Adel Sajan
Appearances
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
iraq is taking over so he's like what does that even mean like you know you've never heard of this right you know so he's like no just go outside and see your balcony so he opens the balcony and they're like tanks lined up on the streets then we had to escape so luckily the indian government rescued a lot of the indians how did you escape on a fighter plate on a fighter jet like no so they send these huge army planes so he didn't want to work in india yeah uh kuwait was obviously it was a war so you want to live somewhere close by and like
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And my first job was with the blue collar workers. And this is at age 13, you said? 13, which I love. But the only challenge with this was... I was working in the open yard. So I don't know if you've been to Dubai, but Dubai in the summers, it's a hundred plus degrees.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
It's really hot. It's really hot. Like, you know, it's like 50 degrees Celsius. I don't know how much is in Fahrenheit, but it's like really, really, really hot. And I used to carry like four shirts. Because I would be like drenched every day and I'd like come back with like a red tomato face. And my mom and my dad would fight every day. And he's like, look, stay away from this. It's my domain.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Do whatever you want outside this. But this part is mine.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Which mother is going to like his son who's 13 getting roasted in the sun every day? Come on. You know, you're not going to find many mothers who could be okay with that. So... And you're an only child, right? I'm the only child. But I did get a salary. So I was paid about $120 a month, which was a lot of money as well, being 13, 22 years ago. So it was nice. It was fun.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And then, so from the age of 13 to 18, Every year for those three months, I always did something. So for the first three years, I was in the warehouse. Then one year I spent, you know, in media city, in marketing. In one year, we did door-to-door sales. So we started the steel division. So we used to go to all these AC fabricators, knocking in that, hey, we're from Danube.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
This is what we're selling. One year, when I was 18, I spent, when I say one year, it's three months, my summer holidays. I spent in my dad's cabin. just observing what he does, how he deals with issues, how he's meeting people, how he meets bankers, how he meets inside, outside people, whatever.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Yeah, so first of all, Chris, thank you for having me on your podcast. You know, really feeling honored and privileged. Chris, again, is one of my best friends who I met thanks to HBS. And I had a great time over there thanks to him. So, you know, thank you for being part of my life. Talking about my dad, yes, of course, things are different now.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
That wasn't the last. That was the second last. Okay. The last was when I was supposed to study in the US. I had very good grades. Of course, we had the money by then. But then my dad's like, look, I think you should study over here in Dubai. So you can work and study at the same time. And we had just started our retail business. So at the age of 19, I became a buyer.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
By buyer means like a department head. So, you know, he's like, okay, I want you to go and start a chandelier division. I'm like, Chandler, what? And he's like, how do you even start a division? You're 19. I have no idea. He's like, no, it's okay. You'll figure it out. And he didn't tell me anything. So he's like, here's a million dollars. Go and start the Chandler division.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
It's not a bag of million dollars, but like a buying budget of million dollars. Bag would be good. So I go to China and there's a city called Guizhen. And this is known as the city of light. It's 90 minutes away from Guangzhou. And literally, Chris, it's unbelievable. You have a city with 7,000 shops of chandeliers and 10,000 factories.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
of chandeliers and lighting in something maybe smaller than Manhattan. That's all there is. There's only chandelier shops, restaurants, and hotels. There's nothing else.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Like, dude, literally cities dedicated to one product. So that's smart. The way they've designed it makes it very easy for buyers. And I walk in, you know, 19 years old. There's this new translator. She's three months old in the company. And we're like, okay, let's figure this out. So, you know, made some Excel file, try to make some sense of it. And we just went door to door.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Hey, we're from Dubai, very big company, but this is our order because there's a new division. And it was fun, you know, it was really fun. But the good thing, I mean, the bad thing at that point was I had no idea about MOQs, minimum order quantities. I had no idea about packaging. I had no idea about freight. I had no idea about tax and duties. I had no idea about anything.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
You just had to figure it out. I just had to figure it out. So it's like you throw a kid in the pool, he just figured it out. So that's what it was. And of course, my dad could have given me like some understanding, but he didn't intentionally. Of course, now I've been to like China 40 times. I travel 100 days a year for my work. It's a very different story now. But that's how I started.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So when I was in my university, I used to go for exhibitions. I used to go to university. And then after uni, I used to go to work, to our shops, you know, meet the customers, meet the salespeople, go through some... I had fun as well, don't get me wrong. I had a very good life, but it was a balanced life. So work, college, and then fun. So we had all three going on.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
But actually, my, you know, we originated from, you know, some of the slums in India. And my granddad was a factory worker. And he actually passed away when my dad was only 16. And my dad being the oldest suddenly had huge responsibility to take care of his two younger siblings and his mom who was not that healthy. So she was not capable to work.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And then the pivotal moment of my life happened when I graduated. So my dad asked me, what do you want to do? And I wanted to join the family business, of course. He's like, because I had two paths. So one was our building material business. We were doing a revenue of about, at that point, one and a half billion per year, 80. And we were very profitable, you know,
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
successful business, our core business. And the other is this new retail business, which is doing about a hundred million a year, but we were losing 10 million a year on it. And my dad was kind of like, just fed up with this business. He wanted to shut it down. He's like, you know, this is taking so much time and we're not able to get it right.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And you know, whatever, like- It was a distraction from the core business. Yeah, it was, it was defocused. He's like, I want to shut it down. So I thought to myself, I told my dad, I'm like, look, don't shut it down. Give me this business. I want to take over. And he was very happy.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And at that point, if you ask any guy, when you have a one and a half billion profitable business, which is doing well, and a hundred million where you're losing 10 million a year, which is not doing well, which one would you choose?
