Haya Kalbouneh

About Beyond Cubicles

📢 #BeyondCubicles is a weekly LinkedIn series created by Carolina D’Souza, born out of her own experience transitioning from a corporate career to independent consulting. Since its launch in June 2024, the series has evolved into a platform that showcases the inspiring journeys of several founders who have redefined the traditional 9-to-5.

Through authentic narratives, #BeyondCubicles highlights themes of courage, resilience, and purpose. The stories feature individuals from diverse industries—ranging from tech and education to wellness and adventure—who share their experiences of stepping away from conventional roles to pursue passion-driven careers. 

✨ Note: All features in this series are unpaid and shared as a way to honor and amplify real stories of transformation.

Haya Kalbouneh gave herself permission to build what she wished existed, a product about identity, language, and belonging for children.

For her, motherhood was the catalyst.

“I wanted Arabic to feel close and natural for my daughter and I couldn’t find tools.”

As she spoke to other parents, she realized she wasn’t alone. “So the leap was launching something that helps families teach Arabic in a way that builds connection to their language and heritage.”

That became Masa wa Mansour, an early learning brand helping families introduce Arabic at home in a way that feels “light, playful, and intentional with screen time”. Masa means ‘diamond’ in Arabic, “a nod to how precious our language is,” and Mansour, her dinosaur friend, makes learning fun.

Rooted in research and play-based learning, she says Arabic shouldn’t feel foreign in an Arab home. “It should feel easy, especially in the early years, when kids are forming their first relationship with language.”

As Haya built, parents she didn’t know began sending messages saying it felt like them, that their child had said an Arabic word, and that it was the first time Arabic had not felt like a fight but something their children now asked for. Some shared that this was not just content, but something changing the energy around Arabic in the home, and that it mattered.

Yet behind those affirmations was a far more complex internal journey and the constant switching between confidence and doubt.

In a job, she explains the role is clear, but when building something of your own, you become everything: product, marketing, customer support, strategy, and operations. What helped was speaking to parents and educators, observing what children respond to, and staying focused on the problem.

As she built for her own daughter and other children and families, her identity and brand evolved from “professional” to “professional + mother + builder”, adding, “motherhood doesn’t weaken your edge, it sharpens it”.

Originally from Palestine and born and raised in Jordan, she came to Dubai for work and started her family here. “Dubai was a front-row seat to the exact problem [I faced as a mother].”