Oola’s Haya Al Ghanim On Why Stepping Back Made Her A Better Founder

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is reported to have said, “You don’t cross the same river twice, because the river has changed, and so have you.” It’s a quote that resonates deeply with Qatari entrepreneur Haya Al Ghanim, the founder of the modest sportswear brand oola (Arabic for “first”), and to understand why, it helps to trace how her entrepreneurial journey began.

In her late twenties, Al Ghanim was a student at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the US, and she’d regularly see runners training along the Charles River nearby. Intrigued, but having no experience in competitive sports, Al Ghanim soon challenged herself to lace up, and ended up becoming an “unlikely athlete.” As she put it: “What began as a personal challenge quickly became a way for me to reclaim space—physically, mentally, and culturally.”

According to Al Ghanim, running gave her clarity, discipline, and confidence. But it also revealed to her a glaring gap in the sportswear market: performance gear that met her technical needs while also aligning with her values as a Muslim woman. Bear in mind that this was in 2013, when modest sportswear had barely registered in the mainstream retail market. The infrastructure was thin, the data scarce, and the market widely misunderstood—and that realization spurred Al Ghanim to action.

Haya Al Ghanim completing a half-marathon at the Doha Ooredoo Marathon in January 2026.

In the ensuing years, Al Ghanim reached out to global sportswear giants, including Nike, Adidas, and Lululemon, pitching them the idea of introducing modest sportwear lines for women. But the brands refused to bite. “The responses, when they came, were consistent: the market was considered too small, too niche, or not commercially compelling enough to prioritize,” Al Ghanim recalls. “Some conversations never progressed at all. That experience forced me to be honest with myself. If the brands with the resources and scale weren’t willing to build for women like me, then someone from within the community had to do it. That conviction became the seed for oola.”

That’s how, in 2015, Al Ghanim established oola in Qatar, collaborating with a small circle of female athletes, along with designers and fabric mills, to develop a modest sportwear line that, in her words, “didn’t treat coverage as a compromise.” Informed by her own needs, Al Ghanim was clear from the outset what she wanted oola to stand for. “At the time, modest activewear was either improvised layering or lifestyle-oriented—rarely technical, rarely designed with serious movement in mind,” she says. “I did not want to layer up to achieve the coverage I wanted, and I did not want to settle for clothes made of non-technical fabric. I wanted the best of both, and no one was giving me that.”

And in trying to solve a personal challenge, Al Ghanim thus joined a generation of founders building not just products, but entire categories before the ecosystem at large was ready to support them. But when she launched oola, the response far exceeded her expectations. “We were targeting Muslim women who were training, competing, or simply trying to move consistently—women who wanted gear that worked as hard as they did,” she remembers. “The traction surprised us. oola quickly gained regional and international attention, our pieces were worn in races, and we built a strong community around testing, feedback, and shared movement. What resonated most wasn’t just the product—it was the fact that it was designed by someone who lived the problem."

An example of oola’s modest yet technical athleticwear.

Al Ghanim spent the next five years steadily growing the brand and the community around it; however, in 2020, she pressed pause, stepping back from building oola to focus on her family. Now, in an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is known to celebrate uninterrupted momentum and hustle, the decision to take a break can be misread as retreat. But for Al Ghanim, the hiatus became an unplanned strategic reset that prompted her to reconsider how she thinks about time, scale, and endurance.

“The biggest difference is context—and perspective,” she tells Inc. Arabia. “10 years ago, I was building with urgency and instinct, driven by the need to prove that this category deserved to exist. Today, I’m building with more intention and restraint, shaped not only by professional experience, but also by becoming a mother. The hiatus coincided with a period of personal growth, including raising my children, which fundamentally reshaped how I think about time, sustainability, and legacy. It made me more deliberate about what I build and why. Success is no longer just about scale or visibility; it’s about creating something I would be proud to see my children grow up alongside—something rooted in values, discipline, and care."

Al Ghanim also notes that re-entering the market as a more seasoned entrepreneur gives her a new perspective, and ultimately, greater clarity on what she wants oola to be. “One key challenge is discernment: knowing what to scale, what to ignore, and where to stay intentionally small,” Al Ghanim adds. “Another is rebuilding with integrity— resisting the pressure to chase trends at the expense of purpose. The opportunity lies in clarity. oola was always community-driven, but now we can rebuild that community with more intention, better tools, and deeper listening.”

Haya Al Ghanim, who describes herself as an “unlikely athlete,” established oola as a modest sportswear brand in 2015.

And just as Al Ghanim has changed her outlook on how she wants to go about building her own business, much has changed in the modest sportswear market during her hiatus, with her telling us that the most noticeable difference is that it is now recognized as a category. “10 years ago, it was niche and often misunderstood,” Al Ghanim points out. “Today, global brands acknowledge the market, and there’s significantly more availability. Uptake has grown as well—more women are participating in sports, races, gyms, and outdoor movement, and modesty is no longer assumed to be a barrier. Compare that to the market five years ago, when we were growing the company, alongside the community of active women itself.”

But Al Ghanim points out that progress has also brought new challenges into focus. “While availability in the market has increased, depth has not always followed,” she notes. “Many offerings still treat modesty as an add-on rather than a design philosophy. What I’m seeing is a market that’s louder and more crowded, but still hungry for products that are truly performance-led and community-informed.”

What’s more, the rapid proliferation of e-commerce and social commerce channels has changed not just what goes to market, but how. “On the distribution side, the shift has been profound,” Al Ghanim says. “When we first launched, we relied heavily on pop-ups, word of mouth, and direct community engagement. Today, e-commerce is foundational, social commerce is accelerating, and customers expect seamless omnichannel experiences. For oola’s relaunch, this diversification is an advantage—we can build digitally while still activating physically, meeting customers where they already are rather than educating them from scratch.”

Al Ghanim’s own evolution as an individual and an entrepreneur is also set to inform oola’s new chapter. “I am not the same founder I was 10 years ago—and that’s a strength, not a loss,” she says. “During the hiatus, I grew professionally through leadership roles that sharpened my strategic thinking, governance skills, and understanding of long-term value creation. The brand oola 10 years ago was led by passion and instinct. Today, passion and instinct are combined with strategic goals and measurable results. Personally, motherhood changed my relationship with ambition. It taught me patience, presence, and the importance of building systems that endure beyond sheer momentum. The second iteration of oola is less about proving a point and more about building something enduring. The vision is sharper: fewer products, better designed; slower growth, stronger foundations; and a business model that respects both the customer and the founder behind it. oola today is not just a brand—it’s how we think about movement, design, and community, built more deliberately than before.”

Founder To Founder

For entrepreneurs considering a return or a reinvention after stepping away, Haya Al Ghanim offers advice that cuts against the mythology of constant acceleration.

For other entrepreneurs who, like you, are coming back into the startup space for a “second wind,” what advice would you give them?

"Give yourself permission to build differently. Life evolves—careers, families, priorities—and your business should be allowed to evolve with you. For mothers especially, it’s important to recognize that the constraints you’re navigating often sharpen your judgment rather than limit it. You don’t owe the market the same pace, scale, or story. The second wind is not about speed; it’s about direction. If you listen closely, both to yourself and to your customers, uncertainty becomes less something to fear and more something to design around."

Pictured in lead image is Haya Al Ghanim, the founder of the modest sportswear brand oola. All images courtesy of oola.

This article first appeared in Inc. Arabia's Special Edition for Web Summit Qatar in February 2026. To read the full issue online, click here.