STRABL - The commencement of an e-commerce revolution

You know most start-up founders have an itch. They have the itch for creating something, something unique, something different, something along these lines. Well, I hope you get the point. 

So, whilst studying, Zaid (CEO of STRABL) started scratching his head. “I need an idea” he said. This college undergraduate started venturing and thinking of a million ideas.

The idea generation stage is probably the part where every entrepreneur, or start up genius struggles because, in today’s world if you have thought of an idea, it is already been done or being done by someone else. 

After watching the caped crusader run along saving the streets from joker. He taught about his personal butler. Well, he does everything for Bruce Wayne aka batman. So, his first idea was, “a person who can run your errands.” However, after seeing that this start up idea was way too fictional and since the caped crusader was missing in UAE (Dubai) he decided to go against it. Sorry scratch that, he cancelled the idea because he was discouraged by his peers. Start-up world is nasty, no one wants to support or help you but that doesn’t stop a Start-Up founder’s relentless attitude. 

He scraped this idea and went into his next naturally occurring idea that came from an event he missed out. Zaid being the petrol head he was, he missed out on the F1 event in UAE (Dubai). 

Henceforth the birth of his next idea, “meet the city. “A place where you could find out the A-Z on all events in the UAE. How do you get there? Booking tickets online for any concert. The best parks and best tourists’ attractions in UAE. It would be the go-to all social hang out app for all socialites in all the 7 emirates (Abu-Dhabi, Dubai, Ras-Al-Khaimah, Sharjah, Fujairah and Umm-Al-Quian). Sadly, another start-up idea that was tossed into the bin because of the lack of funding for such an idea and the intricacies of the event management companies. 

Food is an essential part of our lives and with that the advent of restaurants. What if there was an area and a space where restaurants could possibly lower their rental rates by sharing a kitchen space with one another. A co-working space for restaurants. Zaid met his Co-Founder whilst planning to take over the kitchen world on this endeavour. 

Enter David Rodgers, the ex-Dunkin donuts, ex-KFC Regional manager of these franchises.  Therefore, he knew the industry and he also knew the main issue in this area. The strict rules of the Federal food authority in UAE. So, as a 65-year-old man who was very experienced in this industry. He knew that this idea wouldn’t suffice in this industry. 

Lost and distraught, Zaid returned home. Not broken but looking for the next possible start-up idea. Finally, having someone like David on board he realized that it wasn’t all for nothing. He found something wonderful, a co-founder. 

He walked into his dim lit room and saw brother trying to hammer in a screw in the wall. He stood there hysterically when he saw his brother trying to hang the new clock on the wall. He then told Zaid, “Stop standing there and laughing. Go make yourself useful and get a hold of a better hammer.”

To which Zaid replied, “You can’t hammer a screw into a wall. You need a drill machine.” 

The quick-witted younger version of Zaid then spoke in a sarcastic tone, “Oh, no! I really thought this was the solution.” 

Whilst making a poker face, he added, “I am not going to buy a drilling machine just to put one screw into the wall.”

Zaid replied, “Why don’t you just borrow it from someone?”

They both look at each other trying to figure out who is the bigger dunce. 

After that scintillating debate. Zaid finally got it. He finally realized what the next million-dollar idea was..

The Idea is Made

After a month of research and understanding the UAE market. After days and nights put together with shots of espressos. He came up with BorrowBlob. An online peer 2 peer portal where one person could rent an item of daily use out to another person and earn a rental fee from the transaction. He met up with David and pitched the idea. David was awestruck with the idea and then they start putting the idea into motion. 

“What good is an idea if it just remains so? Act upon the idea and it will act upon the world to create a change” -Saad Suhail (Weird flex but okay!)

While going about trying to make BorrowBlob happen. His friend calls him up and asks him if he could borrow Zaid’s car for a week. Zaid asked the question, why would his friend call him up and ask for borrowing his car. When there are generic brick and mortar companies already doing rentals for cars. Then it finally hit him. The full picture. 

What if BorrowBlob not only rents out items but also vehicles too. The question of what if became what should. He decided that BorrowBlob would be a platform where you could rent anything and everything. 

The Birth of STRABL

After careful examination Zaid and David realized that the name BorrowBlob was not so appealing. It didn’t appeal to the right crowd. Granted it did have the word borrow in it but something about the name and logo and the symbol and the word and the phrasing. Something just seemed off. Pronouncing it was definitely a tongue twister.

This led to the commencement of a Rental and Try Before You Buy platform, ‘STRABL’ (2020). Furthermore, since there was no such thing as an online platform where people could try items before buying or just rent for a short while in UAE. We decided to be the pioneers in this region and create something that would take UAE by surprise.

-Saad Suhail