True Wills
Built and exited the UK's first digital Islamic will writing platform, scaling from a director's loan to acquisition by Wahed in just 2.5 years.
01 · The Challenge
While the UK is home to 2.7 million Muslims, only 10% have a will, leaving 1.1 million people without legally binding, faith-compliant legacy protection. Existing routes were fundamentally broken: traditional solicitors were expensive and opaque, while mainstream digital platforms like Farewill failed to account for complex Islamic inheritance rules. There was a massive gap in the market where the community that takes inheritance law most seriously was the one being left behind by technology. The challenge was to build a product that matched the speed of modern fintech while maintaining the rigorous religious credibility the audience required.
02 · What I Did
Strategy Over Code
Before writing a single line of code, five months were spent on market research, SWOT analysis, and product strategy. This ensured the technical roadmap was built on validated user needs rather than assumptions, reducing development waste and accelerating time-to-market.
Sole Technical Leadership
As the only technical co-founder alongside two non-technical partners, the entire product lifecycle was owned end-to-end. Bridging the gap between business vision and engineering execution meant making all critical architectural decisions to ensure the platform could scale securely from day one.
Engineered Religious Trust
Understanding that religious compliance was the primary barrier to entry, formal validation was secured from three prominent Islamic scholars: Shaykh Haitham Al-Haddad, Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera, and Shaykh Mohammed Daniel. Treating compliance as a core product feature transformed a niche requirement into a verifiable competitive advantage.
Capital-Efficient Growth
The platform was bootstrapped through a director's loan, requiring a lean product-led growth strategy with high-impact, low-cost iterations. Keeping the mission shareholder-free maintained full control over the user experience all the way to exit.
Pre-Launch Demand Generation
A waitlist of 100+ qualified leads was built before the product went live. Monthly webinars and targeted Facebook campaigns validated the value proposition and ensured the launch had immediate commercial momentum rather than starting from zero.
Direct Community Validation
True Wills was taken to the Halal Food Festival to test messaging and UX with real users. This face-to-face interaction provided critical qualitative data that shaped the final product, ensuring it felt intuitive to a diverse community of users.
Ecosystem Positioning
Joining the Deen Developers Accelerator Cohort A21 integrated the product into the wider Muslim entrepreneurship ecosystem, providing structured support and the credibility needed to transition from a bootstrapped startup to an acquisition-ready asset.
Intentional Launch Timing
General availability was scheduled for Ramadan 2021, aligning the launch with a period of heightened community reflection on legacy and charity. The result was a natural spike in user interest and strong conversion rates from day one.
We didn't build True Wills just to sell it. We built it because the community that takes inheritance most seriously had nowhere credible to turn, and we proved that faith-led products can be high-growth assets.
03 · The Outcome
True Wills became one of the first Islamic fintech acquisitions in the UK. While an exit was never the initial goal, the product's success and rigorous architecture made it a natural fit for Wahed's global ecosystem. The transition proved that a deeply niche, mission-aligned product can achieve institutional-grade scale. The acquisition ensured the mission continued with greater resources, serving the community it was built for while delivering a successful exit for the founders within 30 months.
04 · Key Takeaways
Compliance Is a Feature, Not a Checkbox
Securing scholar sign-off before launch turned religious credibility into a verifiable competitive advantage. No competitor could quickly replicate named, respected scholars backing the product. Compliance built into the product is a moat.
Build the Audience Before the Product
100+ qualified leads existed before the product was live. Demand generation isn't a post-launch marketing activity; it's part of the product strategy. Knowing the audience is there changes how confidently you build.
Mission-Aligned Exits Are Possible
Bootstrapping with a director's loan and staying values-led didn't prevent a successful exit. It created the conditions for one where the acquirer shared the mission, the product continued, and the community it was built for was better served as a result.
Launch Timing Is a Product Decision
Choosing Ramadan 2021 wasn't a marketing call. It was a product decision: aligning availability with the moment the audience is most naturally thinking about legacy, mortality, and what they leave behind.
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