tamashee’s sandals. Different collections feature subtle design choices based on the regional topography and even movements from tribal dances, along with the year of production in the Islamic Hijri calendar, which is stamped onto each pair. Many designs include a metal ring used to hold the sandal’s uppers to the outsoles, a nod to the rings traditionally used to tie khanjar (daggers) around the waist.

While Tamashee’s first products were manufactured in Spain, production has now moved to the UAE. “Our quality standards are even better than before,” Kazim tells Monocle with pride. He’s now looking to expand across the region. “We have a huge diversity of topography and culture in the UAE, even though it’s just a small country,” he says. “Imagine how much diversity there is across the entire Arabian Peninsula. That’s what inspires us and pushes us forward.”
tamashee.com

Bags of potential
L’Afshar

L’Afshar knows a thing or two about how to make a statement through simplicity. The handbags and accessories brand, founded in Dubai in 2014 by British-Iranian Lilian Afshar, has been propelled to global popularity due to its innovative use of a maligned medium: acrylic. “There’s something very interesting about acrylic because it’s not traditional,” says Afshar, as she shows Monocle around her workshop and showroom in Al Quoz, one of Dubai’s industrial neighbourhoods. “Each time I feel as if I’m taking a raw jewel and sculpting it into an eye-catching accessory.”

There’s an almost architectural approach to the design of each handbag: boxy shapes are complemented by unexpected textures and the combination of acrylic with either metal or leather. “I’m inspired by the mid-century aesthetic and the art nouveau period,” says Afshar.

It’s unsurprising, then, that the brand’s playful approach to classic styles stretched into homeware in 2020 as L’Afshar Studio. “It was about extending my love for acrylic into homeware,” Afshar says. “It complements my universe and helps people understand the brand better.” She is also proud of her sustainable credentials. “I make sure that any waste is repurposed into something else. A lot of the off-cuts we have from the acrylic sheets are turned into coasters, for example.”

As the label approaches its 10th anniversary, Afshar is gearing up to open a bricks-and-mortar retail space in Dubai. “Being in a place where growth has been the main factor over the past 40 years makes you push boundaries,” she says. “This is a city that inspires you as a designer.”
lafshar.com

Multicultural visions
Qasimi

Fashion can be ephemeral but what we wear can also be a powerful tool for dialogue and connection: that’s the ethos behind the brand Qasimi. “It’s really about being inclusive and bringing people together,” says Hoor Al-Qasimi, creative director of the eponymous label and president of the Sharjah Art Foundation. The brand was founded by her twin brother Khalid in 2015; when he passed away in 2019, Hoor took over. “It was important to continue his vision: designing for an urban nomad going between Sharjah and London.”

Their upbringing between the two cities informs designs in the mens and womenswear lines. Nods to traditional Arab drapes and woven handbags are found across the collection. “We’re rooted in multiculturalism,” says Hoor. “Sharjah is a very mixed society. It’s not just about Arab heritage; I grew up next to a lot of Southeast Asian and North African influences too.”

This year, Hoor launched Qasimi Rising, an incubator programme for emerging talent. “The idea was to create a community to support young designers with mentorship,” she says. “For London Fashion Week, we shared our slot with the mentees. All of us showed designs there, rather than just Qasimi. That can make a big difference.”
qasimi.com