It's a good option to consider if you want to live in a modern city without taxes (it comes with its own catches though). It's not modern in many regards thoug

It's a good option to consider if you want to live in a modern city without taxes (it comes with its own catches though). It's not modern in many regards though. Homosexuality is illegal. Sex outside of marriage is illegal (if you get raped and report it to the police, you can be arrested & tried for having sex outside of marriage, if you kiss your different-sex-date in public, you can be arrested and fined). Alcohol is very legally restricted. etc. I haven't heard of a lot of startups in the Dubai area though. The cynic in me thinks it's due to the socially conservative environment. As Paul Graham said ( http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html ): That's the connection between technology and liberalism. Without exception the high-tech cities in the US are also the most liberal. But it's not because liberals are smarter that this is so. It's because liberal cities tolerate odd ideas, and smart people by definition have odd ideas. Conversely, a town that gets praised for being "solid" or representing "traditional values" may be a fine place to live, but it's never going to succeed as a startup hub.