Being based in the UAE for the last six years, I have enjoyed the privilege of leading several start-ups as CEO. Together with my teams, we built companies that struggled, that needed to change their business models, that scaled very fast, and sometimes had to even be scaled down significantly. Having spent so much time in the start-up ecosystem here in Dubai, I think it’s time to shed some light on some of the more pressing points that require addressing by policy makers.

Capital requirements

I am not going to write too much about the need of growth capital and that compared to other start-up ecosystems such as London, Berlin, Silicon Valley there is almost no money invested in start-ups in the region. Dubai, which has been very successfully positioned on the global map of destinations, falls behind when it comes to fostering entrepreneurship in the digital space. There is much more demand for venture capital here than the supply of risk funding that is made available. To prevent questions: putting USD 1 billion in the hand of one single institution is not what I mean by the availability of capital. We need to invest broadly to develop an entrepreneurial culture in the region.

Simplification of manpower scaling

Building a start-up means building a fast-growing business. The manpower needs we have are usually different from more established, larger organisations. In my current business, for instance, we hire between 10-15 people every month. The biggest issue we face here is that the current work permit/visa approval process is not tailored to the needs of such a fast-paced growth curve. We often must slow down our hiring because we are waiting for the “labour quota”, or because the work permit approval takes a couple of weeks, or because a candidate is repeatedly rejected before being finally approved. We need to align the needs of hyper growth companies and figure out a solution that can be discussed with the respective authorities.

Growing future entrepreneurs

The start-up ecosystem in Dubai and the entire region mostly depends on expatriates who take the plunge. GCC nationals usually prefer to take a job in a government or semi-government entity. However, if we want to build the future of this region, we need to (a) help the GCC nationals learn the skills required to build companies especially in the digital space, (b) motivate and excite an increased number of young national talents to take the plunge, and (c) provide sufficient ongoing coaching in the future to help them continue to grow. We need to institutionalise the identification, coaching, and networking of super high potentials within the GCC national and Arabic community.

Simplification of liquidation

Entrepreneurship drives innovation and creates jobs. At the same time, entrepreneurship means taking more risks than the average. For entrepreneurs in the region, especially those who come from abroad, it is essential to have a legal framework in place that allows entrepreneurs to experiment and to fail. Most entrepreneurial endeavours fail. Without a legal framework that manages the financial and legal risks of such failure, a lot of entrepreneurial ideas become irrationally risky. Functioning ecosystems such as Silicon Valley have a very good way of starting businesses but at the same time offer a fairly straight forward way of winding up businesses.

Muhammad Chbib is a McKinsey alumnus and has been a successful Online CEO in the MENA region since 2011 He spearheads Tajawal, which has emerged as the leading Online Travel Platform from the MENA region for the MENA region. For more information: www.tajawal.com