UAE COVID-19: The rise of the Dadpreneur in Dubai

UAE COVID-19: The rise of the Dadpreneur in Dubai

In 2019, few business owners would have identified with the term' dadpreneur'. Post-pandemic, it's a changing story. As fathers spend more time at home with their children, those professionals who are most in control of their own working practices - entrepreneurs who run their own businesses - have learnt to embrace the duality of their responsibilities, rather than hiding it. "I'm definitely more likely to describe myself as a 'dadpreneur' since the pandemic," Roy Koyess, father and founder of UAE-based snack brand Freakin' Healthy, told Gulf News. "COVID-19 highlighted the fragility of life and led me to refocus on what is important. In my case, it was the importance of family and kids and giving them quality time." Most of us are familiar with the term 'mumpreneur'. Entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011, it was invented to describe the growing trend of women who, after having a baby, devised a business or product based on their experience of parenting - often one that solves a specific parenting problem. The term has since evolved to refer to 'any female entrepreneur who also has children'. Over the years all fathers, including those who run their own businesses, have become much more