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Nine out of 10 times people would go with the easier option. But the reason I chose this path was because I thought that if I could A, turn this around, I could add value to the company. And B, then it's my baby where I can do whatever I want. I don't have anyone else. Because think about it, I'm 22 years old. I don't want to be working with these 50-year-old CEOs. It doesn't work.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I wanted to have my own path. No, I want to have my own path. Like my dad's had his own path. He's created his empire. So I wanted to prove to the company as well that yes, you know, I can do something by myself. Because when you join a successful business, if you do well, it's your dad's business. If you do wrong, it's always a dad came up with a good business and father, son came up.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Screwed it up. You know, and then from a value proposition side, how are you adding value? You want to come in, try new things.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And I always believe you should never spoil a running formula, a successful formula. So that was successful, very successful, leading in the market. And that's when my journey began, like my true journey began. So I remember it was 2014, you know, I was super young. And so it was 2012, my bad, 2012. And I have this business. And I can tell you something, which I can tell you now.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
It's much easier to start a new business than to take a failed business and turn around. It's much harder to do that because things are set in a way that it's not working. And the first thing that I did was I went to my top management. I'm like, hey guys, I know I'm the chairman's son, but don't treat me like one. I'm not here to take your job, I swear to God.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I'm here not as your enemy or somebody who's gonna take your job. I am here as your biggest weapon. because, you know, at the end of the day, we're a big conglomerate. You guys are now the small guys in this big conglomerate who's losing money. So, you know, obviously you need help. And being the chairman's son, I can open up a lot of doors.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I can fight a lot of battles for you internally and externally. I can make you, I can make this company grow because we have the same common goal. I want to prove myself. And if the company grows, your career grows. So at the end, if I win, you win, you win, I win. So we have a unified goal. So don't have that impression that I'm, because it makes a difference.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
It always happens when you have management and the young chairman's son joins, immediately you'll have good people leave.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I give them confidence that because if I, you know, and I fast forward, like now we're close. They told me they're like, the second they announced they were to leave in six months because they're like, oh, you know, now the chairman's son is here. What value do I have? So-
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So he had to not only feed three of his family members, but also make sure that they survive. And it was really, really, really hard because you're 16 and you don't know what just happened.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So I wanted, basically I wanted to run the company professionally, not as a family run business, but of course have my involvement, open up the doors, you know, be them as a support system, be them to fight their battles, but let them fight it. So that was very important. And two years, oh my God, from 2012 to 2014 was so hard. But we took some really tough decisions.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
That was a time when we're like, okay, let's turn the, how do we turn this around?
