India, May 26 -- With a mansion on Palm Jumeirah, 24-karat gold ceilings, and a pink Mercedes G-Wagon for her daughter, Anita Surani had all the glam she could ask for in Dubai. Still, instead of settling into luxury, she rolled up her sleeves and launched her own interior design company from scratch.

"I have a lot of money. I could've just shopped. But I didn't. And I continued," she told Gulf News in an interview.

Raised in a middle-class family, she moved to the US as a student and met her husband while working part-time jobs to make ends meet. In her "struggling phase," she worked at a jewellery store and met Moiz Khoja, who cleaned restaurant floors.

Together, the couple built a retail tech empire, starting with a tiny phone kiosk...