Serial UAE-based entrepreneur Khalifa ALMuhairi has claimed there is a current disparity between graduating students and the efforts needed to start-up a company – and he is hoping to fill the void with a library of social media tutorials.
The 28-year-old Emirati founded Rue 71 in 2014, a French-inspired coffee shop based in City Walk; and has since gone on to launch Huna by the Pond; Kalm Group (a distribution, catering concept); he co-founded branding agency Hint CC; founded KUHP (cup), a soft-serve ice-cream shop; and is partner in Simpure Company, which specialises in refreshments and beverages.
While last year, on the first day of Covid lockdown restrictions, he spotted a gap in the market and launched KPMS Consulting.
ALMuhairi, who is better known as Kalm in the social media world, told Arabian Business: “There were so many things, so many challenges (in setting up his first business). There was a lack of knowledge and this is where my social media story, what I’m known for now, started.
“Whereas whenever I searched for information on Google, I ended up having answers from people who lived in the US or in Europe, specifically when I was talking about F&B and start-ups, and I’m telling you, this was back in 2014 and 2015.
“That isn’t saying that the specific places here that supported SMEs were not doing their job well, but there was a gap between people who lecture, fresh graduates like me, and the audience. There is a huge gap, like a 10 or 20-year difference from the people giving the information.
“I took that and saw how I could fill this gap.”
ALMuhairi, who raised 80 percent of funding for his first venture through Tejar Dubai (under Dubai Chamber), with everything else self-funded and borrowed from family and angel investors, has since established a huge library of video tutorials, based on day-to-day operations, which help potential entrepreneurs navigate everyday challenges.
ALMuhairi is looking to expand Simpure Co. around the world.
“It’s specifically about what I do in my businesses and what exactly I learn, then I transform that into small clips,” he said, adding that in 2020, when he officially started posting, there was a “tsunami” of information appearing online, as more and more people were confined to home.
ALMuhairi created two online courses, one addressing pre-Covid challenges and the other post-Covid – with more than 200 people signing up to view. He added: “This year I have twice the number of consultations from what I had last year or the year before.”
Venture capitalists poured $1 billion into regional start-ups last year, signalling high investor confidence, despite the global coronavirus pandemic, a report published by Magnitt said.
While in April an $8.2bn package of support for the UAE’s SMEs and start-ups, hit hard by the Covid crisis, was approved.
And Dubai alone is expected to attract up to 250 more start-ups this year, more than the city has seen set up shop in the last three years, Mohammed Alblooshi, sector head fintech and innovation at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), said earlier this year.
UAE-based entrepreneur ALMuhairi founded Rue 71 in 2014, a French-inspired coffee shop based in City Walk.
ALMuhairi, who has been a member of the UAE SME Council, chaired by Ahmed Belhoul, Minister for SMEs in the UAE cabinet, insists now is a ‘golden era’ for start-ups looking to set-up shop in Dubai and the wider UAE.
He said: “This is a time where someone would say in the next ten years, I wish I went to the UAE or Dubai in 2020 or 2021 and I established my business there. This is the time that people will talk about in the next ten years.
“You have a monster that’s been prepared for the last eight or nine years, which is Expo 2020.
“And then you only have to look around you. You have the best infrastructure that you could have. You have the best transportation, you have diversity, so many services, platforms, payment gateways, online banking. You have all the tools that you require to kickstart a business.
“When you talk about fresh starters or people who are at the very early stage, they are very passionate. They want to do everything right now. They want to do six or seven ‘impossible’ tasks in one day and Dubai allows you to do that.”