

Ask YC: Dubai - future Startup Hub - jdavid

In paul's book hackers and painters he talks about wanting to be where the greatest wealth is.  Paul, and others what do you think about the potential of starting a company in dubai?<p>for nationals?<p>for foreigners?
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ardit33
lol. No way. I am european, and moved to usa, (now in SF), and I just can't
see people wanting to move to Dubai;

Unless a lot of cash is flashed (but this will make startups too expensive) or
Dubai becomes a multi-cultural liberal place, where you can go to clubs, drink
alcohol freely, get laid, and all that without ending up in jail.

The place that is able to attract young folks, will be the startup. Money is
just one part of the equation.

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pg
You need more than money. Where the money came from also matters. So Miami,
for example, has a lot of money, but few startups. I'd expect the same pattern
in Dubai.

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sanj
Channeling Richard Florida's "The Creative Class"?

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pchristensen
Channeling Paul Graham - <http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html>

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utnick
Disclaimer: I have never been to dubai or silicon valley

BUT, I have a feeling that the wealthy people in dubai are not very accessible
to the average american guy. You aren't going to meet them at parties and they
probably won't take meetings with you just cause you have a cool webapp.

Whereas in silicon valley, you could run into some random guy at a barcamp or
lecture with a couple mil in google options.

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ahsonwardak
While by no means is Dubai going to be Silicon Valley, there are very
encouraging signs for business in Dubai. I have spent about a month or two
there over the past two years.

As it has already been eluded to, there's tons of money there. In the last
five years, every major consulting firm has an office in Dubai. Every major
tech company has an office in Dubai Internet City. The city is organized into
economic industrial units - Festival City, Healthcare, International
Financial, Sports, Media, etc.

From the tech startup side, if you have a financial, native backer, you're
fine to startup a company. There is a booming business for networking, like
Cisco and Cisco partners. The market exists there for tech startups, but
probably not for web startups as censorship of the Web varies.

As for lifestyle, it doesn't get much better than Dubai. It's a fantastic
place to live. When you think about falseprophet's post, a lot of the same
applies to LA, yet millions call it home.

As for local skilled labor, there are many people out there seeking jobs in
Dubai from neighboring Gulf countries, and the growth of the Doha campuses are
contributing to a young tech talent pool in the area.

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rms
Lifestyle? Really? Culturally, it seems incredibly restrictive compared to the
Western democracies.

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nickb
Dubai? HAH!

Wash your shoes before you go:
[http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23436226-details/...](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23436226-details/Briton+jailed+in+Dubai+after+officials+find+cannabis+weighing+less+than+a+grain+of+sugar+under+his+shoe/article.do)

And good luck... you're gonna need a lot of it!

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rms
Yeah, seriously, Dubai wants you to think they're cool and progressive but
they pull shit like the above link to make the other Middle Eastern states
think they aren't too progressive.

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fortes
I was in Dubai about 6 weeks ago, visiting some old college roommates.

While there, I met a guy who had started a tech company in Bahrain, and does
work in Qatar and Dubai.

Pros: Lots of money down there, probably too much (they're often desperate to
spend it and want "the best" regardless of price), low (or no) tax rates.

Cons: The obvious friction of being a foreigner, frequent need for bribes,
incompetence due to lack of economic pressure (easy to fuck up if you have
tons of oil money, and don't need to worry about it), lack of local skilled
labor (you have to bring them in).

I also stopped by the CMU campus in Doha (I'm an alum of the Pittsburgh
campus). They're doing some good stuff there, and there is potential. One big
surprise was the high percentage of women in the program (above 50%).

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falsestprophet
Money is the only thing Dubai has going for it and, clearly, money isn't
enough.

Dubai also has a lot working against it:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=129848> .

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hcho
pg talks about the difference between wealth and money. An analogy may apply
here; Dubai has a lot of money but is not wealthy.

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sanj
I've never been to Dubai, but it seems to me to be much closer to Orange
County than Silicon Valley.