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I'll tell you. So what we did was number one was shut down half our stores. where we didn't see a silver lining. Number two was rebranded our concept from Bill Maher to Danube Home. Number three was we stopped all local purchase. So I said that everything that we import, everything that we sell has to be imported. So our gross margins go up, better control on stock.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Hired some retail professionals, fixed our warehousing and logistics, made sure we have like top tier racking.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
We had about 11 and we came down to six. Okay. But then we also added a couple of more locations. We were like then back to eight. But then interestingly enough, So at that time, you know, our store, one was like 2,000 square feet, one was 20,000 square feet, one was 10,000 square feet. There was no science behind why we opened.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
That was a problem. So we had building people running retail. So I changed that. I added the retail people on board, fixed all the issues that we had. And I remember it was in And I came up with this new concept called Danube Home, where the store size would be 60 to 100,000 square feet.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And the concept was everything home, from furniture, sanitary, tiles, garden, kitchen, electrical, hardware, blinds, like a superstore for home.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Reinvented the whole concept. And it was in the year 2014 where we finally broke even. So we grew from 100 million to 128 million.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So we opened the concept in 2009, right after recession. So the market was okay. I mean, it wasn't bad. It was okay. It was good. It wasn't like, you know, but it was all right. But it was in 2014 when we broke even. So from minus 10 to zero, we grew by 28%. And guess what? My daughter was not happy at all. He's like, oh, you've only grown by 28%.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
You know, when I was younger and we started off, we used to grow by 50, 60% a year. Oh, wow. And I was like, you know, I was expecting- How did that make you feel? I was expecting like, wow, Adil, good job. You know, you did something I couldn't in this business. But that's what, you know, that's what keeps it going. So I explained to him.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So at that point, more than getting out of it was like, how do we put a meal in front of us? And he used to do all kinds of odd jobs like selling milk, delivering newspapers, selling firecrackers, you name it. Hustler. Hustler. Because at that point, you just got to get a meal in front of your... Survival. Survival. So it was literally survival mode.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
No, no, no. It's not about motivation or piss me off because I'm a rational person, right? So I explained to him and it was intentional. Because see, in retail, it's very easy to grow. Throw money, open stores, your revenue grows. So I'm like, look, this was part of our strategy. And I truly believe that if your foundation is weak and you just grow, you're never gonna make money.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
You gotta first fix your foundation. create and make sure your base is strong. And then you, and then you, you know, so running a business is like running a marathon. If you don't prep yourself and you run a marathon, you're gonna, you're gonna, you know. Unless you're Daryl. Unless you're Daryl.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
But then if you, if you prep yourself, you know, do the right training, get the right nutrition already for, you know, for the sprint. And then you do the marathon, you're gonna do much better, right? So that's what we were doing for those two years. So I told him, look, if I double the revenue, instead of losing 10 million, you'd be losing 20 million a year.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So 2014 is the year I went back to him. I'm like, look, we're ready now. We have a new concept. We have new people. We have a new structure. We're broken even. I want your blessings. And by blessings, I meant money to grow the business, finance. And he's like, okay, sure. So I told him, I'm like, look, I want to, you know, he's like, you have my blessings as long as it's green on the paper.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I was like, fair enough. And the first thing I did was I took about 35 of my key, key, key members, you know, branch heads, warehouse head, marketing head, whatever. And we went to Bali. And keep in mind, so I'm about 24. My average team size age is like 26, 27. And my older, like, you know, higher management is like 35, 36. Very young team, intentional again. I didn't want an older team. Okay.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So a very young group going to Bali for the first time. Most of them have not seen Bali. Most of them have never been on a trip like this before. And for the first four days, we had the best time of our life. River rafting, kayaking, clubbing, you know, beautiful dinners, whatever. Like you name it, we did it. And it was on day four that we had a bonfire.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
We sat down by the beach and I told them my plan for the next five years from 2015 to 2020, my roadmap. I'm like, hey, guys, you know, I have a plan, my next five year plan. And I want a 10x revenue from 128 to a billion, you know, a billion a year. And every single one of them thought the bosses lost it.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Because just imagine, you know, for the last five, six years, nothing's been happening, you know, two years with me and then three, four years when you started off.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Yeah, so there's about 8x, 10x on Skooler, like 128 to a billion. And then I spent an hour explaining to them how. I'm like, look, guys, this is a new concept. It's called Danube Home. It would open a 60,000 square feet store. This is the revenue you can do per year. This is what our competitors do in these markets. These are the markets we've got to enter into. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So I explained to them that, look, we've done a lot of research. There is a roadmap behind it. And this is what the plan is. And of course, things don't work out exactly the way you plan it. But you have a general trajectory.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So my whole objective of this trip was I needed the buy-in of all my top leaders. You know, you've seen Wolf of Wall Street. I wanted that real passionate drive with them because I couldn't do it without them. I can have whatever Excel sheet I want on paper or on the computer. But if I don't have my top guys aligned with my vision, and have the same passion as me, it's not gonna work, right?
