Taslema
The delivery startup I co-founded in Minya, my hometown in Upper Egypt.
2019 to 2021 · Co-founder, product and marketing · Still running
Taslema started as a hackathon project. It took second place at RiseUp Week in 2019, and then we built it out into a company. Back then there was no app in Upper Egypt that delivered for small shops.
Our pilot was one delivery agent on a monthly salary that we paid from our own pockets, working an eight-hour shift. When it got busy, we did the deliveries ourselves, by taxi and by bike.
Shops wouldn't sign, so we listed them anyway, delivered their orders ourselves, then showed them the volume and signed them.
We applied to accelerators, and the relationships we made inside them helped us raise the rest. Over two years we raised EGP 3 million from accelerators, angels and grants, about USD 185,000 at the rates then. In 2021 we expanded to Sohag. By March 2022 Taslema had delivered 183,800 orders in the two cities, for 635 active shops.
I led product and marketing. I left in 2021, and I still own part of the company. It still runs as a small business in Minya.