How to read the Gulf markets, a guide for Indian startups

​In recent years, the Middle East has become the go-to place for Indian startups to expand into. Dubai is considered the best Indian city outside of India, a natural extension of the metropolitan consumer base. More than a third of the UAE is anyway Indians, so startups have been coming, one after another, to cater to the diaspora.

​Zomato. Urban Company. Lenskart. FirstCry. Nykaa. Cars24. Curefoods. Fresh2Home. Paytm. Ferns N Petals. And more.

​Why is it then that so many of them have gotten this market wrong? When Lenskart launched, its entire premise of affordability didn’t work here. FirstCry had to fight a lot of local competition. And Paytm had a web of regulations to navigate.

​What makes the Mideast market and its many countries so hard to read?

​Why is it that what works in India has repeatedly failed to work in this part of the world?

​We will sit down with Vish Narain, managing partner at Pulsar Capital and the former India head of TPG Growth to find some answers.

​Vish is a private equity man and is now investing, building and scaling businesses in the India-Mideast corridor. Geopolitics and the general business environment may have this region hot for Indian startups, but Vish has seen many come in and fumble these markets.