Entrepreneur In Residence

About Mindsets Ventures

Mindsets Ventures (MV) is the venture studio arm of Mindsets, a talent centric investment company operating across the MENA, Europe, and North America.

MV makes long-term investments in innovation-stagnant sectors and high-growth potential markets through re-invented business models, with a goal of redefining industries and creating mutual value between businesses and users in innovative ways.

MV is hands-on from day one and operates through two models.

In the first model, MV generates venture ideas internally, validates them through market research and customer interviews, and then recruits entrepreneurs and co-founders to lead those ventures supported by the studios capital, team, and operational infrastructure.

In the second model, MV partners with founders who come with their own promising venture ideas, supporting them through the venture building process and providing pre-seed investment to help them build and scale.

In both cases MV remains hands-on at every stage, from validating the problem to assembling the team, developing the product, securing funding, and crafting go-to-market strategies.

Venture Context

Choosing where to live is one of lifes biggest decisions. Yet renters do it blindly.

Renters spend weeks browsing listings and conducting dozens of viewings, yet still move into a home that does not fit them, because listings never reveal the dealbreaker issues that only current residents know. Issues like congested streets at rush hour, noisy neighbors through thin walls, an unresponsive building management that takes weeks to fix a leak, slow elevators, poor property quality, low value for money, and a neighborhood vibe that looked nothing like what the photos suggested.

Rather than reliable data, renters fall back on word of mouth, Google Maps, Reddit threads, and WhatsApp groups, piecing together fragments of information from strangers with no way to verify what is true, what is outdated, or what simply does not apply to their situation. The result is a broken decision process, and the cost falls entirely on the renter.

Market Opportunity

$4.3 billion is wasted every year in the UAE and Saudi Arabia alone by dissatisfied tenants and landlords absorbing tenant turnover costs. Globally, this figure exceeds $146 billion.

The scale of the problem is rooted in how large and mobile the renter population is. Over 60% of the UAE and KSA population live in rented homes. These renters spend one to two months searching before committing themselves to a lease. Yet even after that investment of time, 32.4% of renters in Dubai in 2024 were dissatisfied due to discrepancies between advertised and actual properties, and 24% of tenants end up moving again due to housing-related issues. When they do, they absorb up to $2,000 in moving costs from agent fees, deposits, and home movers, endure the stress of living in a place that does not fit them until their contract ends, and then restart the same broken search process with no guarantee of a better outcome.

Existing property platforms are built to serve property supply. They optimize for listing discovery, not living decisions. There is no platform today that structures community knowledge, resident experiences, and geospatial data into a decision-making tool for renters.

Venture Idea

To address this opportunity, Mindsets Ventures is building Homi: a platform that matches renters with their most suitable home, based on real resident experiences and geospatial data.

Renter Benefits

Homi is building what property platforms never did: a platform that tells you what it is really like to live in every neighborhood, street, building, and apartment. For renters, this translates into three key benefits:

1. Explore with Confidence: Browse real resident reviews and discussions about every area, street, and building. Understand noise levels, maintenance quality, community culture, and hidden issues that only current residents know.
2. Personalized Recommendations: Input your work location, commute constraints, lifestyle preferences, budget, and dealbreakers. Homi scores and matches you with the top neighborhoods and buildings that best fit how you live.
3. Fast Decision, Less Regret: Replace weeks of viewings and guesswork with a clear decision grounded in real data and resident experience.

Homi has developed an MVP and is currently in the validation phase, testing the solution with real renters to achieve problem-solution fit and determine whether the platform addresses the market need in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Job Description

As an Entrepreneur in Residence, you will lead on-the-ground validation of Homi across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Working closely with the Mindsets Ventures team on multiple sprints within a 3-month validation period, you will refine the problem statement, test solution concepts with real renters, and drive the venture toward problem-solution fit in both markets.

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone who:

• Has 2 or more years of experience in real estate, PropTech, or a related field, with a bonus for those who have worked as an entrepreneur, founder, or in an early-stage startup in the region.
• Shows evidence of being able to secure interviews with real estate stakeholders such as renters, landlords, agents, brokers, developers, and others in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
• Thrives in ambiguous, early-stage environments, can move forward with minimal direction, and is comfortable leading the validation end to end with the support of the venture building team.
• Is genuinely curious about the rental market, continuously challenges their own assumptions, and is obsessed with understanding the problem from the perspective of all affected stakeholders.
• Communicates clearly and builds trust quickly with strangers.

What You Will Do

Over 3 months, you will run a structured validation program with the following targets:

• Interview relevant stakeholders across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, including renters, agents, landlords, developers, and others.
• Test solution concepts iteratively, including the current Homi MVP, and maintain a running verdict on each hypothesis updated weekly until problem-solution fit is reached.
• Validate the problem across at least 1 city in each of the UAE and KSA, benchmarking findings against each other.
• Produce a final recommendation on whether to proceed, pivot, or drop the venture based on interview evidence.

To deliver on these targets, you will (non-exhaustive):

• Source, schedule, and conduct structured interviews with the relevant stakeholders in your target geography.
• Document findings in a structured validation log maintained throughout the program
• Suggest and test at least one alternative solution concept alongside the current MVP
• Maintain weekly hypothesis verdicts based on interview data
• Represent the Homi brand and post on social media throughout the program
• Apply to startup competitions and pitch to investors alongside the venture building team
• Attend joint sessions with the Mindsets Ventures team

EIR Benefits

The selected EIR will receive a paid engagement for the duration of the program. Compensation structure will be discussed and agreed upon before the program begins. A top-performing EIR will be considered for a continued role or equity participation in Homi depending on program outcomes.