“I sold my wife’s wedding jewellery to pay salaries — today Hozpitality turns 17.”
And what a journey it’s been. Built with no investors, no shortcuts — just belief.
In 2007, I left a well-paid Resort Manager job in Africa and moved to Dubai with nothing certain.
Worked from a friend’s office, paying for a table… then success came fast — hotels, pre-openings, cash flow, bigger home, new cars. Life was great.
So in 2008, we took the biggest risk of our lives:
Spent everything to build Hozpitality.com and launched it with a grand event at Raffles Dubai.
Two days later, Lehman Brothers collapsed.
The world crashed — and so did our plans.
Loans, losses, hackers, 3-person office… we fought every single day.
But we kept building:
🔹 2009 – HozpitalityPlus.com
🔹 2010 – GM Conferences
🔹 2015 – TV show on Zee TV, Colours, MTV
🔹 2015 – First Excellence Awards (begged people to nominate!)
🔹 2018 – Chef Awards
🔹 2019 – India office
Then Covid hit.
Tourism died overnight.
I sold my wife’s wedding jewellery to pay expenses and took loans on our home to pay salaries.
We rebuilt again in 2024.
And in 2025, we took our biggest leap —
selling our house and opened our first US office in Los Angeles.
Seventeen years.
No investors.
No shortcuts.
Just belief, resilience, and a dream that refuses to die.
And honestly… we’re only getting started.
Big Thank you to our teams, partners, supporters, family and friends !
And thank you to those who didn’t — you pushed us even harder.
#hozpitality #17years #entrepreneurship #leadership #nevergiveup #startuplife #resilience #dubai #india #usa
