BEntrepreneur interviews Ali & Ali, founders of UNIPAL. 

1. Please tell us more about Unipal and what inspired you to start the business?

Coming back home (from the UK) and realizing that university students in Bahrain are underserved and underprivileged inspired us to start Unipal. Being university students not so long ago, we understand that being a student is more than just studying. 

A student’s budget is far different from someone working full time so why is this not accounted for? This is why we’re building a student-centric platform to provide benefits dedicated to university students in Bahrain. 

2. Please tell us more about the Events section on your platform and how this can be of real benefit to Bahrainis?

The events page will allow students to see what student-tailored events they can attend. We’ll also be offering student discounts on other major events that are happening in Bahrain. There will also be workshops to help students with writing their CVs and sharpening their interview skills.

3. How did you get early buy-ins into your business idea?

Considering we were just an idea when we first approached vendors, it was the concept of supporting our university students which massively helped us onboard vendors at the start. The likes of Dose, Coffee Republic, iMachines, Regency Hotel and iWorld being on our platform helped push us to onboard other merchants early on and thankfully,

we now have more than 130 merchants that provide student discounts and offers.

4. What’s your plan to scale? And are you planning to take this business across GCC and even outside? 

We first want to set the foundation properly in Bahrain. That will help us to better scale to the neighboring countries. University students across the region are underserved so we’re definitely looking to scale across the GCC and even outside. 

5. What advice can you give to aspiring startups and entrepreneurs? 

There’s a lot of ‘opinions’ that are thrown at you when you decide to start something and it’s important to distinguish which advice is actually beneficial. Get advice from those you aspire to reach. Read stories/books from those that have exited startups and the pitfalls they fell into. Always do your research and if you do then take the jump, what’s the worst that can happen?! 

For more information: www.unipal.me

Watch our interview with UNIPAL here: https://bit.ly/2LMuKD5.