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And he reached out to one of his uncles in Kuwait. He's like, look, uncle, I need help. Can you get me a job? I need to really support my family. And his uncle said that, look, you're too young. When you turn 18, I will employ you. And he just thought that, look, normally when you need people the most, that's when they turn away. It's typical life.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Especially in a startup. So this trip was extremely critical. And then I told them very clearly and upfront, I'm like, hey guys, look, whatever you worked in the last five years is amazing. I'm grateful for it. But what I need from all of you for the next five years is double, triple of what you've done. I don't want people who've got to look at their clock and work.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And if that's something that you don't want, This is the right time to leave. Tell me right now and I'm okay with it. Whatever compensation, whatever help you need, whatever letter of, you know, referral, I'll sign it. But I don't want you to be working anymore if you can't, you know, be giving in that time.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
But I promise you, if you do give that time and the company does grow, all of you are going to be leaders in your place. And it's very important to define expectations because at that point I'm saying there's no work-life balance, but you have a golden opportunity to be somewhere in five years time. So, you know, it's one guy left out of the 35.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And he tried coming back multiple times over the last 10 years, maybe like six times.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
All 34 of them work for me even today in 2025. All of them are leaders in their domain, having, you know, managers, having, you know, so many people under them. And if you want to know what we reached by 2020, so we didn't touch a billion because billion was a little ambitious and I intentionally so, always in for the stars. Like we were taught at Harvard as well.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
We didn't touch a billion, but we did about 700 million. So we grew from 128 to 700 in five years. But most importantly, For me, when I took over, we were at minus 10 net. This is not EBITDA, this is net. And by 2020, we were at 12.8% net. So there was like a 22% swing. So you went from 10 to 84 million or 90 million? From? From negative 10 million? From negative 10%.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Oh, negative 10% to positive 12%. Yeah, right. So from negative 10 to correct, correct. 90, 90 million. So, uh, incredible. Uh, that was the journey. And then it became my baby where, you know, it was fine. I created like, I turned it around. So it was like a success story in the company. It became a, We were one of the fastest growing home improvement retailers.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And the journey was very hard because when we started, when we tried to expand and I used to go to all these shopping malls, I'm like, hey, we have this concept we want to open. Keep in mind that time Dubai had these seven, eight big retail mafia families who own like 90% of retail. So each company would have like 50 brands, 40 brands. And I'm coming in with this one brand.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And then I'll be like, look, I have this concept. And the mall guy's like, oh, you wanna sell a commode in my shopping mall? Like a wash space in my shopping mall? I was like, yeah, it's unique, it's different. He's like, no way. And okay, fine. So then how do you solve that, right? It's a big road. It's a huge roadblock because how are you going to expand if the malls say no?
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And we pivoted by opening massive standalone showrooms next to the best shopping malls in town.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
No, so Ikea is about 250, 300,000 square feet. We would be about 60 to 100. Okay, so about a half. But it's still, it's pretty big. No, that's massive. It's still big. Yeah, Ikea is massive. It's still big. Yeah. And Ikea is about 150 to 300, yeah. Ours is about 60 to 100. Got it. So one third.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
But luck may have it on his 18th birthday, his uncle sent him a letter saying that, hey, Rizwan, happy birthday, you're 18. And if you're still willing to, you know, the job is still available. And my dad was like, hell yeah.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
We would open in very prime locations. And you know what we did? Something different was, I'd put these massive 20 meter by eight meter LED screens, bang on the showroom, showcasing our products. Awesome. So it became like an instant buzz. You know, what's happening over here? And anyone going to the mall would pass our shop anyway.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And the rent would be like half, would double the size of the shop. So it kind of worked out again. So the lesson of yours, you'll always have roadblocks in life, but how you find your way around it and how you look at it as a blessing in disguise is what really makes you successful. So resilience is key. And then as time progressed, started some other businesses.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Yeah. So yeah, we've gone with that route. So Danube Properties, Danube materials, Danube sports world, Danube home. You know, there's a lot of Danube companies right now.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So real estate was interesting. Real estate we started in 2014. My dad started it again. And back then, most of the big boys in real estate were selling these million dollar houses with no payment plans, so nobody could afford it. And if you understand Dubai, 90% of Dubai's population is expat. They're not Emiratis, it's expats.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And most of them are salaried people who couldn't have, who'd been paying rent, and they could never buy a home. So looking into that problem statement, we came up with this idea. affordable housing where you're selling studios for about $120,000 with a 1% payment plan. So we were the first people to introduce this 1% payment plan. What is it? It is basically you pay 20% upfront
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
and your remaining payment is 1% per month. So now suddenly.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So what we did was we went to the banks, we made this bulk deal with them. We inbuilt the interest costs into our product, making it easier for us. So the apartment came with self-financing. And then you buy in this $120,000 apartment, and then you're paying $1,200 a month. So now suddenly... the entire real estate landscape of Dubai changed.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So my uncle had, you know... building material company in Kuwait you know selling all kinds of building materials and my dad just went to Kuwait as an 18 year old salary was very low they used to live in a maybe like a 30 square feet 300 square feet apartment like 10 of them 10 people living in like one wow yeah In the very initial days, right?
