Missiles Are Flying. Dubai's Founders Are Staying.

Mirna Mneimne was in Beirut when the drones started flying over Dubai. She's Lebanese — she's seen worse. On March 31st, she's heading back to her adopted home. "I have lived most of my life in a war zone," she told Rest of World. "Dubai was and still is the safest place I have ever lived in."

That sentence, from a founder who has actual war as her frame of reference, captures something important about what's happening in the Gulf right now.

What's Actually Happening on the Ground

The numbers are not small. Over the past month, Iran has launched more than 1,700 drones and 360 missiles at the UAE, primarily in response to its strategic alliance with the U.S. Dubai's international airport — the world's busiest by international passenger traffic — has sustained debris damage from intercepted projectiles. At least 7 people have been killed and 145 injured.

And yet: the eight expat tech entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals interviewed by Rest of World are all staying. Several are actively leaning in.

The UAE Central Bank moved fast. On March 18th, it announced a 1 trillion dirham ($270 billion) resilience package — allowing banks to access 30% of their reserve balances, easing liquidity requirements, and maintaining credit flow. It's the same playbook the country ran during the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19. The muscle memory, apparently, is there.

The Calculation These Founders Already Made

Here's the thing about Dubai's expat tech community: self-selection is doing a lot of work. The 90% of Dubai's population that is foreign-born didn't end up there by accident. They chose it — over London, Singapore, New York — knowing full well the neighborhood's history.

"The founders who chose Dubai over London or Singapore already made a calculation about operating in a volatile neighborhood," said Mohammed Soliman, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. "What we're seeing now is that calculation being tested."

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By 2025, the UAE had issued over 300,000 Golden Visas — its residency program for investors, entrepreneurs, and specialized workers. Zero income tax. Long-term residency. Business-friendly regulation. These aren't accidents; they're deliberate infrastructure built over 15 years specifically to decouple the business environment from regional turbulence.

Wes Schwalje, an American who has lived in Dubai since 2007 and co-founded public-sector strategy firm Tahseen Consulting, is launching a new tech venture right now. "History shows that the UAE doesn't just survive regional disruption — it wins," he said. "When the world feels volatile, global talent and capital gravitate here because they know the best companies aren't built when the sun is shining."

Investors: Paused, Not Spooked

Not everyone is charging forward. Daniyal Baig, co-founder of AI-driven conversational commerce platform MyAlice, is candid: "Some conversations have slowed or paused as people wait for clarity." Investment timelines have stretched. Deals are on hold.

But the direction of travel hasn't changed. Sahil Makker, managing partner at capital advisory firm Brillwood Capital, says his clients see the conflict as potentially clearing "more room and options" — and notes that friendlier terms from business support providers are already emerging, echoing the COVID-era incentives Dubai rolled out in 2020.

Omair Ansari, CEO of neobank Abhi, is tightening underwriting criteria to limit non-performing loan exposure — while simultaneously looking for ways to help customers absorb economic shocks. "One should never waste a crisis," he said.

The Risks That Aren't Being Talked About

The bullishness is real, but it has limits — and a few data points are worth sitting with.

The UAE has arrested 109 individuals for filming and sharing footage of the Iranian attacks, in what Time described as "a widening crackdown on threats to the Gulf state's image of safety and stability." That's a government aggressively managing its own narrative. The resilience story and the information-control story are running in parallel.

Soliman's most pointed observation isn't about the war itself: "The variable I'd watch is not the war itself but how long it runs." The institutional buffers are real. But they were designed for crises measured in months, not years. Duration is the unknown.

And for founders whose teams include workers from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Palestine — nationalities represented among the conflict's casualties — the calculus around "team safety" is not abstract. Several entrepreneurs told Rest of World they've moved to flexible work-from-home schedules as a direct response.