Life in the UAE is fast and everything zips past at the blink of an eye. In such a fast moving environment it often becomes difficult to learn something new. Even if you were on the market to find out classes that could teach you something new, the search procedure in itself is quite cumbersome. That’s where portals such as The Curve Middle East come into play.

The Curve is an online resource to search and find adult classes in the Middle East. The portal is an online booking engine for adult classes of all nature. The portal aims to help adults break out of their daily rut and steepen their learning curve by creating one platform where you can find all the best classes in Dubai and pick something new to try.

Startup World spoke to Maya Itani, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Curve to know more about the company, the services it offers and its future plans.

Can you tell something about yourself? Your school life, your college life, your interests, your family?
I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia where I went to school until I was 15 years old. I continued high school at a boarding school in Bahrain before beginning university at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. There I attained a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration (BBA) with a concentration in Marketing, and graduated with honours. I was also granted the Penrose Award upon graduation, which is an honour bestowed upon one student from each school at the university every year. Throughout university I pursued a variety of extracurricular activities including volleyball, theater, and writing for the university newspaper.

How did you arrive on the idea behind The Curve Middle East?
I was quite active outside of my major during university and was constantly looking for new things to learn that had nothing to do with my degree. Once I left university, I let most of that fall by the wayside in favour of focusing on my career development. I spent 6 years working in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, and, while my career was advancing beautifully, I realized mid-2012 that my own personal development had stalled. Despite several role changes and promotions at work, my learning curve was flat because I wasn’t learning anything new outside of my industry.

To change that, I decided to look for a new hobby to pursue to stimulate my mind outside of work. When I began searching online, I found it difficult to find institutes, compare them, and finally make a decision. I just wished there could be one place where I could compare classes by reading objective reviews, and then book the classes online rather than having to go to the venue itself ahead of time to pay. That was when the idea for The Curve Middle East was born – to create an online destination for class searches that would help people find a new passion and stimulate their minds and bodies.

How and when was the company started?
The Curve was officially registered in Q4 of 2012, but before we registered the company my partner (my husband) and I conducted research to find out if the idea would resonate with students and class providers alike. We set up an online survey with adults in the UAE to gauge interest from the student side. We found that over 90% of the respondents wanted to learn something new but over 50% of them believed it difficult to find classes online.

We also met with several class providers in person to hear their feedback on the idea. We purposely approached the companies prior to launching in order to develop the best possible product to meet their needs and solve the problems they face in getting students to book classes.

Both endeavours pointed us to the conclusion that launching this site would be extremely beneficial for the UAE, and we even signed up a dozen providers before the website had even officially launched.

The company is fully self-funded from personal savings.  We registered the company at the Fujairah Creative City Free Zone through Creative Zone. At the moment The Curve is managed by my husband and me – but we plan to expand the team in the near future.

How do you think will services and products from The Curve Middle East change the way people look at training programmes?
In addition to setting up a one stop shop to make course bookings easier, The Curve is also breaking down the misconception that extracurricular learning should end after college. This thinking leads to one dimensional members of society instead of multifaceted, interesting people. With our brand identity and communication, we urge adults to break free from that belief and find something new to learn that stimulates them outside of the office.

What is the USP of The Curve Middle East’s services?
Our website is the only booking engine on which you can find and compare multiple companies offering the same type of classes based on location, timing, ratings, and reviews, which helps you make an informed decision.  The site also enables you to pay and reserve your spot from the comfort of your own home at any hour of the day – a service that cannot be offered by a brick and mortar company and is not offered anywhere else online.

We also offer our partners a better way to expose their services to a wider audience that is seeking new experiences. This helps them focus more on conducting the class rather than marketing, because we are helping attract students for them.

What is the primary source of revenue for The Curve Middle East?
Class prices on the site are the same that the providers themselves offers, and we charge a transaction fee to the provider per class sold.

Did you encounter any hurdles while setting up the company?
We are creating a destination for class searches, which we want to encompass all the different class providers in each category. Newcomers to the industry understand the benefit of our service quickly and generally sign up from the first time we meet. However, a major hurdle we encounter is to convince existent and well-established businesses to come on board with us and forgo a percentage of their profit for our service. Some people have turned us down, but we have a high success rate of visits and sign on 80% of all the companies we meet with.

How do you market your services?
We are currently focusing on digital advertisements, social media, and PR. We are planning on expanding across the country and, eventually, the region, as well as adding new revenue streams. My focus for now is to grow The Curve Middle East geographically and spread the message of lifelong learning across the region!

What is your advice to other entrepreneurs in the process of setting up shop in the Middle East?
Consult someone on the laws before starting or registering any business in the UAE. It can be a little confusing, especially for a newcomer, but with a little research and a few phone calls you can make the right decision as to where to register your company and how to set up shop.

I believe people focus too much on being innovative and forget the essence of being an entrepreneur. You don’t need to create something revolutionary or import a foreign idea to the region in order to succeed. The best thing an entrepreneur can do is find a problem that means something to you and create a way to solve it – this benefits you and it benefits the community