Strength Through Uncertainty: A Founder’s View from the UAE
Founders should be choosing strategic expansion over retrenchment, reinforcing a long-term growth outlook despite market volatility.
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We were running out of time. By early 2011, the Arab Spring had turned our growth story – building the region’s first utility-scale solar company – into a liquidity crisis that threatened to erase everything we had built. Payments across multiple markets were delayed. Despite exhausting every option, my co-founders and I faced the moment every founder fears: we had enough for one last payroll.
We walked into our meeting with the Government of Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, Masdar, expecting disappointment. Instead, we found partnership. Within a week, we were armed with a shareholder loan that allowed us to bridge receivables, protect our team, and continue operating. This decisive, aligned support at a critical moment is how we survived, and how we thrived. That experience shaped my understanding of resilience. It is not just about surviving shocks; it is about the systems and partnerships that allow you to absorb them and keep building.
This commitment is a pattern I first saw in 2008, during the global financial crisis. I remember pitching solar in London while Bear Stearns imploded on a screen in the boardroom. While global capital was pulling away, Masdar stepped in to validate our ambition. That journey eventually led to nearly US$1 billion in revenue and an exit to a UK pension fund, proving that companies built here are serious exporters of innovation.
Fifteen years later, I am applying those lessons to a new frontier with Wisewell, our water technology venture. The nature of the test has shifted from capital to movement. In the geopolitically charged operational trenches of 2026, we are navigating a friction fundamentally different from the previous We are managing a supply paradox: record-breaking demand for water sovereignty met with unreliable sea routes from our manufacturing hub in Shenzhen.
In most global hubs, a conflict of this scale results in a retraction. In the UAE, it results in an integrated national response. At a Majlis hosted by H.E. Helal Al Marri, I saw this responsiveness in action. After sharing our logistics disruptions with leadership, we were connected with Emirates Cargo to execute immediate air-freight solutions. This is the unique reality of this market: motivated founders work with motivated government at an unmatched velocity.
That resilience is rooted in the history of this land. In the desert, survival is dictated by the handhal—a fruit that thrives in the harshest conditions through hardened defiance. It is a cultural symbol for the toughness required to build here.
A few days into the 2026 attacks, H.H. President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed said, “The UAE is attractive. The UAE is beautiful. The UAE is a model. But I tell them: do not be fooled by the UAE’s appearance. The UAE has thick skin and bitter flesh – we are not easy prey.”
For founders, there is a lesson in that. Building a company is not about avoiding volatility; it is about developing the ability to withstand it. Because of this nineteen-year perspective as a UAE based founder, we are not retracting; we are strategically expanding. We are building systems that do not fracture under pressure.
Like the handhal, we are rooted. We are resilient. And we will emerge stronger still.
Related: In Uncertain Times, Bold Brands Don’t Go Quiet, They Show Up
We were running out of time. By early 2011, the Arab Spring had turned our growth story – building the region’s first utility-scale solar company – into a liquidity crisis that threatened to erase everything we had built. Payments across multiple markets were delayed. Despite exhausting every option, my co-founders and I faced the moment every founder fears: we had enough for one last payroll.
We walked into our meeting with the Government of Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, Masdar, expecting disappointment. Instead, we found partnership. Within a week, we were armed with a shareholder loan that allowed us to bridge receivables, protect our team, and continue operating. This decisive, aligned support at a critical moment is how we survived, and how we thrived. That experience shaped my understanding of resilience. It is not just about surviving shocks; it is about the systems and partnerships that allow you to absorb them and keep building.
This commitment is a pattern I first saw in 2008, during the global financial crisis. I remember pitching solar in London while Bear Stearns imploded on a screen in the boardroom. While global capital was pulling away, Masdar stepped in to validate our ambition. That journey eventually led to nearly US$1 billion in revenue and an exit to a UK pension fund, proving that companies built here are serious exporters of innovation.
