78 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / August 2019UAE platform fluidmeet helps
entrepreneurs and SMEs find the right
space to meet their various needs
by PAMELLA DE LEONTAPPING INTO
TRENDS
START IT UP Q&A
IMAGE COURTESY FLUIDMEETAlliance Business Village meeting roomA
s entrepreneurs
set up shop in
Dubai (and with
it, the need for a
business address
in a commer-
cial building as
required by law to complete
your license process), so
does the demand for loca-
tions that cater to young
enterprises wanting to keep
their costs low as they test
out the market. A UAE-born
startup is now offering a cost
effective and suitable solution
to meet this need: fluidmeet,
founded by Jareer Oweimrin
and Suleiman Salloum, is
a value-added marketplace
of work, meeting, and event
spaces, which allows users to
book everything from meeting
rooms to banquet halls toco-working spaces to serviced
offices, all from the startup’s
app and website. Both the
founders used to be manage-
ment consultants working
across the GCC region, with
their tasks including meeting
clients, delivering workshops,
and training within organiza-
tions. As such, every time they
needed a space to host these
sessions, Oweimrin remem-
bers facing a host of issues as
they tried to identify the area
they needed, research venues
offered in this area, then
call them and enquire about
its details and amenities. It
didn’t end there though- they
then had to wait on propos-
als, which could take hours
to days, and then compare it
all to finally decide on one,
following which they’d have tohead to the venue, and submit
the payment, before actually
using the space. If it weren’t
clear already, Oweimrin and
Salloum found this process to
be extremely tiresome and un-
necessarily time-consuming,
and that’s what led them to
find a better way to do things-
and thus, fluidmeet came into
being in 2015.
When they started out with
fluidmeet, the founders knew
there were others who faced
challenges like them, and
so they started with asking
colleagues in the consulting
industry, like trainers, life
coaches, and recruiters who
often needed spaces on de-
mand. Venue providers bought
into their idea at the prospect
of gaining more business, and
a streamlined inquiry and
booking platform. “It turned
out that the industry washighly fragmented, and in dire
need of standardization- fluid-
meet stepped up to the plate.”
As they built their business,
forming a stellar team was the
first hurdle, and Oweimrin
believes it was their “defined
values” set early on that
helped the startup navigate
such issues. The young com-
pay also exercised financial
prudence by being cautious
“about the money that came
in, as the money that went
out.” He commends the sup-
port of friends and family as
tantamount, since they were
the avenue to fluidmeet’s first
customers. For their cur-
rent strategy, the team has
invested in (and continue to
invest in) over 15 digital mar-
keting channels, plus events
and roadshows to market the
product.
It’s worth mentioning how
the startup evolved with their
customer’s needs as well. Ini-
tially, fluidmeet started offer-
ing meeting rooms in business
centers and hotels. They later
found that people would want
to work from serviced offices
and co-working spaces- these
were then quickly added to the
platform. They also realized
that some prospective clients
were looking for freedom from
contracts and long-term ten-
ancy. But they also had pro-
spective clients who wanted to
book or inquire about spaces
for weeks or months at a time-