“You need to understand that in Dubai you will not work with localities — you will work with the whole world”

Roman Doronin, co-founder of the Optic and EORA projects, shared his experience of doing business in Dubai and told the main thing that those planning to enter the UAE market need to know.

About the startup

Optic — American startup in the field of Web 3.0 infrastructure. The project's solution helps control copyrights in Web 3.0 and recognize NFT content. Optic percentage reflects how the token matches existing NFT collections.

In July 2022, the startup raised $11 million from Kleiner Perkins and other funds and private companies.

Two of Roman’s projects entered the UAE market at once. The second company — EORA — develops AI-based solutions. EORA has always developed in Russia as an independent player; the project has not attracted external investment.

About choosing a country and the first steps

The team had a large portfolio of projects (about a hundred), and they decided to try their hand at the international market. Roman completed the Go Global program from IIDF.

In the fall of 2021, we considered the markets of Europe and the USA, but realized that development in these markets would require investment.

As a promotion strategy, Optic chose to participate in various regional competitions and hackathons. The project, disguised as a Jordanian company, took part in the first hackathon in the history of Qatar and took first place. This provided a starting point for networking, which allowed for further systematic development.

Optic opened in San Francisco and Dubai in March 2022.

Why chose the UAE

• Gap in the technology sector (3-4 years compared to Russia);
• Fast pace of development;
• High level of demand for technology;
• Attractive neighboring markets for scaling — Africa, Saudi Arabia;
• «Comfortable» tax system — the only tax if you work within the country — 5% if based in Dubai and working with other countries — zero tax;
• The calmest geopolitical situation to date;
• Air connections with the whole world.

 Opening a company and taxes

“The tax system in the UAE is structured approximately in such a way that you buy a residence permit for your employees (2 thousand US dollars for one work visa) and renew it every two to three years.”

Dubai has a rich ecosystem of special economic zones. For his EORA project, Roman chose DIFC, and for Optic — Mainland — the most expensive and prestigious zone with simple compliance procedures.

Opening a company in Mainland costs from 20 thousand US dollars. A company in DIFC with four work visas will cost 12 thousand US dollars.

The company opens on average from two to six weeks. Local IT systems often crash. and create additional time costs.

It is important to remember that if you open a company in May or June, you can get there during Ramadan and Kurban Bayram, when government departments are not working. This, in turn, will also greatly slow down the registration process.

Employee relocation

Arranging a work visa takes from four to five weeks, and you will need to be in the UAE almost the entire time.

Roman’s team has already transported more than 13 people to Dubai.

The novel describes the relocation process in the following sequence:

1. Collection of documents for entry permit into the state;
2. Issue of a special paper that allows you to begin the visa process;
3. On-site biometrics, blood tests and x-rays;
4. Getting ID;
5. Registration in the company;
6. Signing a contract with the company;
7. Submitting an application to open a bank account.

Opening a bank account takes three to five days. According to Roman, rumors that banks do not open accounts for Russian persons — untruthful. The project team did not experience any difficulties at this stage.

Difficulties in the multiculturalism of the UAE

«The Dubai market is decentralized, there is a huge number of crops — Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Russians and residents of the CIS countries, Europeans, Americans — they all read different things, communicate differently and, in general, everything is different for them.”

It is difficult for a service company to enter the Dubai market, primarily due to the difficulties of building marketing.

Roman said that LinkedIn has become a real salvation in the UAE. The team places serious emphasis on working with this social network.

Perhaps the only way [to do business] — carefully select target companies for your segment, try to communicate with them and tell them about yourself.

Exhibitions and other events

The exhibition season begins in Dubai in September. From May to September there is dead time in Dubai — almost all locals are leaving either for Europe or Turkey and business activity is slowing down.

“A large number of exhibitions and events will begin in September, we plan to test this channel.”

On July 25, the first meeting of entrepreneurs took place in Dubai as part of Founders’ Mondays.

Roman said that he plans to hold a non-profit meetup for projects in the field of machine learning — competitive data scientist — and perhaps organizes workshops for advanced specialists.

With caution towards the crypto community

According to the entrepreneur, there are a lot of different “crypto parties” in Dubai. However, Roman strongly recommends being wary of them and building networking only if you have experience and the ability to weed out suspicious projects.

Features of doing business

Roman notes an extremely friendly and positive attitude towards entrepreneurs and immigrants from Russia and the CIS in general. Interaction with the authorities is quite comfortable, everyone speaks English. Many government officials have European or American education.

It is important to mention the high competition from IT specialists from India and Pakistan. “Competition is very high, but the quality of services is extremely low. Already now the focus is shifting to Russian engineers.”

Other important features:

• The love of Dubai residents for the most expensive and their desire to overpay — myth;
• Locals are really always late or completely forget about meetings;
• Locals like to communicate a lot and for a long time in person;
• The country has strict laws prohibiting taking photographs of people, drinking in the street and swearing;
• It is not always necessary to hire locals — This does not concern IT companies at all.

You need to understand that in Dubai you will not work with locales — you will work with all world nationalities

Attracting investments

Roman said that the UAE has a large number of platforms for startups and funds that are ready to invest. At the same time, according to the entrepreneur, attracting investments at the pre-seed stage will be easier than in Russia, and the check will be higher.

However, according to the expert, it would be better for the project to start with sales, as this significantly increases the chance of receiving financing.