Dubai: When French national Chloë Langer, 33, arrived in Dubai in 2021, she didn’t know a single person in the city. All she had was a plan – to Dubai-it, and excel as a business owner.
Langer immediately got to work. She said: “I moved to Dubai specifically to set up my first business, and I realised almost immediately that, from an entrepreneurial perspective, there was nowhere quite like it. Within my very first week, despite not knowing anyone, I could already feel a level of energy and dynamism in the business environment that I hadn’t experienced anywhere else.”
Langer could tell the difference, because she’s lived around the world – she left France at 18, spent 10 years in the UK, and lived in Spain and the US, before eventually settling in Dubai.
But what made the emirate her final destination, and not just a stop in her travels?
She said it was a combination of professional opportunities and a better quality of life: “Safety and security were huge factors for me, as was the efficiency of everyday life. And, of course, after spending 10 years in the UK, the prospect of sunshine all year round was a very welcome change!”
Entrepreneur from the get-go
As a globe-trotter, Langer is comfortable with being uncomfortable – but in Dubai, she said she felt immediately at home.
She said: “I felt Dubai was almost a perfect fit for the stage of life I was in when I arrived. I was very much in an entrepreneurial, growth-focused mindset, and Dubai’s fast-paced culture suited me perfectly.”
Langer, whose background is in social media and marketing, set about establishing her own marketing company, and found a lot of support: “What struck me was how much the city actively encourages entrepreneurship. There’s a genuine appetite for business, innovation and growth, and an infrastructure designed to support it.”
In July 2021, she founded Headway Marketing, a marketing and social media management company, in Dubai.
As she celebrated her wins, she also had to learn hard lessons along the way – about how to navigate a business environment and be discerning enough to know whom to trust.
As a young entrepreneur, she said she encountered a category of people, who “will promise you the world, claim expertise they don’t necessarily have, and then fail to deliver”. It happened to her both in business, and when she was renovating her first apartment, too – she counted on contractors who made big promises that failed to materialise.
The experience taught her to hold herself to a higher standard of integrity and reliability: the Dubai-it standard. “In such a fast-paced environment, it’s easy to get caught up in the pressure to move quickly, grow rapidly and constantly chase the next opportunity. But I’ve learned that being someone people can genuinely trust, who shows up, follows through and delivers what they promise, is an enormous differentiator. And that’s something I’ve carried into my businesses.”
As her company gradually grew, Langer hired staff, and built the kind of business she always dreamed of running: “I’ve never aspired to run a huge agency with hundreds of employees and an impersonal approach to client relationships. Instead, I’ve carefully handpicked a team of specialists who are exceptionally good at what they do. I strongly believe in surrounding yourself with people who are better than you in their respective areas of expertise.”
New idea, new business
Then, in 2024, life took a new turn for Langer. She co-founded her second business, Headway Atlantic, in a completely different industry – real estate investment.
This time, she didn’t go into it with a plan – the business came to her.
Langer said: “It all started when I purchased my first investment apartment in Dubai. I took care of absolutely everything myself, from the purchase to the renovation, interior design and ongoing management. It was a huge learning curve, as I had no previous experience in the industry, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process.”
Once the apartment was completed, something interesting happened. Friends, family members and acquaintances started approaching Langer, asking whether she could replicate exactly what she had done – for them.
She said: “They wanted to purchase similar investment properties, have them decorated in the same way and have someone manage the entire process on their behalf.”
Langer looked for existing businesses in the city, but couldn’t find one that offered comprehensive services. So, she decided to create it.
She said: “It’s a completely different industry from marketing, but I absolutely love both businesses. And in many ways, they both reflect the same entrepreneurial instinct: identifying a genuine need in the market and finding a way to address it.”
A community unlike any other
Today, five years into her life in Dubai, Langer is embracing a Dubai-it attitude on all levels, and loving the journey.
But she knows success doesn’t just fall into one’s lap. From the early days of setting up her business on her own, to more recent days, where she helped her clients navigate the challenges of regional tensions, she believes hard work and resilience are vital to the process. And it’s something people miss when they view Dubai from the outside.
Langer said: “When you’re running a business, you don’t always have the luxury of waiting for things to settle down. You have to assess the situation, make decisions and adapt, sometimes almost overnight… What people don’t necessarily see on Instagram are the long working hours, the financial responsibilities, the difficult decisions and the constant pressure of running a business. Dubai rewards hard work, but it certainly doesn’t eliminate the need for it.”
It’s why she thinks there’s a sense of mutual connection and respect among people in the business community, living in the emirate.
Langer explained: “I think one of the things I appreciate most about Dubai is the respect that exists between entrepreneurs, regardless of whether they’re men or women. People who have genuinely built and operated businesses understand what it takes. They understand the financial pressures, the responsibility of paying employees on time, the unexpected expenses, the difficult months when you might have to pay yourself last, and the commitment required to continue delivering an excellent service regardless of what’s happening behind the scenes.”
The city’s international community recognises this more than anyone else – the central narrative of people living here is the same.
Langer said: “The vast majority of people I’ve met here have come from somewhere else. They’ve left their home countries, their families and their comfort zones to build something new. There’s a shared understanding of what it means to start over in a foreign country, take risks and create opportunities for yourself. I think that creates a certain level of mutual respect and solidarity that I haven’t necessarily experienced to the same extent elsewhere.”
It’s why, after years of travelling, Langer has made Dubai her home. Now, she looks forward to growing her established businesses, and enjoying “the safety, comfort and convenience of everyday life”.
She’s also looking forward to seeing what Dubai sends her way next. “After all, I think that’s part of what makes Dubai so special: you never quite know what exciting opportunity might be around the corner.”