1 Billion Followers Summit in UAE to finance 100 entrepreneurs with $10,000 each

The ‘100 Dreams’ programme, worth $1 million in total, also offers six weeks of training and help setting up a company in the UAE. Applications open on November 20.

For years, people have been told that doing what you love and making a living from it are two different things. Paint, write or make videos if it makes you happy, the thinking goes, but get a proper job to pay the bills. It is a belief that stops plenty of would-be entrepreneurs before they start.

Simon Squibb, the British entrepreneur and content creator, thinks the belief itself is the problem. Speaking to Khaleej Times in Dubai, he said society has always drawn a hard line between a profession and a pastime, and pointed to the street artist Banksy as proof that an unconventional passion can pay.

Now the UAE is putting money behind that argument.

Announced on October 15 at a press conference at Creators HQ in Jumeirah Emirates Towers, ‘100 Dreams’ will back 100 aspiring entrepreneurs with $10,000 each (about Dh36,700), a $1 million pot in all. It forms part of the fifth edition of the 1 Billion Followers Summit, which runs in Dubai from January 8 to 10, 2027, under the theme ‘Content for Good’. The UAE Government Media Office organises the summit. The programme is run with Squibb, who heads Dream Group, and has the backing of the National Media Authority.

What the 100 will get

Beyond the cash, each participant goes through a six-week kickstart programme with Squibb and his team. According to Gulf News, the package also includes help with UAE company licensing, assistance with the Golden Visa process (subject to government approval) and a trip to Dubai to attend the January summit.

Squibb said the training will draw on his experience of building businesses and reading social media algorithms, and will cover branding, sales and winning sponsorships. He argues the knowledge matters more than the grant.

Who can apply

The programme is open worldwide to anyone aged 18 or over. Ideas can come from content creation and creator-led businesses, entertainment and digital media, film and video production, media technology and platforms, or new media business models. Applicants do not have to move to Dubai, but they must be able to set up a company in the UAE, travel for the summit and complete all six weeks.

Applications open on November 20 through the initiative’s website. Alia Al Hammadi, vice chairperson of the UAE Government Media Office, said a waiting list is already open.

Squibb told Khaleej Times he will be looking for purpose, energy, authenticity and capability, and that after investing in 87 companies he can usually spot potential quickly. Al Hammadi said the selection will also weigh what each applicant needs and how original the idea is.

Why the UAE

Al Hammadi described the programme as the next step in a conversation the summit has been having for years: that content creators are the entrepreneurs of the future, and that some of tomorrow’s big media companies will come out of that group. Her own hope is that, in ten years, one of the 100 becomes a unicorn. The UAE, she said, has the infrastructure, talent and ecosystem for creators to earn a sustainable income.

Maitha Al Suwaidi, an executive director at the National Media Authority, put it as a matter of ambition. The country does not want to be just a home for creators, she told Gulf News; it wants to “build the next great media company from the UAE.” Behind every successful creator, she said, is a business that can create jobs, build brands, export products and develop intellectual property. The authority’s role is to provide the conditions for that, from clear business services to protection for intellectual property.

She was also careful about timing. She told Khaleej Times that success will not be judged in January but over the years that follow, by the jobs created, the families supported and the brands that grow out of the programme.

‘I didn’t know what I didn’t know’

For Squibb, it is personal. He started his first business at 15, and he told Khaleej Times he spent much of the early years working things out alone. “I didn’t know what I didn’t know,” he said. He told Gulf News he was homeless at that age and that one person’s belief in him changed his life. The programme, he says, is meant to give young entrepreneurs the knowledge, capital, support and community he did not have then.

He knows the summit well. Squibb won the $1 million One Billion Award at its 2025 edition, and has said he put the prize money towards funding other people’s dreams.

Ten thousand dollars will not carry a company far, and Squibb himself says the real prize is what the winners learn. If ‘100 Dreams’ works, it will be because of the six weeks, the licensing help and the people the participants meet, more than the grant. Al Suwaidi’s yardstick of jobs, families and brands over years is the right one. It also means the verdict is a long way off.