Hello!

I'm Shazia, the Co-Founder of Third Door.

Our story began back in 2008 - my maternity leave was coming to an end and I decided corporate life just wasn’t for me. So that May, I scheduled a full day to brainstorm possible new business ideas with a like-minded friend. However, most of the day was spent tending to our daughters needs instead.

It was right then I had my eureka moment. I wished for a place where myself and my friend could work productively for a couple of hours and leave our children in trusted care. And so, the ‘Third Door’ concept was born.

My husband Yusuf was studying for an MBA at the time and since it was self-funded, I persuaded him to write a business plan for Third Door as part of his dissertation. He didn’t need much persuasion, as he works from home and found that he was ousted from his study shortly before our daughter was born. He spent many months working in the corridor of our flat before the desk was moved into the bedroom so he could lock himself away from a curious and noisy baby!

In October 2008, I returned back to work and reluctantly placed our daughter into fulltime daycare. The business plan was handed in late 2008 and was awarded a distinction! This gave me added confidence that the Third Door concept was a winner, so I jumped at the chance of voluntary redundancy when it was offered the following March and left work, 4 months pregnant, to set about making our Third Door vision come alive.

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