Here I am.
In Italy, when you walk into a room you say it: Eccomi. It is also what you answer when someone calls your name. Here I am. I came, I'm present, let's begin.
I grew up with that word, and I didn't think about it much until I moved to Dubai and noticed how rarely I heard anything like it.
Where the name comes from
Where I'm from, nobody plans a dinner three weeks ahead. Someone says pizza tonight?, four people answer eccomi, and that is the evening. The table was never the point. The people answering were.
Dubai has all the tables. It has the padel courts, the beaches, the dawn runs along the Marina, more things to do than any one person could get through. What it is often missing is the four people who answer. So I took the word from home and gave it an H, for Here I am, so that it would work in every language this city speaks, and in the next city too. Eccomi, plus H. An Italian habit, opened up to everyone.
The problem we are here for
Dubai is a city of millions, and most of us came from somewhere else, many of us on our own. You can have a good job, a nice flat and a full calendar, and still have nobody to play padel with on a Thursday. The same is true in London, in Singapore, in Milan, in any city that keeps growing by arrivals.
This isn't a dating problem and it isn't a networking problem. It is simpler than both, and far more common: you would happily do the thing, if only three other people were doing it too. Almost everyone who has moved somewhere alone knows that feeling. Very few people say it out loud.
EccomiH exists for that moment.
What we do, and only that
Someone posts a plan: padel, Thursday 7 pm, Al Quoz, need three. Others take a seat. When enough people are in, it's on, and everyone with a seat sees the exact spot and a small chat for the logistics. You turn up. You say Eccomi. That is the whole product.
There is no swiping, no profile to polish and no chatting for weeks before anyone meets. The activity is the reason to show up, and showing up is the only thing we count.
How we think about it
You don't need a profile worth looking at to be worth meeting. Here, nobody scrolls through people. You see a plan, you take a seat, and the rest happens at the table or on the court, where it always did.
We build locally, one city at a time. Neighbourhoods, hours, communities, the exact spot kept private until you hold a seat. Dubai first, because that is where this started. Other cities as people ask for them.
And we try to keep it warm, simple and respectful. A short post can become a real evening. Plans get rated afterwards. People never do.
What we don't do
We don't rate people, we don't have direct messages and we don't let an algorithm decide who you meet. Money never passes through the app; you split the court like friends do. And if you would rather not meet someone again, you say so privately and it simply doesn't happen.
Where this goes
A world where arriving somewhere alone doesn't mean staying alone. We would rather grow a few real groups well, the Thursday padel crowd, the Saturday dawn runners, the people who try a new restaurant every month, than a large crowd that never speaks. City by city, starting here.
Who makes it
An Italian who moved to Dubai and wanted to play padel on a Thursday. Founder-funded, no investors.