Two Best Friends Turned an Awkward Exchange Into a Self-Funded Relationship Tool.
Dubai: Zainab Imichi Alhassan knew something was different when her husband suddenly started texting her phrases like, “Whatever you want, dear,” and “All done, my darling.”
The couple did not usually speak to each other that way, so Zainab immediately assumed her husband was teasing her. Her best friend, Sarah Curtis, was with her when the messages came through and jokingly asked if he had started using an AI chatbot.
He hadn’t. The messages were simply playful, but the question lingered with them.
Within 24 hours, the two Dubai-based entrepreneurs had built the first version of Good Husband, a self-funded communication tool designed to help men find the right words during difficult conversations with their partners.
“People are already using AI every day to help them write messages, emails and difficult responses,” Alhassan said. “Since communication is what Sarah and I have spent our careers doing, we thought, who better to build something that helps people find the right words?”
From Private Joke to Business Idea
Alhassan and Curtis had spent years working in communications, first building careers in public relations and later founding and growing POP Communications together.
Good Husband grew out of the same expertise they had relied on throughout their professional lives: understanding how the right words can change the way a message is received.
The platform offers private coaching and personalised reply suggestions for men who care deeply about their relationships but may struggle to express themselves clearly during sensitive moments.
According to the founders, the idea was never to replace genuine communication, but to help users express what they already mean in a more thoughtful and considered way.
Built by Two Best Friends
Alhassan, a 34-year-old Nigerian entrepreneur, moved to Dubai in 2013. Curtis, a 36-year-old British entrepreneur, followed a year later.
Their friendship grew alongside their careers, eventually leading them to build several businesses together.
“Sarah and I are best friends. We do almost everything together and spend most of our time in each other’s company,” Alhassan said.
That close friendship also shaped the way Good Husband came to life. There was no lengthy development process or outside funding round. Instead, the founders tested the idea themselves and built the first version in-house.
The company remains entirely self-funded.
A Decade of Lessons Behind a New Venture
Good Husband may be a new venture, but its founders are drawing on nearly a decade of experience running POP Communications, which has worked with more than 200 clients across the region.
Their businesses have weathered economic uncertainty, the Covid-19 pandemic and periods of regional instability.
“The biggest lesson has been that resilience matters more than almost anything else,” Curtis said. “There will always be difficult periods. The businesses that last are usually the ones that keep showing up and adapting.”
Both founders acknowledge that entrepreneurship has, at times, made them wonder whether returning to conventional employment might be the easier path.
“Every entrepreneur has moments when they question what they’re doing,” they said. “Building a business can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be stressful, unpredictable and exhausting.”
For the founders, however, those moments of doubt have never lasted long enough to change their course.
The couple did not usually speak that way, so Alhassan immediately suspected her husband was teasing her. Her best friend, Sarah Curtis, was beside her when the messages arrived and jokingly asked if he had started using an AI chatbot.
He had not. The messages were simply playful, but the question lingered: what if AI could actually help people communicate better in their relationships?
“We both get to build businesses we care about while still being present for our families,” Curtis said. “We don’t take that for granted. The ability to do meaningful work and still have time for the people we love is probably the achievement we’re most proud of.”
Both founders came from families with professional and entrepreneurial backgrounds, but Alhassan and Curtis still had to forge their own paths in business.
The ventures they built differed from those of their parents, meaning much of their learning came through experience, experimentation and plenty of trial and error.
For anyone considering a similar path, Curtis has one key piece of advice.
“Just start,” she said. “You can read all the books, listen to all the podcasts and take all the advice in the world, but nothing teaches you how business works quite like actually building one.”
Dubai Shaped Their Journey
Both women began their careers in the UAE, where they built the professional networks and relationships that would later support their businesses.
“The UAE is where we built our professional networks, developed our expertise and created the relationships that helped shape our entrepreneurial journey,” Curtis said.
The founders also credit Dubai’s wider business and media community with helping their work reach new audiences and opening doors to new opportunities.
“We’ve been incredibly fortunate to build a strong network of people who support us, champion our work and recommend us in rooms we never imagined we’d be part of,” Alhassan said.
Now, the founders want to take Good Husband beyond Dubai and reach men around the world.
“I hope that five years from now, Good Husband has helped millions of men around the world become more thoughtful and effective communicators,” Alhassan said.
The founders ultimately hope to integrate the tool with WhatsApp. But the business began with something far more ordinary: one wife showing her best friend a text from her husband and wondering why he suddenly sounded so different.
