Three million-dollar companies, zero college degrees

Arabian Business

14-07-2025

Dubai is home to a new wave of entrepreneurs who are reshaping global consumer industries. Among them are foreign pioneers working to contribute to the growing city, one venture at a time. One of those pioneers is Deep Patel, who has built three million-dollar companies without a college degree. He briefly enrolled at the University of San Diego but dropped out on the first day, realising his passion for entrepreneurship far outweighed traditional education.
Born in a small town in the state of Georgia, but now a resident of Dubai, Patel aimed for entrepreneurial success from a young age. At the age of 16, he wrote A Paperboy's Fable, which was based on interviews he conducted with prominent entrepreneurs and other business experts. The book, published by Post Hill Press, received acclaim for its ability to illustrate business principles for the common person. Its success allowed Patel to create an agency that advised corporations on marketing to youth.
Patel's involvement with the marketing agency paved the way for his first business, Penguin. The modern consumer landscape can be unforgiving, especially as younger generations are beginning to prioritise product quality over artificial marketing frills. At the helm of Penguin, Patel got a first-hand look into what did and didn't work. He later applied those lessons when breaking into the skincare and wellness industries. Total commitment to customer satisfaction turned out to be crucial.
Penguin made its mark in the CBD industry, amidst a market flooded with poor-quality products. But it was Blu Atlas, Patel's foray into the men's personal care market, that achieved stratospheric success. This came after Penguin was acquired by leading CBD manufacturer Verma Farms in 2021, for an undisclosed all-cash sum.
Blu Atlas: Tapping into underserved demand
When Patel started Blu Atlas, skincare products for men were limited compared to the alternatives for women. Patel tapped into this underserved demographic and figured out what men were looking for: clean, effective skincare at an affordable price point. The venture paid off. Just one month after the launch, Blu Atlas hit six figures in sales, indicating that the market Patel had tapped into was receptive to what the company was offering.
Historically, men's skincare has been deprioritised, viewed as an unnecessary or even feminine practice. However, this view is on the wane. Men's skincare is now championed by social media and brands like Blu Atlas that aim to destigmatise common views on masculinity and grooming. Today, men are embracing skin health and becoming more conscious about the products they purchase. From 2022 to 2024, the men's skincare market increased 68 per cent, and it is expected to keep growing.
But just because a solution is created for a gap in the market doesn't mean it automatically becomes a success. In today's fast-paced environment, first impressions certainly matter; however, for any company, quality is the key to achieving sustained separation from the competition.
Blu Atlas' R&D approach meant Patel worked alongside top formulators, including consulting with dermatologists as part of the company's medical advisory board. From the beginning, Patel recognised that, no matter how polished the Blu Atlas product branding and social media presence were, if the products weren't of superior quality, they wouldn't sell.
Sell they did, a testament to Patel's dedication to quality. After a few years of growth that even Patel couldn't have predicted, Blu Atlas was acquired by Foundry Brands in the summer of 2023 for an undisclosed eight-figure sum. It was the third men's personal care acquisition for the brand platform. For Foundry, the acquisition was a natural choice, based on the potential for Blu Atlas to reach $100 million in sales in the coming years.
Once Patel began living part-time in Dubai, he realised the Middle East excelled at holding on to traditions while embracing modernity. Through fashion, culture, and beauty, tradition influences the city's population, but its citizens also have a strong drive to push boundaries with modern technology.
The blend of tradition, modernity, and luxury that characterises the UAE did its part in inspiring Patel's vision for Blu Atlas. While tried and tested formulations have been prioritised for decades due to the crucial role they play in effective skincare, modern consumers also care about whether the product's ingredients are naturally sourced or made in a lab. And they want to know that what they're putting on their skin isn't detrimental to the environment. One of the reasons for Blu Atlas' success was that Patel chose to prioritise the quality of ingredients and design the products with ethics and safety in mind.
Transforming hair loss care digitally
Wellness is always more than skin deep. That's why Patel's third company, Ulo, aimed to combat a condition that affects millions around the world: hair loss. Ulo was built on a telehealth model, an approach that empowers people to take control of their health in the way that suits them best. As technology becomes more ingrained in everyday life, telehealth is expected to keep increasing in popularity.
Ulo was different from other common hair-regrowth solutions. By providing options that bypassed the need for in-person clinic visits, customers could access hair-regrowth treatments and proceed through the necessary steps, including diagnosis and check-ins, via a dedicated patient portal. This allowed them to receive bespoke treatments prescribed from the privacy and comfort of their own homes, rather than purchase generic topical products.
Though hair loss affects 85 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women at some point in their lives, a stigma still surrounds the condition – primarily because of its perceived impact on masculinity, health, and fertility.
With Ulo, Patel was clear in his quest to destigmatise hair loss, centring his approach around personalised treatments rather than pushing out generic products that were all talk and no action. As with many other conditions, tackling hair loss requires a multifaceted approach and is rarely solved with a one-size-fits-all product. Orienting the Ulo solution around the individual's needs, biology, and product preferences instantly captured customer attention.
All three of Patel's companies have been bootstrapped and self-funded, which meant maintaining cash flow while continuously ordering product inventory to keep up with demand. Without external funding, an entrepreneur can only do so much to support the initial company growth and sustain it for the long term. Despite having never acquired a college degree or used external funding, Patel learned the principles of founding and maintaining businesses through experience and by emulating the successful practices of other market leaders.
This made the eventual success of these businesses even more rewarding. 'Bootstrapping my businesses pushed me to become highly strategic about financial management,' he says. 'It's all about building strong relationships with suppliers and financial partners.'
In Dubai, things move quickly. But there's no room for rash decisions and carelessness when it comes to consistent and long-term success, something Patel learned quickly during his time in the city. 'Dubai has taught me the importance of balancing speed with strategy,' he reflects. 'Staying focused and adaptable – these have shaped how I approach building and scaling my businesses.'
This approach will be the baseline for how Patel moves forward. His next venture, deep, a fashion line, is designed to be luxurious yet timeless – the antithesis of the fast-fashion brands that currently dominate the e-commerce market.
With customers in high-end spaces now demanding quality and sustainability in everything they purchase, it's the perfect time for Patel to scale his fourth business.