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Because now there was this new product in town where the mass... Could afford. Could afford a home.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And it was an instant success. And then everyone started copying it. And what makes us really proud is because of this one single idea... Suddenly, you know, thousands of people in Dubai could have their own dream home. And, you know, we've had so many people come to our office like, wow, thank you so much.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
You know, as if like, you know, it was such a, because, you know, owning your own dream home, it's one of the pivotal or, you know, nicest moment in a family's journey. So hard for most people as well.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So now, since a lot of people copy this concept, like what do we do next? How do we create another defense layer? And the next thing that we did was we started giving all our apartments fully furnished. Now keep in mind, we have our sister company, which I started, the retail company, the furniture brand.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So it was much easier for us because we were the only private developer that's fully vertically integrated. We have a building drill company. We have our retail furniture company. So we use that to better serve our customers. And we started giving all our apartments fully furnished, which nobody had before. And that was, you know, buy in bulk, really high end furniture for like affordable pricing.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
The third thing that we did was back in 2014, most of the buildings used to have four or five amenities, a pool, a kid's pool, a sauna, jacuzzi, you know, maybe a kid's area. And that's it. Most of the buildings. And we're like, my dad, you know, we were like, why is it so? Why can't we have a resort style living in a building?
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And that's when we transformed from affordable housing to affordable luxury. And we came up with these buildings and We came up with these buildings where they would have 40, 50 amenities per building. So infinity pool, aquatic gym, doctor on call, paddle tennis court, badminton court, floating cinema, golf simulator, bowling alley. Like, you know, it's a huge list.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Air taxi. So one of the new buildings that we launched will be having an air taxi coming soon. One of the first buildings to sign that up. So we just went all out. We thought of every single amenity that we could think of. And we just put it in. And that worked like magic. Because if you think about it, people don't mind paying 10, 15, 20% more.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
in a building where they're getting so much, fully furnished apartments, payment plan, all these amenities, prime location. And the winning formula was a combination of all of this. And we were the only developer doing all four of them perfectly. Some was only doing the payment plan, some was only doing fully furnished, some was only doing this, but we had the entire bundle.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And because of this combination of having high value proposition for the customers, immediately in a hyper competitive market like Dubai, which is the hottest, hottest real estate market, you know, in the world right now for real estate, you have government backed companies, you have so much going on, despite all the, and we were one of the newest developers, 2014 is not that far away.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
We, we ranked, you know, third in terms of sales value. So, you know, it just comes down to the basics. You know, my dad always says, is he going to Harvard? He Great. But follow the basics. Understand the pulse of the customer. Keep your staff happy. Keep your customers happy. Figure out what the trend is. And then just make sure your execution is spot on.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
This suite is, yeah. Crazy. Of course it is. But that's how you start, right? Because when you have those humble beginnings, you can't be expecting luxury. You just need to go to the next phase in your life. And that's what he got. He got that opportunity. And as a person, my dad is an ace salesperson, is an ace businessman.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And so many of the times when we've done that, it's worked. And if you see all our businesses, there are two commonalities. Number one is every single business was different. So our retail business, when we launched, we were the only person selling bathrooms and kitchens and tiles and wallpapers and flooring and furniture, all in one roof. Nobody else does that, different.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Second is when we launch our sports business, by the way, we launched a sports business as well. Largest sports facility in the whole of Middle East and Asia. Like Dubai was big on sports. So that was the only, you know, astray, but that was more to connect to the community and I have a team managing it.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Fun passion thing. I love sports. I love paddle tennis. But I'm not involved. I've given it away to some young guy who's running it for us. But it's doing extremely well. And it's doing well because, again, when we did it, there was people only having paddle, only football, only cricket, only badminton. But there wasn't even one indoor multi-sport facility. We were the first. It worked.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
