A Note from the Founder
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I kept watching Arab-American founders do remarkable work — and disappear into the noise. So I built the home I wished existed.
Ines AJ · Founder, Checkmate
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I kept watching Arab-American founders do remarkable work — and disappear into the noise. So I built the home I wished existed.
Arab-American businesses build quietly. They create brands rooted in heritage, raise families through them, and serve their communities for generations — but when the world looks for them, there's no home. Just Etsy, Instagram, and the algorithm — anywhere but a platform built for them.
Every other community has its publications, its platforms, its way of being seen. Arab-American business owners have not. That gap is what built Checkmate.
Ines AJ (Ines Achour Abou Jabal) built Checkmate because she watched too many Arab-American entrepreneurs pour everything into their work without ever getting the platform their craft, journey, and ambition deserved.
So she built the thing she wished existed. A place where being Arab-American and being a founder are the entire point, not a footnote.
One belief built Checkmate: people connect to people, not products. Every business here is presented like a magazine feature — founder front and center, story told the way only they can tell it. Because behind every brand is someone with a vision, a heritage, and an ambition worth seeing.
Featuring on Checkmate is free — no pay-to-play, no premium tiers, no sponsored slots. We choose businesses based on the strength of their work and the story behind them. Once featured, every founder gets:
A magazine-style page that tells your story — cinematic opener, founder portrait, gallery, the journey, and the people you've reached. Built with the same care as a print feature.
Your feature stays on Checkmate. No expirations, no rotations, no paying to stay visible. Once you're on the platform, you're on the platform.
Your story is shared across Checkmate's social channels — cinematic reels, founder interviews, and editorial posts that put your work in front of new audiences.
No founder should have to dilute their identity to be seen. Your Arab-American story, told the way you live it.
Checkmate started in the Bay Area — San Jose, California — and is finding Arab-American businesses wherever they're building. From the West Coast to the Midwest, from first-time founders to decade-old brands. A deliberate, long-term effort to build the digital home Arab-American entrepreneurs have never had.
This is the beginning, not the destination.
Being featured here means something. Because we built it that way.
Submit your business and join a growing community of Arab-American entrepreneurs being seen the way they deserve to be seen.