uPaint Instilling Creativity Across Sharjah (10/09/26)

0:00This is post 95. You're listening to the Morning Majelis podcast. It's the Morning Majelis. It's the Morning Majelis and we always love speaking to start-ups here on the show as we bring in a number of co-founders and founders themselves and hearing from entities that are backed by our own entrepreneurship centre here in the Emirates of Sharjah with Shiraat backed up start-ups having wonderful stories but now we're going to be learning a little bit more about creativity and AI which has always been a little bit of a tussle for a long time but now all things you paint this is a great new product that people would be really excited to hear about. We're very kindly joined in the studios by their co-founder Mr. Muhammad Abbas. Thank you very much for joining us and a very good morning to you. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Great to hear from you. Now let's understand what you paint is all about. We're talking about paint by numbers, kits. What does that mean and how does AI and

1:05painting work together? Sure, sure. So in general you paint in a nutshell allows anyone to paint any picture designed or illustration they want without having any previous painting skills. So simply you can upload any picture you want it can be your portrait or family picture, your paths, landscape, landmark, literally you name it and then we transform it using our technology that is based on AI and machine learning into numbered regions and then we print these numbered regions on a high quality canvas and we link each number to a specific colour from our palette and then all what you have to do is to follow the numbers for example you open cup number four and paint the regions number four on the canvas and once you finish all regions and numbers you're going to get an amazing artwork painted by yourself without having any previous painting skills. Wow, wow, love that. You know what's interesting or actually what is known is that every startup it solves a problem. So if you go back to

2:05let's say the beginning you know if you look at this problem and say or maybe you start with this problem that someone is thinking there has to be a better way to do this. What was that moment for you? What was the problem that you saw that eventually led to the launch of you paint? So when we first started we were thinking that the only problem with where we were fixing is that okay we are a product that allows people or we are enabling or giving access to creativity or to art to everyone. This is when we first started and then we thought it's not only we're not only solving this problem because you paint has to be became a way for everyone to use the benefits of painting, the benefits of art mainly art therapy now is a big thing we all need an offline activity to detach from screens to like to disconnect and to like to get some me time for example but not everyone had the paintings because right? If I ask you now like all

3:09if you can paint I definitely don't. Microsoft paint does that? What about you? Not really. Me too. I can draw a house by the way. So this is the painting or drawing there is difference. Actually both I cannot draw. I cannot paint. I'm useless at both. You can paint a portrait for example. Here comes you paint. So now you'll be able to paint a portrait and start in five minutes and you'll be able to finish just like depends on the complexity five to six hours you'll have an amazing portrait that you can be proud of once you finish. So this is what you paint is solving. In addition to this like people are getting you paint to bond together so it's a very an amazing group activity that you can do when you sit together with your friends with your partners with your family and you're going to enjoy your time. Relax. Use the benefits of painting and at the end get an amazing and result at the same time. It's a very nice team building activity as

4:12well since it's all about memories because you are like your phone gallery is full of pictures like last your last trip for example but you only choose one picture one special memory you transform it into you paint and then you painted yourself you feel connected to this is specific memory and specific picture you paint it together and then you hang it on your wall made by your own hands this is something we're going to feel proud of this is going to stay with you like literally forever. So it's not only about enabling or giving access for everyone to paint or to art and art therapy as well but it also about capturing memorable moments and keeping them forever. You know I think this is so exciting in terms of providing that creative option for kids as well and what I mean by that I think a lot of parents are struggling to find a constructive substitute that doesn't involve a phone doesn't involve a console doesn't involve a screen and what this does is it can provide that level of excitement for kids because they feel

5:15attached to what they're actually painting it could be themselves it could be their family it could be their dog it could be as you say a holiday as well I think it's ever so exciting to be able to pursue that level of creativity and also make it so personal as well. I totally agree because when we created you paint we started with adults but then we discovered that you paint is not only for adults it's for all family members that's why we created a special category for kids where they can paint themselves their pets as you mentioned they can also paint their favorite characters and at the end they're going to get a result that they can be satisfied with they can feel proud of and their parents also feel proud of them so that's why we have a special category for kids and we're making collabs and partnerships with for example YouTube channels that are related to kids like anything that is related to kids to create like special special a special line for them to as you said to keep them away a little bit from their screens to give them like also painting has a

6:18lot of benefits for kids because it promotes their motor skills it helps them like paint know the numbers paint between the line increase their focus and their concentration so it's not only about the end result but it's about the full process and the full experience as well so again new paint is for literally for everyone not only for adults and not only for kids. Looks exciting but now my biggest concern is mistakes because I know when I do buy a coloring book for my toddler they know the color of the character but they'll paint it with a completely different color and if we were and you said that you've given the instructions thing number five paint box number five would be for this particular strand of hair for example but what if you make an error? Is there a way back is there a reverse gear? Like we literally all make mistakes and everything not only in painting so it's totally fine to make mistakes this is what our customer service always sell our customers it's totally fine to make mistakes you're gonna make mistakes it's totally fine there is no one way of painting there is no one way of doing it we're giving the guidance as much as we can

7:22but at the end of the day it's your way of painting it's some of our customers even changed the colors one one's painting because they feel it and we don't mind it at all but again in case they they made a mistake it's totally fine we can wait until the acrylic paint dries and the ones it's done we have a reference sheet that comes with the canvas so they can see oh I painted three instead of five that's that's wrong let me wait until it dries and then I'll use the correct paint container or paint number and paint again once it's done a bit of patience yeah it's all about relaxation yeah about taking your time it's all about feeling it there is no rush it's not a competition it's it's just a painting relaxing and having a nice and result of the end yeah incredible now how am I we want to just shift our focus just a little bit to your Shura journey because you happen to be a Shura backed startup so if you can take us through the the whole process or that part of the journey what what has your

