Dubai

Mikaeel Faraz

Operations Strategy Analyst at qlub, Dubai

I turn operational problems into working tools, reliable numbers and repeatable processes.

At qlub, a pay-at-table fintech, that has meant CRM automation for account management, self-service onboarding for a new merchant vertical, and measurement the team can trust.

Résumé (PDF)mikaeel2013@gmail.com LinkedIn

Open to strategy & operations, product and analytics roles

Mikaeel Faraz

Telling account managers which venue needs them today

Account management · since January 2026

Problem
Every venue’s numbers reach the CRM overnight. Nobody had time to read them all, and a rule that flags every drop buries the few that matter.
What I did
I built the CRM automation that reads each venue’s numbers every day, opens a task only when a change is worth a call, gives it to the right person and closes it when things recover.
Result
Most account-management tasks in the CRM now come from it, across the UAE and Qatar.
Read the case study →

Try it: move the slider, then tell it someone is already on the venue.

  1. Yesterday’s numbers arriveAdoption 34% below this venue’s usual
  2. Is someone already working this venue?No
  3. Is the drop big enough to be worth a call?Yes (34% against a 25% line)
  4. Task for the venue’s account managerOpened with the reason, the owner and a due date.

One task, one owner. Fictional venue, fictional numbers.

Illustration with made-up numbers and a made-up threshold

Onboarding a new kind of merchant without the copying

New vertical · built in 30 days

Problem
Each new merchant meant documents over WhatsApp, every setting typed into the admin panel by hand, and print artwork made one at a time.
What I did
I built a self-service flow: the merchant fills in one secure link, the team reviews it, and one publish step sets them up across the internal systems, artwork included.
Result
A form, a review and one click, in place of manual steps across several tools.
Read the case study →

Switch between Before and After, and open the why? notes.

On the team’s side, only the review and the publish click need a person. Tap why? to see the reasoning.

  1. SalesCreates the deal
  2. MerchantFills in one secure link on their phone
  3. TeamReviews the submission
  4. TeamClicks publish
  5. AutomaticVenue live, CRM linked, print artwork ready, team told in Slack

Numbers the team can act on

Reporting and measurement · since January 2026

Problem
An internal dashboard that disagrees with the official BI tool gets ignored. And a programme can look like it worked when the whole market simply moved.
What I did
I built the reporting pipeline and checked it against the BI tool until the totals matched. I also helped improve how a staff incentive programme is measured, using a comparison group.
Result
Dashboards and weekly performance reviews run on numbers that agree with the source.
Read the case study →

Move the market, then switch how it is measured.

Measured effect: +6 points. The comparison group moved +12 too, so that part is taken out. This is the number worth acting on.

Fictional numbers. The method is the one I use: difference-in-differences against a comparison group

More from qlub

Smaller systems, each in regular use

  • Internal operations platformDashboards, guides and forms in one internal app, with the scheduled data jobs behind them. Used by operations, support and leadership.2026
  • Alert to ticket webhookProduction alerts become support tickets in real time, once, on the right account.2026
  • Ratings impact reportA monthly before-and-after look at merchants’ public ratings once they go live.2026
  • Offline monitoringA daily view of merchants that have stopped transacting, with a morning summary in Slack.2026
  • Print artwork generatorTurns form data into print-ready artwork as vector PDF, through a small PDF writer I wrote for it.2026
  • Programme measurementA difference-in-differences model that measures an incentive programme against a control group.2026
  • Helpdesk and Trello syncTwo-way sync between support tickets and the board the technical team works from.2026
  • WhatsApp support inboxWhatsApp Cloud API connected to Slack, with an inbox page for a support team.2026
  • Automated statementsWeekly WhatsApp statements from a script that dry-runs first and emails an audit of every send.2025
  • Leadership summariesA weekly market summary over WhatsApp, built on the same synced data.2026
  • Lead sourcingScraped and enriched public business listings into leads for a sales team.2026
  • POS log analyserAn in-browser tool that parses POS payment logs to find data-quality problems.2026

The code is private, and this page leaves out company data and internal rules. The interactive examples use made-up numbers. I am happy to walk through any of it in an interview.

Mifolio, my own product

Designed and built September 2026

Personal finance tracker · Next.js, Supabase, Claude API

I wanted to see what I spend, as I spend it, across three cards and a buy-now-pay-later account. None of the banks offer an API, so Mifolio reads what they already send: card SMS, bank emails and Apple Wallet taps.

Each purchase is counted once even when it arrives three ways, sorted into categories by UAE merchant rules with Claude handling the rest, and shown against what is usual for me.

Try the full demo ↗Why I built itHow it counts each purchase once

Role
Designed and built it
Inputs
SMS, email and Wallet into one private endpoint
Data
My own Supabase, behind row-level security
Status
Private; everything shown here is made-up data

Hover or tap the charts: a slice, a day on the pace line, a point on net worth.

