We got tired of watching Gulf businesses drown in manual work.
Three builders. One mission. Automate the work that's holding Gulf businesses back — and actually ship it.
CrankUp was founded by two builders who spent years watching businesses across the UAE and UK do the same repetitive tasks day after day — copying leads into spreadsheets, replying to the same WhatsApp questions at midnight, building the same Excel report every Monday morning.
The tools to fix this have existed for years. The problem was always implementation — someone had to actually build it, connect it, and make sure it worked for a real business in the real world.
That's what we do.
The People Behind CrankUp
Yousef Aly
Yousef is a technologist and entrepreneur with deep experience building AI and automation systems. Based between the UK and Dubai, he has spent years building workflows, products, and tools that remove friction from how businesses operate. CrankUp was built because the UAE market needed an implementation partner that actually delivers — not a consultant who hands you a slide deck.
Nathaniel Bareham
Nathaniel is the technical architect behind everything CrankUp builds. Specialising in AI integration, automation pipelines, and backend systems, Nathaniel turns business problems into working solutions fast. Every CrankUp build goes through Nathaniel's hands.
Nicolas Stoner
Nicolas drives CrankUp's growth and client relationships across the Gulf. With a sharp eye for business opportunities and deep understanding of the regional market, Nicolas ensures every client conversation turns into a partnership — connecting the right AI solutions to the right business problems.
How We Work
Four principles that define every project we take on.
We build, we don't consult.
Our clients come to us because they want something built — not a 40-page strategy document. Every engagement ends with a working system, not a recommendation.
We say what we'll build, then we build exactly that.
Scope creep kills client relationships. We define the exact deliverable before we start, price it clearly, and deliver it. If you want something added, we scope it separately.
We speak Gulf.
We understand the UAE business environment — the pace, the culture, the preference for WhatsApp over email, the importance of Arabic. We don't import a Western approach and force-fit it.
We work fast because the market moves fast.
Most development agencies take months. We take weeks. Speed is a feature.
Dubai Silicon Oasis
Dubai Silicon Oasis was chosen deliberately. It's the UAE's dedicated technology free zone — a community of builders, engineers, and innovators that aligns with exactly what CrankUp is building.