When it came to building materials, we started with nothing. But then very soon, we came very fast. We became one of the leading... building real companies because my dad got 30,000 SQs under one roof, plywood, timber, steel, aluminum, glass, hardware, you know, ACP panels, like all veneers, laminates, you name it.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Most of the guys that time, plywood was plywood company, timber is timber company, sanitary is sanitary company.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So we've always believed in this one-stop kind of a solution, whether it's sports, it's building material, it's home, it's properties. Bring everything and then give that high value proposition. And when you do that and then do something different. So when you do a combination of these three, it works. But the catalyst of all three is you need to have the best people.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
You got to be transparent with them. You got to fully empower them. And you got to give them enough stake in what you make. Absolutely. A little piece of the pie. You got to give them a little piece of the pie. So when you do that, you have now these super smart, young, ambitious people who know exactly what's going on in the company. And they're running the business like it's their own.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And that's the only way you can scale. And then they build their teams and then it happens. So, you know, this is the... Winning formula for us at Danube, this is what's worked for us.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Saudi was a little more conservative at that point. So it was just like, okay, let's just try Dubai. So it was that rejection was a perfect, you know, because if had it not been or had the war not happened or had so many things not happened, you know, maybe things would have not been the same for us. Maybe I would have not been at Harvard. Who knows, right?
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I mean, you're absolutely right. I joined YPO recently and we literally spend maybe half a percent or 1% of what we make because everything is set. So we're very content with our life, lifestyles. Obviously, we're not working to change our lifestyle. And then when I went to YPO, a lot of people were like, okay, why are you working? Why, why, why, why, why?
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And the answer to the why is, even if I see my dad today, he's 60. He's young, but he's still 60 and he's still working six days a week. He's working till 9 p.m. every day.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I think it's in his blood. He had to drop out of school. More nature rather. He never attended university. He had to drop out of school at grade 10 because his father passed away. So it's not that he was taught all these beautiful cases that we were taught at Harvard. You know, it's just inbuilt. You know what I mean? And...
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So yeah, you should definitely check out both our Instagram handles. I'm sure Chris is going to put it up. Yeah, we'll throw them down there. A lot of interesting content. But yeah, we're super close in family. We're actually four generations staying together in one house also.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Yeah, so we have our values. We have our values. You know, we're very close in family. And don't get me wrong. You know, I spoke a lot about work. I also have a lot of fun in life. I travel a lot, you know, with my wife, my three lovely kids, you know, so I'm blessed. I mean, I can't ask for, I think I'm privileged.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So to answer your question, I think it'd be foolish for someone being the only child in my platform to have all this opportunity to make so much value in community. And then just throw it away because I want to travel and do nothing. How would that make any sense? Why can't you just have it all? Why can't you travel? Why can't you have your family? Why can't you work your ass off?
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Why can't you do it all? I always believe it's never a trade-off. Hey, don't work, just do this. Or just work, don't do that. So I think it's important to do it all. And the only way you can do it is have a very organized life. And then make sure your time counts.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Habibi, come to Dubai. It is the best place for me, at least, in the world. And for many reasons. Number one, One of the safest cities in the world. Number two, you get the best of both worlds. You have culture, but you also have a very modern society where, you know, everything is, you have the super bling, but you also have, you know, something which is culturally sound.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
He then, within a very short span of time, became my uncle's right hand because he was really good at what he was doing. And within five, six years, he was like the chief commander for my uncle for running his business, made it extremely successful.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Number three, you have the, you know, some of the best restaurants over there. Number four, if you want to shift to Dubai, no taxes. I mean, we're paying nothing.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Unless, I mean, if you're American, you've got to pay tax no matter where you live.
