Some founders build businesses. Others seem to spend their lives preparing for one without realising it. For Shaima Sibtain, Founder and CEO of LUVED, entrepreneurship was never a destination, it was the environment she grew up in.

From construction sites and boardroom conversations at the family dinner table to launching businesses, building a music career, and now creating a technology-led platform in Dubai, her journey has moved across industries while remaining rooted in one idea: creating value through purpose.

Today, with LUVED, Shaima is building a different kind of luxury platform, one centred on trust, community, sustainability, and changing how people think about ownership.

“Entrepreneurship was simply the air I breathed,” she reflects. One of her earliest memories is walking around construction sites as a child, watching her mother lead teams with confidence and authority. Her father turned everyday conversations into lessons on opportunity, business, and problem-solving. “It was instilled in me from the very start that I could do anything I set my mind to.”

That instinct appeared early. At five years old, she launched what may have been her first unofficial business, printing and selling Barbie posters to neighbours. Years later, her curiosity evolved into music, where she signed to professional management before eventually launching her own record label, M Dynasty Records, building a parallel world of creativity and entrepreneurship.

Her career would later move through construction, real estate, music, and technology, experiences she says all taught the same lesson. “The skills don’t actually change across industries. It always comes down to spotting opportunity and making things happen.” Leadership, adaptability, negotiation, and resilience became constants regardless of the sector.

But LUVED itself arrived unexpectedly. After moving from London to Dubai, Shaima noticed something missing. Having used platforms like resale and gifting apps in the UK, she found there was no effortless way to buy, sell, or gift items locally. The idea arrived unexpectedly, quite literally overnight.

“It actually came to me in a dream. The name arrived with the idea, fully formed. It was always going to be LUVED.”

What followed became more than a marketplace. Built around trust, AI-powered tools, secure experiences, and community, LUVED aims to make circular living feel intuitive rather than complicated. At its heart is a belief that value should extend beyond ownership.

Shaima hopes to shift perceptions around resale and make people rethink what luxury means today. “I’d love for us to start seeing vintage as luxury rather than as something old or unwanted.” Through features like My Impact, users can see estimated environmental savings based on what they sell or gift, turning sustainability into something visible and personal.

For Shaima, this shift reflects something bigger than fashion.

“Real value lives in quality. Anything genuinely well made should stand the test of time.”

Building LUVED also required stepping into uncertainty. After relocating countries, becoming a mother, and starting again professionally, she pursued executive education in AI while building the business from the ground up.

“Growth starts outside your comfort zone. I’ve come to see discomfort as the surest sign I’m building something that matters.”

Looking ahead, success is not measured purely by scale. When asked what she hopes people associate with both LUVED and her own story years from now, the answer comes back to family.

“An extraordinary community. Trust. Innovation. Sustainability. But more than anything, I hope my sons remember watching their mother build something she believed in the way I once watched mine.”