8:25partnership with Shura actually been like beyond the funding or even the the business support that you have got first yes as you mentioned or as you introduce me I'm you paint is a Shura backed startup and we're super happy and proud of it because Shura has been there since day one like we literally since we started we started to you paint in charge of two years ago and like after one week of starting our operations we yet didn't launch we're part of SAF the Charger Entrepreneurship Festival where we met a lot it's back by it's actually organized by Shura so we met founders we also had the opportunity to pitch our our startup in like two weeks so that's literally a big push a big support for you paint and addition like you all know that the entrepreneurship journey feels kind of lonely you always feel like alone you have a lot of challenges it's really overwhelming so you always need like support to be surrounded by by people that by by people that can think or can they they can see

9:30these challenges and see these problems that can support that can give you the right keys and right network to to go to market and to launch so this is this is what Shura provided to us we had access to like-minded founders because Shura backs a lot of founders not only you paint so had access to to to meet these founders to share these challenges share network share information knowledge and experience and addition to this we had access to the network of Shura in terms of businesses in terms of for example today I'm here because of Shura so so it gives us the network the exposure and the support at the same time you know always say that half of the success of any entrepreneurial journey is who you partner with I totally agree with it's from my personal experience I mean if you are partnering with someone that is not supportive not good not transparent it's all gonna flunk is all gonna go down the drain everything in every single effort even if you're 100% and the opposite of course applies so you have a

10:32great partner yeah I'd like to understand the process a little bit in more detail so is the concept I take a photo let's take a photo right now and I really like that photo and I wanted to paint it would I send that photo to you paint via the website and then a canvas of the numbers would be sent back to me with the correct paint colors as well okay the process is super simple yeah like you take a photo right now yeah and you go to our website it's you paint small you you paint dot AE and then you choose the customized paint by numbers kit you can choose the size of the canvas that you want click on upload your picture you're gonna upload it add to cart proceed to check out put all your details and then we get the order to hear in charger because our operations are based here at Spark in charger amazing yeah our design team transforms into the paint by numbers concept we printed here we do the assembly here we package it

11:34and we deliver it to your doorstep anywhere in the you AE or outside the you incredible incredible as this you'll get everything you need in the painting kit yeah you'll get the canvas a very high quality canvas with the painting with a numbered regions you're gonna get a high quality paint also and the brushes as well perfect even the frame if you want okay because that's that stood out to me I was thinking do I actually have to have anything to be able to do this you can start from nothing incredible no components no skills yeah no skills that's important for me I'm gonna say you've got to have a decent pay as well 200 that arms is where you start from is that is that what it is well yeah we have a ready made kit that start at around 150 there's but yes the customized one they start at 200 their homes and the price goes up with the size so the larger the canvas the higher the price okay now you know as we continue in this conversation I'd like you mentioned something about art therapies how is the reception being like from people been using it and people who've been you know even should out of

12:35themselves what have they seen and said to you about this this art therapy okay one important thing we do at U Paint is we really listen to our customers we have like we spend a lot of time on customer service because because we're making something you know it's not something common in in the region so we we're not selling t-shirts or mugs where we actually combining technology with enough light activity which is very odd and bizarre during these days like everyone is leaning towards technology apps mobile tablets and we'd like literally took the complete other direction so you need to listen to your customers so and if we go and see the reviews and we go we see it because we by nature U Paint is a viral product because if you get a U Paint kit automatically or naturally you're gonna paint it you're gonna film it you're gonna create content with it and and post it sure like we have like every day we have like a lot of people creating content without asking it without giving them any incentive and the majority of

13:36them are writing in their caption something like this became my therapy oh wow so I'm spending some time actually healing from something I spend some time painting I forgot the time I spent the time alone without any phone so this gives you without asking someone or force them to say that about art therapy this gives you if you want this tells you about how people are using U Paint as a therapy and using paint in general as a therapy because before that before you paint if you want if I want to use paint as a therapy maybe I'm afraid that I make mistakes I'm afraid that the end result won't won't look that nice how can I'm how I'm gonna do the brush strokes now U Paint is guiding you through art therapy without feeling that I'm doing something wrong I'm gonna get a bad bad end result so yeah it's it's interesting you bring that up because I think if you speak to any painter or any musician they'll say that them you

14:36know painting that canvas or playing the piano is a form of therapy because it can you can that kind of act as an escape you know take your mind of whatever strokes you're going through and you solely focus on one activity you know I find that even just doing the dishes just if I focus on one activity and I'm not thinking about anything else it is a form of therapy and I think it's a level of escape that you can you can provide and also instill into your children I think it's amazing definitely with that yeah really and well well my mother the best thank you very much for joining us it's nice to hear of your of of a service out there that can empower people's artistic skills well thank you very much thank you so much I'm super proud to have U Paint here founded and based in charge of this place give us a lot because we've been like literally manufacturing everything here delivering everywhere in the world from the E to all the GCC and all the whole world as well so yeah and thank you for having me as well very incredible thank you so much for coming while celebrating

15:37charges entrepreneurship ecosystem here on the airwaves of Pulse-25 radio you can catch this discussion as a podcast on our podcast platforms just search for the morning Mads Listen of course this will be on today's date of course the 10th of September thening all things AI and painting this is Pulse-95 tune in live every weekday from 7 a.m.