A baby is one of the biggest things that will ever happen to someone. We thought it was time companies treated it that way.
Faz spent over a decade in marketing and cybersecurity, the last few years as a cunsultant at a regional cybersecuryt firm in Dubai. She was good at her job. She cared about the people she worked with. And every time one of them had a baby, she found herself staring at the same problem.
The company had a generous onboarding kit for new hires. A thoughtful work anniversary programme. A detailed offboarding process. But when someone announced they were pregnant, the response was always the same: a fruit basket, a gift card, or a WhatsApp message from the team. Sometimes all three. Sometimes nothing at all.
"I had seen companies spend real money on swag bags for a conference nobody cared about," Faz says. "But when one of our best analysts came back from maternity leave and left four months later, we acted surprised. We had done nothing to tell her she mattered. Not really."
"A baby is not a work event. It is the most personal thing that will ever happen to someone on your team. I wanted to build something that understood that."
Faz , Founder, guguIn 2025, Faz left her consultant and started gugu from a small office in Manama. The name didn’t come from a marketing agency. It came from her own home. When her son was around five months old, he began repeating one sound over and over again "gugu." He said it when he was playing, when he was happy, and when he was simply looking up at her with a smile. That little word stayed in her heart. When it came time to name her brand, nothing else felt right. "gugu" represents a baby’s first little hello to the world.
The first year was spent getting the product right. Faz was obsessive about it. Every item in every box had to feel considered. Nothing generic. Nothing that could have come from anywhere. She worked with artisan suppliers across the Gulf, tested organic product lines from producers in Jordan, Lebanon and the Turkey, and spent months on the packaging before she was satisfied. The first box she was truly happy with went to a friend whose husband worked at a Bahraini bank. His manager sent it on behalf of the company. The friend called Faz the same afternoon.
That phone call is what gugu has been working towards ever since.
These are not brand values written for a website. They are the decisions we make every week when we are choosing what goes in a box.
Every box gugu sends carries someone's name, their company's voice, and items chosen for the kind of family they are. We do not send the same thing to everyone and call it personalised. Personalised means it was actually thought about.
Most corporate gifting companies are American or British and treat the GCC as an afterthought. We were built here. We understand what mabrook means in a business relationship. We know what Eid gifting should feel like. That knowledge lives in every box we make.
Almost every baby gift ever made is aimed entirely at the baby. We make sure there is something for the person who just went through something enormous. Because when a new parent opens a box and finds something for themselves, they remember it differently. That is the point.
companies across the GCC have sent a gugu box to a new parent on their team
countries we deliver to regularly, with more being added each quarter
of people who received a gugu box said they felt differently about their company afterwards
times we have sent a box we were not proud of. That standard does not move.
Eleven years in different roles before founding gugu. She built a company so nobody else has to feel what to send to. Obsessed with the quality of the card inside the box as much as the box itself.
Spent eight years in luxury retail before joining gugu. Tariq is the reason every product inside a box was chosen and not just placed. He travels to meet suppliers personally and has turned down partnerships with three well-known brands because the quality was not right.
Jo is the person most HR Directors end up calling when they want to build something that goes beyond a single box. She has helped companies across the Gulf design gifting programmes for new parents, returning employees and senior hires. Former management consultant, current mother of two.
It does not need to be complicated. Tell us a little about your team and what you are trying to do, and we will take it from there.