Rami Tabbara is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Stake, a digital real estate investment platform that democratizes access to property markets in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Allowing users to invest fractionally from as little as 500 dirhams, Stake has grown into a fintech powerhouse with over 2 million downloads, users in 170 countries, and nearly 1.4 billion dirhams transacted on the platform. The company is backed by regional heavyweights including Mubadala, Wa'ed Ventures, and Property Finder.

Before founding Stake, Rami spent over 16 years in the trenches of Dubai’s real estate sector, witnessing how high capital requirements locked out most investors – that he identified the need for a transparent, digital, and affordable entry point. He launched the business during the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns with childhood best friend Manar Mahmassani and later Ricardo Brizido, navigating early regulatory hurdles to build a platform that now pays out over 60 million dirhams in rental income annually.

Rami joins the podcast to discuss why he considers Dubai to be a "co-founder" rather than just a city, the brutal lesson of losing his first four hires by faking a "cool startup" culture, why work-life balance is a myth if you want massive outcomes, and the company's aggressive roadmap into 2026 – including the launch of "Stake One" for full home ownership and his pragmatic approach to real estate tokenization

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Timestamps:

00:00 — The "Binance for Real Estate" vision

03:32 — What is Stake? Investing with 500 Dirhams

05:59 — Rami’s background: 16 years in Dubai real estate

10:02 — Launching during COVID and finding the right co-founders

11:43 — The first (and terrible) MVP

14:58 — Why there isn’t a "Robinhood of Real Estate" yet

18:31 — Will technology replace real estate brokers?

20:58 — The algorithm: Rejecting 90% of property deals

24:00 — Stake One: Buying full homes digitally

27:44 — Scaling globally: US Logistics funds and Saudi expansion

31:54 — Startup Culture: Why work-life balance is a "myth"

34:31 — Managing the Co-CEO dynamic without ego

37:48 — The Property Finder partnership explained

41:27 — Tokenization and the future of the blockchain

45:11 — 2026 Outlook: Saudi Arabia’s freehold explosion

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Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/1b08abfe/transcript.txt

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