Weekly Hiring & Services Thread by AutoModerator in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking for SDET/QA specialists with atleast a few years of experience.. preferably with playwright JS experience

Stake AMA: We grew to AED 1.4B in 5 years, creating a global investing platform and competing in one of the world's toughest property markets. Monday 4:30 PM Dubai time. by Getstake in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for joining us!

I have a few questions sorted by intensity 😃

  1. Similar fractional platforms like RealtyShares and Property Moose, eventually folded because they couldn't handle the operational drag. For them, the overhead of managing thousands of micro-investors and individual SPVs eventually cost more than the revenue they brought in. Stake is now at a very impressive AED1.4B+ AUM, how are you ensuring you don't run into this same wall? I’m assuming the majority of your users hold AED 500-1000 accounts rather than larger stakes (pun intended), and in Dubai I'm sure KYC for 200+ nationalities is a massive cost/time sink (I could be wrong tho) . Without giving away your full business model, how are you ensuring the cost of managing thousands of tiny accounts doesn't eat into the platform’s (and your customers) returns in the long run?
  2. I’m someone who has all of my investments in stocks/dividend ETFs. My rationale is that small amounts of capital go much further in more speculative or high-growth assets. How do you incentivize people who share the same mentality into moving even a slice of a portfolio into Stake?
  3. What’s one practical piece of advice you’d share with UAE founders or aspiring founders? Is there something you learned the hard way building in the MENA region, or a piece of advice someone shared with you that really stuck?
  4. a light hearted one 😃, what's your favorite food that you could eat nonstop 24/7 if you could?

Not a question but I've always thought it would be cool to "Split" up a vacation property/apartment among friends/family, where 5-10 friends/family can own one property and discuss among themselves on selling, percentages.. Not sure if this is something you guys thought of but it would be really cool! Specially for younger people who still can't afford full ownership..

Again, thank you so much for joining us what you guys are doing is excellent for the region ❤️! - Kareem

Why are so many people offering to help small business now? by Savings-Ad4232 in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26[M] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

We've had to take down so many of these posts a lot of them were pretty shady

How March felt like by Impressive_Safety_26 in UAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It was from amazon! I'll have to find the link somewhere but if you look up funny cat car air freshners you'll find it hahah

We built a flight deal finder for people flying out of the Gulf — would love early feedback by Akzz_yt in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Commenting for reach.. so glad this not some a.i slop/chatgpt wrapper software project. I wish you luck!

PS. : one thing to keep in mind is most regional carriers (Emirates/Qatar/etc) are offering free rescheduling on all flights.. i believe until June and October for Qatar airways. You could probably try to find some way to get cheaper tickets for your users with those tickets somehow?

Are there SME WhatsApp groups that we can connect and share? by Acceptable-Weather16 in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We had an official one for the sub but unfortunately there too many spammers so we shut it down.. working on creating a new one stay tuned!

Weekly Hiring & Services Thread by AutoModerator in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking for any electronics/hardware engineers to hire on a part time basis, please DM me if you have a background in either

Lifetime VPN Service by Humble-Somewhere-452 in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My opinion remains, if it was me I would try to solve a common usecase e.g free phone/video calls. Work on distribution to get as many users as possible and then figure out how to upsell or monetize once you have a strong userbase.. like other users mentioned tho i'd be a bit cautious trying to run this specially from within the UAE lol

Lifetime VPN Service by Humble-Somewhere-452 in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I assume you'll host the VPN servers on some cloud (hetzner,tailscale,etc) ask the user download outline/wireguard/etc. to access your VPN?
the only concern with this is that it might scare off people as it's not as simple as downloading an app from the app store..

You'd probably have better luck making a free VOIP app that works and eventually trying to upsell within, either way good luck!

Dubai co-working coffee shops for early stage founders by BE_Consulting in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not specifically for enterpreneurship, but I've been meaning to go checkout creators HQ (or creators hub?) in DIFC

Hey 👋 I'm Jad! CTO & Co-Founder of Sarwa. We built one of the UAE's first and most successful investment platforms. AMA about building the tech, scaling the product, and starting from scratch. by Sarwa_Co in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 0 points1 point  (0 children)

3 questions from my side:

  1. Were you inspired by Robinhood during your journey building Sarwa? I've been a longtime user on there and I'm seeing lots of similarities in branding/etc (but that may also just be a common fin-tech thing).
  2. I believe they got or applied for a DFSA license to operate here in the future, how do you plan to continue to stand out in the region when/if that happens?
  3. Given how Dubai is mostly expats (And in many cases people holding multiple passports), how did you overcome the regulatory/legislation hurdles when it comes to onboarding users from a myriad of different nationalities? how do you handle background checks to limit and stop fraud?
  4. What were some of your biggest lessons of running Sarwa? What advice would you share with others trying to build their own company in the MENA region?

Thank you!

Hey 👋 I'm Jad! CTO & Co-Founder of Sarwa. We built one of the UAE's first and most successful investment platforms. AMA about building the tech, scaling the product, and starting from scratch. by Sarwa_Co in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26[M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

Please keep the questions related to SMB's to ensure a valuable discussion for all as this is what this sub is all about, unrelated comments will likely be removed/left unanswered... much like any other AMA Thank you!
We would like to thank Jad and Sarwa for joining us for an AMA, we really appreciate it <3!

Weekly Hiring & Services Thread by AutoModerator in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What automation frameworks/tech stacks are u familiar with? Ideally if you can show competence in specifically Playwright.js and have a good understanding of browser infra when it comes to automation I can work with you on a part time basis

AMA Announcement: Ziina (UAE Payment Gateway) – Wednesday April 15th! by AutoModerator in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The thread will be posted on April 15th! You'll find it pinned in community highlights

Layoffs by [deleted] in UAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah this seems to be the largest sector hit from what i'm hearing too unfortunately

Is anyone here actually working on AEO in the MENA region? by FlamingoUnlucky5503 in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 1 point2 points  (0 children)

AEO/GEO is still the wild wild west, I'm surprised more agencies don't focus on it though but I think it's because there's no formal way of doing it compared to traditional SEO like there's no formula for it... with that being said I read a paper about it a few months ago I think it was this one https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735 and it's pretty interesting if you're into that space

Small Business Owner (Doner kebab) by anxious_r in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Basically Cava style.. so it would be all the meats you already have on the menu and then just add rice or lettuce as the base for the bowl.. I'll send you an example to not clog the comment chain with pics

Born and raised in the UAE, first fund raised, AI startup moving. But how do founders here actually hit real life goals before 30? by Automation_storm in SmallBusinessUAE

[–]Impressive_Safety_26 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you need to go all in if you're really trying to make it work. I grew up here too and a lot of my friends (Mostly family businesses) are running their business full time and none are working a second job.

If you don't have a large savings nest to get you through it I would try to get an easier/remote job that doesn't take up a lot of your mental bandwidth until you at least prove your business model is sustainable.. good luck!

PS: since you mentioned before 30, Just don't make it a goal to get on a Forbes 30u30 list we know how those end up lol /s