The cluster men

It all began in 2005, when Rabih Saba and Marwan Ayoub, who were at the time employed by multinational companies, decided to make some extra money on the side through freelance consulting work for hospitality companies in Lebanon. They have since come a long way. Today, they are the managing partners of Venture Group, a hospitality development company which counts Uruguay Street, the only pedestrian pub street in Beirut Central District, as its first development project. Currently, just four years after signing the Uruguay Street contracts, they are in the final phases of construction for two other similar hospitality cluster areas (The Village, Dbayeh, to be launched by early November 2015 and Backyard Hazmieh to follow a few months later). Executive met with Saba and Ayoub near their Hazmieh project to find out more about how they are growing from a “two man” show to a structured organization with enough