Next Level Pros
#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
But otherwise, you know, just like 5% VAT. They've just introduced 9% corporate tax. It's wild. There's no income tax, no inheritance tax, no property tax. There's no tax. So it's amazing. Whatever we earn, we take home.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
It does. And I highly recommend you should, you know, one of my biggest idols, you know, is His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who's the ruler of Dubai. Read his book, The Sheikh's CEO. It is fantastic. The way he's transformed Dubai from a desert to one of the top cities in the world in 30 years.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
we are who we are because of him. I mean, if Dubai wasn't a success story, it would have been much harder for us to get this kind of success. So we've kind of piggybacked on that and we're lucky, blessed to be at the right place at the right time. And yeah, and even from an investment point of view, if you ever invest in Dubai, the rental yields are very high. You get anywhere from 6% to 8%.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
You know, typically around the world, it's something around 8%. Even the price per square feet for the kind of buildings I was talking about, it's, still very undervalued. Like you can get something in the heart of Dubai with 50 plus amenities, furniture payment plan for about
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
$700 a foot, which is very reasonable when you compare it to New York, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai, any of these top tier cities.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Yeah, fully furnished. So think about Dubai as your, if not your first home, it is your second home. And if you don't want to invest, just come with your family, you know, in the winters. And I'm sure you're going to like it.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I don't know how big it was, but I know how much he started earning. He started earning about $8,000 a month. Keep in mind, $8,000 a month because of commissions. So he was earning that on sales commissions, purely on commissions. $8,000 a month. 35 years ago. 40 years ago. So this was like early 90s. Late 80s. Late 80s, early 90s.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And now, if you're talking about America, think about that if you convert that to Indian rupees.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Like we were extremely, you know, coming from the slums and earning, you know. Yeah.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So earning, you know, $8,000 a month, $100,000 a year, you're crushing it.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And he got his sister married. He got a house done. You know, I was born in Kuwait and we were living in extremely, you know, living in a posh neighborhood in Kuwait. Things were great. You know, there was no reason to You know, think otherwise. And then fortunately, unfortunately, in the early 90s, Saddam Hussein from Iraq, he invaded Kuwait.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And my dad's boss calls him and he's like, look, Rizwan, you know, there's an invasion. And he was in London. He's like, go to the office and, you know, pick up these papers. And my dad's like, what is invasion? What does that mean? Yeah. And he's like, Rizwan, like, you know. Rizwan's your dad's name. Yeah. So he's like, no, Iraq is taking over. So he's like, what does that even mean?
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Like, you know, you've never heard of this. Right. So he's like, no, just go outside and see your balcony. So he opens the balcony and they're like tanks lined up on the streets and the soldiers walking in because it was a surprise attack. Nobody knew, right? It wasn't planned. There was no announcement on social media.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So that's what happened. Overnight, there was a surprise invasion. Iraq invaded Kuwait and that's it. They just seized the country. And we were there. I was born, I was like maybe a year old. And while most people would panic, you know, in such a gruesome situation, My father was like, hmm, how do I make money out of this? And I mean, because that's his spirit, right? So you know what he did?
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
He went to, because the telecommunication was cut, the internet, I mean, there was no way to contact your family. So he went to all the people in his buildings and the neighboring buildings and he charged them five dinar. Five dinar would be about... for 60, like about $20 or like $18 for a letter. So he would charge about $20 per letter.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
He collected a hundred letters for people to send them back to their home that, hey, I'm alive. And then he would take those hundred letters, drive through, you know, some war-torn area, go to the other side and deliver the letters. And then eventually the, you know, the Indian embassy found out and like, what the hell are you doing? You can't do this. You know, it's not safe.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
He's like, it's worth two grand. Let's go. Literally. Yeah. And then he started selling oil on the streets in Kuwait. And then he's like, you know, he's pure hustling. I love it. And then so one of the Iraqi soldiers came and he's like, how much? And my dad's like, five dinar. For what? For the oil, whatever he was buying. And so the Iraqi soldier gives five Iraqi dinar.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And Iraqi dinar is much less than the Kuwaiti dinar. And my dad's like, no, no, no, not Iraqi, it's Kuwaiti Dinar. You know, cause like 10 times, then he takes out like a gun and he's like, no, it's Iraqi. And then my dad eventually had to just, okay, here you go. So he did all these crazy things. But at gunpoint, he's getting held up. That's crazy. So anyway, then we had to escape.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So luckily the Indian government rescued a lot of the Indians.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
