Lease — the base case
A building with its own entrance and parking, at no more than AED 800,000 a year. AED 10.0M, entirely private. This proceeds with or without a partner.
Investment · base case
A subscription business with a lease and a coffee machine.
Recurring revenue from a capped membership, a café that covers its own cost, and a capital plan with gates we clear before a lease is signed. The numbers below are the base case, unlevered.
AED 10.0M
Total capital
≈ USD 2.7M
≈ 180
Members to break even
Month 8–14
Operational break-even
AED 2.2M
Treasury reserve
5 months of fixed cost
Use of capital
Where the AED 10.0M goes.
| Line | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Fit-out and joinery | AED 5.09M | 51% |
| Furniture, fittings and equipment | AED 0.74M | 7% |
| Café build and equipment | AED 0.31M | 3% |
| Technology platform | AED 0.15M | 2% |
| Licences, including F&B | AED 0.12M | 1% |
| Pre-opening team, brand and launch | AED 0.31M | 3% |
| Lease deposit and advance | AED 0.25M | 3% |
| Contingency, 12% on build items | AED 0.81M | 8% |
| Treasury reserve | AED 2.22M | 22% |
| Total | AED 10.00M | 100% |
The reserve is not build contingency — contingency sits inside the build lines at 12%. It is five months of fixed cost held separately, against a peak operating burn of AED 1.9M. The house never has to admit a member it does not want in order to make rent.
Revenue at the base case — 300 members, month 24
Five lines, one of them dominant.
| Line | Annual | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Membership subscriptions | AED 6.30M | 65% |
| Café and dining | AED 1.32M | 14% |
| Team rooms | AED 1.08M | 11% |
| Events and partner nights | AED 0.72M | 7% |
| Meeting rooms and guest passes | AED 0.30M | 3% |
| Total | AED 9.72M | 100% |
AED 1,750
Blended revenue per member, per month
AED 5.33M
Annual fixed cost — AED 444,500 a month, AED 0.80M of it rent
8%
Assumed annual churn (an assumption, not yet observed)
≈ 400
Member cap
Scenarios
Three fill rates, three outcomes.
Conservative
240 members by month 24
- Break-even
- ≈ 215 members
- Revenue
- AED 6.86M
- EBITDA
- AED 1.53M (22% margin)
- Capital payback
- ≈ 6.5 years
Base case
300 members by month 24
- Break-even
- ≈ 182 members, month 8
- Revenue
- AED 9.72M
- EBITDA
- AED 3.95M (41% margin)
- Capital payback
- ≈ 2.5 years
Upside
370 members by month 24
- Break-even
- ≈ 170 members
- Revenue
- AED 12.84M
- EBITDA
- AED 6.41M (50% margin)
- Capital payback
- ≈ 1.6 years
The honest read. The conservative case covers its costs but pays back too slowly to justify the capital on its own. Only the base case does. That is why demand is validated and pre-sold before a lease is signed, and why capital arrives in tranches. All three hold the member cap: growth beyond it is a second house, not a fuller room.
The asset
Three ways to hold the building.
Purchase
AED 3.6M buys the building outright — a third of the raise, not something beyond it. It takes the AED 0.80M of rent out of the annual fixed cost and puts the asset on the balance sheet, so what is spent on it is still held at the end.
Contribution of the asset — the case that unlocks the district
A landowner or public partner contributes the building on a long lease at a concessionary rate, or against equity. They get an anchor that fills the street around their own holdings, a curated pipeline for vacant units, and the formation numbers the area will be judged on.
At the base caseLeasePurchase
Capital requiredAED 10.0M≈ AED 13.4M
Annual fixed costAED 5.33M≈ AED 4.5M
EBITDA, base caseAED 3.95M≈ AED 4.8M
Capital payback≈ 2.5 years≈ 2.8 years
Held at the endA leaseThe building
Four and a half years of rent buy the building outright. The lease pays back faster and leaves an investor holding a lease; the purchase pays back a little slower and leaves them holding a building. Both are the base case, and both hold the member cap.
Validation gates
No lease is signed until the room exists on paper.
Capital is released in tranches against these gates. Each one is a fact we can show an investor, not a milestone we can argue about.
- G1
100 qualified applications, interviewed, from the target profile
Pre-lease - G2
40 paid founding deposits in escrow, and AED 1.5M of pre-booked revenue
Pre-lease - G3
Unit signed at or below AED 800,000 a year with at least 90 parking bays; fit-out priced by two contractors within 10% of AED 5.09M
Tranche 1 - G4
Licence issued; café concept trading in a pop-up for eight weeks
Tranche 2 - G5
180 members onboarded within 120 days of opening
Tranche 3
Total spend before the G1 and G2 decision is capped at AED 250,000. Miss two gates and we stop or reshape — every deposit is refunded.
Risk
What could go wrong, and what we do about it.
The room fills slowly
The reserve covers five months of fixed cost, and team rooms are pre-let before opening on long leases.
Fit-out overruns
Two priced contractors before tranche 1, a fixed-price contract, and 12% contingency inside the AED 5.09M build — not taken from the reserve.
The café loses money
It is modelled at cost recovery, not profit. Eight weeks of pop-up trading before the build sets the menu, the price and the staffing.
Quality drift in the membership
Admission stays with the house team, never with sales. No commission is paid on a membership, at any tier.
The round
AED 10.0M, released in three tranches.
- Instrument
- Equity, single class
- Minimum ticket
- AED 1,000,000
- Release
- In tranches, against the gates below
- Investor membership
- Included with every ticket
- Reporting
- Monthly, against the gates
The round opens once gates G1 and G2 are cleared. Nothing is drawn before then, and no lease is signed before then. Where a landowner or public partner contributes the building, the raise reduces by the fit-out-adjusted value of that contribution.
The full model — monthly cash flow, cohort build, lease terms and the fit-out schedule — is shared under NDA after a first conversation.
Request the full model