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Field Notes from Dubai

Notes from working
Gulf business.

Plain-English notes on GCC retail, AI in business, franchise & setup, geopolitics, and whatever I'm reading. Posted when I have something worth saying.

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“Google built the internet we depend on, and then wired it to watch us.”
2026 · Privacy & Tech
How Google Tracks Everything You Do
A field-note infographic on the surveillance machine behind Search, Chrome, Analytics, YouTube, Gmail and Maps — the two backdoors, the Gemini AI future, and a plain-English protection checklist.
Read the field note →
“Why one person, armed with AI, can now run what used to require a team of fifty.”
2026 · AI & Work · Business
The Rise of the One-Person Company
An infographic field-guide on how AI-leveraged solo operators are quietly reshaping the shape of small business — the proof points, the playbook, the trajectory.
Read the post → ⇓ HTML
“Operator-led, capital-efficient. Equity-for-operator on select files.”
Angel Investments · Stackbirds
How a Dubai operator picks angel cheques.
The three lanes investors usually start with, and when Aziz takes equity instead of a fee. The operator's filter for which Gulf SME deals are actually fundable.
Open the investor brief →
“48 hours from brief to first draft. Real unit economics, not a McKinsey template.”
Business Feasibility Study
39+ feasibility studies, indexed.
Retail, F&B, salon, kiosk, pharma, e-commerce, real estate — each commissioned by a real owner or investor, anchored to live shop-floor numbers. Click any title to open the full report.
Browse the index →
“Stock audit, licence review, lease & supplier diligence — before the cheque clears.”
Business on Sale · Buy-side
Buying a running store or restaurant in the UAE.
A diligence checklist drawn from real Dubai acquisitions: how to read the seller's spreadsheet, what to count on the shelf, which licences actually transfer, and what to renegotiate on lease day-one.
Open the acquisition memo →
“Cash today, P&L tomorrow. Cut the bleed before you cut the strategy.”
Emergency Plans · Crisis Ops
Retail crisis playbook — UAE & Oman.
When a chain starts losing money: a 14-day intervention sequence covering cash, stock, staff, suppliers and landlords. Built from real turnaround engagements across the GCC.
Open the crisis guide →
“UAE, KSA, Oman, Qatar — same region, different rule books and very different deal flow.”
Geo Politics · GCC Capital
Where GCC capital is actually flowing.
Family offices are no longer just Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. A field view of where the cheques are coming from in 2026, what licensed sectors moved, and how Vision 2030 shifts are reshaping the regional deal table.
Investor FAQ →
“Build it. Run it. Then automate it. The operator's order of operations.”
Business · AI & Operations
Running a Gulf SME with AI agents.
Where AI actually saves a Gulf SME real money this quarter — inventory forecasting, WhatsApp customer ops, reconciliation, and the prompts a CFO can run without a developer. From the Stackbirds bench.
See the AI services menu →

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