On a fighter plane, on a fighter jet. No. So they send these huge army planes. The Indian government. Yeah, the Indian government. Obviously, they would rescue the Indians back to India because we're not Kuwaiti. Right. Yeah, and I'm sure the other governments, so we're expats. So the Indian government sent a lot of planes and we went in like the Indian army planes.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So they're in, but they were okay with the Indians. They didn't have any issues with the Indians.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Yeah. They didn't care with us leaving. It wasn't like... So they were very much okay with people leaving. But they want to capture the country. Anyway, fast forward. So my dad leaves. He goes back to India. And then he's like, look, I need to get out of India. I need to go somewhere else to make some more money. So he approached one of his friends in Dubai.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And his friend offered him a salary of $500 a month. plus commission, which is like, whoop, you're back to square one. And most of the money that he made got devalued because the Kuwaiti dinar got devalued. So he comes back to Dubai, he starts working for this guy.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I don't know. It was very random. It was very random. You know, as my mom said, you should think about Dubai. It was very random. There was no like, there was no science.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So he didn't want to work in India. Yeah. Kuwait was obviously, it was a war. So you want to live somewhere close by. And like, Saudi was more conservative at that point. You know, so it was just like, okay, let's just try Dubai. There was no other reason.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And this was a nice dose. He's, of course, he's a smart worker, he's a hard worker, but he's always had very good luck on his side. And in this case, to answer your question, plain flat is luck.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
No, I believe in the fact that you can't just be like, hey, I'm going to sit at home all day and I'm going to be get lucky. Yeah. You got to make, you got to set yourself up for luck. Yeah. So yes, luck plays a big role. But then you got to also work your ass off and you got to set yourself up for luck.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So we come back to Dubai and he gets a very low salary, $500 per month with commission. And he's working for this guy and he starts earning about... $3,000, $3,500 a month because of commissions, which is okay. And he goes back to him and he's like, look, he tells his boss, the new boss now, that I know this business about plywood and timber, which he learned in Kuwait.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
You know, give me four or five people and give me like a 10% profit share and I can make it big. And, but unfortunately that guy was very conservative. He's like, no, this is too risky. I don't want to do it. And then my dad's like, look, I don't see my, my growth potential too much. So I want to part ways.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
And that's when he went to my mom and he's like, so wait, this guy rejected the 10% profit share. He rejected the idea of doing this new business of plywood and timber. So he was doing a hardware business, which is a smaller business, door handles, hinges, um,
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
For sure. For him. Yeah. For sure. Wow. So he said no. I mean, he's still in Dubai. He knows we're still there. Yeah. He's kicking himself. And it's okay. I mean, he's doing all right. And like I said, it's a little bit of destiny, a little bit of luck.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So it was that rejection was a perfect, you know, because if had it not been or had the war not happened or had so many things that happened, you know, maybe things would have not been the same for us. Maybe I would have not been at Harvard. Who knows, right? So, yeah.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Oh, many times. With his dad passing away and then the Kuwait war. And then, of course, many with the recession. So many times he's faced, he always has a smile. He's never stressed about it. You know, I don't know how. It's awesome. Anyway, so he started his business. He went to my mom. He's like, look, I have $30,000 saved right now.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Because all the money he made earlier was gone because of Kuwait. So I have $30,000 saved. I want to start a business. Worst case, six months, I lose all the money. And I can go back and I can get a $3,000, $4,000 job easily. I'm capable enough. And we can live. We'll have a house to stay in. We'll have food. We'll be okay. It's not the end of the world. My mom said, do whatever you want.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Huge, huge. So my mom is very simple, very supportive, you know, very easy to get along with. So she was a big moral support for my dad. And that's why my dad's like, okay, you know, it's not the end of the world. Let me take this plunge. But no, obviously nobody knew that it's going to become this.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
I mean, fast forward, if I have to say, like our company just completed 30 years this year and from that $30,000, you know, last year we had an annual revenue of almost four and a half billion dollars. Unbelievable. We have, you know, 6000 people working for us, multiple businesses, 40 cities. So, you know, it's just a complete transformation from the slums to four and a half billion.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
Yeah, so I'll start off with my growing up part first. My dad really instilled very strong values from a very young age. He was extremely tough in building my foundation. So when I was 13 years old, summer holidays like we all do, June, July, August.
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#132: Building Dubai Since 1991 - Adel Sajan
So we had our building material shops, you know, and in that we have a warehouse and we have like an open yard where we store timber, plywood, all kinds of wood over there. So 13 years old, I was supposed to work 8 to 1 during my summer holidays with my tie. I have to be on time. You had to wear a tie? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I had to be on time. Like no 8 or 5, it's 8 o'clock.