Two best friends turned a husband’s unexpectedly sweet messages into a self-funded relationship tool within 24 hours.
Dubai: It started with a few unusually sweet text messages.
Zainab Imichi Alhassan was chatting with her husband when his messages suddenly became more affectionate than usual.
“Whatever you want, dear.”
“All done, my darling.”
It was not how the couple normally spoke to each other.
So Alhassan immediately suspected he was joking with her.
Her best friend, Sarah Curtis, was with her when the messages arrived. Curtis jokingly asked whether Alhassan’s husband had started using an AI bot.
He had not.
The messages were simply playful. But the question gave the two Dubai-based entrepreneurs an idea.
Within 24 hours, they had built the first version of Good Husband.
From a Private Joke to a Business
Good Husband is a self-funded communication tool designed to help men find better ways to respond during difficult or sensitive conversations with their partners.
The concept came naturally to Alhassan and Curtis, who have spent much of their careers working with language and communication.
“People are already using AI every day to help them write messages, emails and difficult responses,” Alhassan said. “Since communication is what Sarah and I have spent our careers doing, we thought, who better to build something that helps people find the right words?”
The founders say the product is not intended to replace genuine conversations. Instead, it is designed to help people express what they already mean in a more thoughtful way.
Two Best Friends Built It Together
Alhassan, 34, moved from Nigeria to Dubai in 2013. Curtis, 36, arrived in the UAE a year earlier.
Their friendship grew alongside their careers in public relations and eventually led to the creation of POP Communications, the agency they built together.
That experience became the foundation for Good Husband.
The pair understood that communication is rarely just about choosing the right words. Timing, tone, and context can completely change how a message is received.
Instead of spending months developing a product before testing it, they built an early version themselves and began experimenting with the idea.
There was no outside funding round.
Good Husband remains completely self-funded.
Nearly a Decade of Entrepreneurship Behind It
Although Good Husband is their newest venture, the founders are not new to building businesses.
POP Communications has worked with more than 200 clients across the region, giving the two entrepreneurs nearly a decade of experience navigating changing markets and unpredictable business conditions.
They have also built businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic, economic uncertainty and periods of regional instability.
For Curtis, one lesson has remained consistent.
“The biggest lesson has been that resilience matters more than almost anything else,” she said. “There will always be difficult periods. The businesses that last are usually the ones that keep showing up and adapting.”
That experience has also taught them that entrepreneurship is not always glamorous.
Both founders admit there have been moments when they wondered whether returning to conventional employment would be easier.
But the freedom of building something of their own continues to outweigh the uncertainty.
Success Is Not Just About Revenue
For Alhassan and Curtis, their biggest achievement is not measured by revenue or awards.
It is having the freedom to build businesses they care about while remaining present for their families.
“We both get to build businesses we care about while still being present for our families,” Curtis said. “We don’t take that for granted.”
Their entrepreneurial paths were influenced by their families, but they developed their own approach through experimentation and experience.
Curtis’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is straightforward: “Just start.”
Books and podcasts can provide knowledge, she says, but actually building a business teaches lessons that cannot be learned from theory alone.
Why Dubai Matters to Their Story
The UAE has been central to both founders’ professional journeys.
They built their networks, developed their careers and established their businesses in Dubai.
“The UAE is where we built our professional networks, developed our expertise and created the relationships that helped shape our entrepreneurial journey,” Curtis said.
That network has also helped their businesses gain visibility and reach new audiences.
Now, the founders want to take Good Husband beyond Dubai.
Alhassan hopes that within five years, the platform will have helped millions of men become better communicators in their relationships.
The longer-term ambition includes integrating Good Husband with WhatsApp.
But the business did not begin with a large team, a major investment round or a complicated product roadmap.
It began with a wife showing her best friend a few unusually sweet texts from her husband.
And one question about whether AI had written them.
Source: Gulf News
