Rare pandemic positive as the UAE sees unprecedented momentum in start-up seeding

Parallel to this is also an emerging trend of more top executives joining venture building firms for less money to “build something real with real impact” in their bid to re-purpose their careers.

Pedalo Gelato, an ice cream start-up founded by Vikas Attri, the former Dubai-based CEO of Lifestyle, part of the Landmark Group, along with Enrico Clementi; RentEasyUAE, a  platform that lets tenants and landlords interact directly founded by Arvinder Gill and Anjali Kapur; Mitra, an Indian fusion food restaurant set up by Shivam Goyal, another former senior Landmark Group executive; Africa Pledge, a financial advisory and investment venture founded by Rahil Taneja, a former capital market executive with Standard Chartered Bank; rizmak.com, a digital platform for selling insurance policies set up by Meher Ali Khan; and Reconnect, a mental strength and wellness initiative by Roger Chakhtoura, who had a 15-year financial career across the UAE, Bahrain and Lebanon, are among the start-ups seeded during the pandemic, according to industry insiders.

Pedalo Gelato, an ice cream start-up founded by Vikas Attri (L), the former Dubai-based CEO of Lifestyle, part of the Landmark Group, along with Enrico Clementi (R).

There are also instances of former senior executives investing in some of the existing start-up ventures such as Back to Nature, which trades in eco-friendly biodegradable packaging products run by Ranjitha Raghavan.

Experts said the latest trends are not only helping the new class of ‘employees-turned-entrepreneurs’ but also reflective of the fact that the UAE is showing green shoots of new age entrepreneurial skills of a different nature – away from the traditional trading enterprises which used to be the mainstay over the past years.

“The pandemic has created a divide between the people who have jobs and those who don’t have one,” said Ashutosh Sinha, author of several international best sellers and the global HR head of a GCC-based corporate major.

“In the past, it has been seen that during crisis when job losses happened, typically mid-career executives and senior leaders have desperately sought new opportunities. But this time, it is different. People have embraced their career journeys in a different way than ever before in this region,” said Sinha, whose recent bestselling book ‘Breakthrough’ is said to have influenced many executives around the world to redefine their career journeys.

According to Sinha, both people who have lost jobs and mid-career executives who have decided to re-purpose their careers, have displayed a big shift in approach – instead of scouting for the next new job opportunity, they are setting up promising start-ups driven by a deeper sense of purpose.

Ashutosh Sinha, author of several international best sellers and the global HR head of a GCC-based corporate major.

Echoing Sinha’s views, Attri, founder of ice cream start-up Pedalo Gelato – billed as Dubai’s answer to Ben and Jerry’s – said: “After working in the corporate world for 32 years, of which a decade at a C-suite level, it had become an urge of a kind to do something on my own. I didn’t want to leave my job and join another company but leaving a job for me now meant starting something on my own.

“I can safely say that this journey from being CEO to entrepreneur has been the most satisfying and fun in my entire career,” Attri told Arabian Business.

Attri said he chose ice cream and F&B as a business segment as it was close to his heart during his professional career.

Even as start-up ventures started mushrooming, there have also been several instances of top executives in the UAE quitting their jobs during the pandemic to “do something more meaningful”.

“Top people now join us at half their usual salaries in return for a cut of what we build – our concept includes sharing the upside with the core team,” Lars Buch, CEO for MENA & Russia at Rainmaking, a global venture builder firm, told Arabian Business.

“Top consultants want to join because ‘I’m tired of making power points and want to build something real with real impact’,” he said.

Lars Buch, CEO for MENA & Russia at Rainmaking, a global venture builder firm

Experts said the encouraging trend of axed and bored senior executives taking to entrepreneurial avenues, coupled with the string of recent pro-market-oriented measures by the UAE administration, has the potential to make the country a start-up hub globally.

“Capital – though it is available in plenty here – is a secondary ingredient to a strong hub. Talent and a market are primary. Still a long way to go, but we see a lot of the right actions by the government and corporate and we predict that the UAE will attract a lot of new talent when things come back to normal. Digital nomads are a real thing and the UAE is definitely on the map of favourite cities (for them) now,” Buch added.

The UAE government has recently launched several policy initiatives to attract FDI and foreign talent, which also included allowing remote working from the country.

“A very important ingredient in all major start-up hubs is the ‘floating available talent’ in the form of entrepreneurs between projects or freelancers. This kind of resource has simply not been available in UAE and it’s a huge step that we now make room for this kind of talent. Even more new visa types could be on the way and we are looking forward to seeing the effect,” the Rainmaking senior executive said.

Sinha also pointed out that the impetus for professionals to take to start-up is also there “thanks to the encouraging and people friendly policies in the UAE which encourages the spirit of creativity, intellect and entrepreneurship”.