Where it wentlast 3 months · hover or tap a slice
ShoppingGroceriesFood deliveryTransportDining & cafésFuelEverything else

Spent

AED 16,589

11 categories

This month’s paceagainst last month and a typical month
Net worthAED 28,734 · +AED 3,797 over 3 months

Mifolio’s own charts, on made-up numbers. Open the full demo ↗

Mifolio category breakdown: a ring chart of spending by category over the last three months

Matchday, live sport in plain words

Designed and built October 2026

Football, cricket and F1, live · Next.js, ESPN, FPL, Jolpica, F1 live timing, Claude API

The score apps I used had got slower and louder: pop-up ads over the match, favourites moved around, numbers nobody could explain. Matchday puts the teams you follow first, refreshes only while something is on, and says how old every number is.

Every live page says in one sentence what the score means: where it leaves the table, what a chasing side needs off how many balls, who leads the race and by how much. Under it are models I built: expected goals fitted on 25,513 shots from StatsBomb’s open data, win chances from Cricsheet’s ball-by-ball records, and race analysis from F1’s own timing.

I test it during live matches. They show up what a test can’t: ESPN’s score arrives about 17 seconds before the goal’s details, so the page trusts the score and says the scorer is to follow.

Open Matchday ↗How the xG model works

Role
Designed and built it
Sports
Football with fantasy, cricket and F1; tennis and wrestling next
Data
ESPN, FPL, Jolpica, FastF1 and F1’s live timing
Cost
No database; only the fantasy advice and team news call a paid API
Status
Live and public, with no ads or tracking

Tap the screens: score a goal, bowl the last over, pick who wins in Austin.

MatchdayFootball
Everton
Liverpool
Premier League
0–061′
As it standsEverton go up to 4thLiverpool stay 6th
Live0–0
  1. 1Man City0–07+1119
  2. 2Arsenal6+515
  3. 3Brighton0–07+1314
  4. 4▲Everton0–07+311
  5. 5▼Brentford6+610
  6. 6Liverpool0–07010

Champions LeagueEuropa League

What the score meansTap a crest to score, in either match. The band and the table move as it stands.
MatchdayCricket

T20 international · Bridgetown

West Indies167/720 overs
BattingIndia154/519 of 20 overs

India need 14 off 6 balls

14.0 an over needed · scoring 8.1

20th over Holder

19th over, Joseph: 9 runs11421

At the crease

Pandya on strike38 off 22 balls

Jadeja11 off 8 balls

Partnership 41 off 25 balls

The last overBowl it a ball at a time. The band keeps the sum: runs needed off the balls left.
MatchdayF1

Round 18 of 23 · USA

United States Grand Prix

Circuit of the Americas, Austin

Your callWho wins in Austin?

5.5 km a lap · first Grand Prix here 2012

  1. 298
  2. 291−7
  3. 280−18
  4. 268−30
  5. 262−36
Russell leads Verstappen by 7 points, with up to 150 still to win. 5 drivers can still take it.
The title racePick who wins each of the last six races. Matchday’s sums say who can still take it.

Matchday’s own screens and sums, on a made-up table, chase and title race. Open Matchday ↗

Writing

Notes on building Mifolio

How I work

Most of what I have built started as a conversation with the person doing the work by hand. The first version is small and goes to them early. What matters then gets tests, plain-language error messages and a written note on why it works the way it does.

I check numbers before I trust them: new data sources get compared with live data, and dashboards get reconciled with the source until they match. I use AI coding tools as a pair programmer; the requirements, decisions, testing and rollout stay with me.

Before qlub

  • 2025GetDopamine
    Web development intern    Laravel, MySQL and Vue.js features, and a WhatsApp Business API integration.
  • 2024–25Dunkin’ Donuts UAE
    Data science intern    Store-level demand forecasts for 80+ stores (XGBoost, Prophet) and a Next.js dashboard over a Django API to compare the models. It became my capstone and won 1st place at the UOWD Innovation Fair 2025.
  • 2023Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
    Customer service supervisor, Class Act Events    Supervised customer service over the race weekend.
  • 2022–24Asian Street by Thai
    Marketing manager    Built the restaurant’s online presence from nothing: delivery platforms, Google Business, paid social.
  • SolPay
    Blockchain developer    Solana payment flows and a Shopify integration for a crypto payments product.
  • 2023–25University of Wollongong in Dubai
    BSc Computer Science    Big Data and AI major. Graduated with distinction.

Before qlub I spent two years in marketing, so I can still cut a video, run an ad account and lay out a deck. It helps when a piece of analysis has to persuade someone.

Typing challenge

Guinness World Records

In July 2022 I typed the alphabet on a touchscreen phone in 3.01 seconds, and one-handed in 4.88. Both were Guinness World Records titles; both have since been broken.

The one that still stands is less expected: fastest game of five cup tilt-a-cup, 12.99 seconds, with Raania Faraz in Dubai on 20 June 2021.

Virgin Radio featured me on their channel (Instagram). The grey marker shows my record pace. Your time stays in this browser.

s
my phone record 3.01