“Mobility is a primary freedom — we’re simply serving to girls entry it,” says Nouran Farouk, co-founder of Dosy Bikes.
When Farouk speaks, her phrases are regular however charged with goal. She is not only describing a start-up; she is describing a quiet act of rebel — one which started with a scooter and a query nobody appeared to ask out loud: why mustn’t girls trip?
In 2019, Farouk and her sister, Menna, launched Dosy, Egypt’s first women-led mobility platform devoted to coaching, ride-hailing, and bike shopping for/promoting. What started as a easy effort to show girls to trip has grown right into a motion, difficult site visitors, custom, and the long-held notion that streets belong to males.
From Medication to Mobility
Earlier than Dosy, Farouk’s life was in white coats, not helmets. “I graduated from medical faculty and accomplished my grasp’s in Inner Medication at Ain Shams College,” she remembers. “Dosy started throughout my residency yr. My sister, who had prior expertise working in start-ups, urged it. She mentioned, “‘Why don’t we begin one thing like this?’ and we simply went for it.”
On the time, Farouk knew nothing about entrepreneurship. “I used to be used to construction; the hierarchy of hospitals, the knowledge of drugs,” she tells Egyptian Streets. “However, after we began Dosy, folks have been unusually excited. Inside six months, somebody from South Africa reached out to put in writing about us. It was the primary signal we have been onto one thing actual.”
Between hospital shifts and enterprise calls, she realized tips on how to pitch, recruit, and lead. “I stayed in public well being for some time, however ultimately shifted to non-public apply so I may have versatile hours to work on Dosy.”
Her medical background nonetheless informs how she thinks. “Well being and mobility are linked,” she explains. “The power to maneuver freely impacts bodily and psychological well-being. In a means, Dosy is preventative drugs.”
The Spark: When a Want Turns into an Concept
The spark was private.
“We wished to discover ways to trip scooters however couldn’t discover a feminine teacher,” Farouk explains. “That was the start line. I realised that if I couldn’t discover one in Cairo, hundreds of different girls most likely couldn’t both.”
What started as a spot out there quickly revealed deeper roots; the unwritten rule that ladies’s motion should be restricted, particularly in public areas. “Over time, we found the most important barrier wasn’t an absence of instructors; it was the mindset that ladies shouldn’t be driving scooters or bikes,” she says.
In 2019, seeing a girl on a scooter in Cairo was nearly surprising. “Now I see ladies driving on a regular basis,” Farouk says, smiling. “It nonetheless surprises me, in a great way. I wish to suppose we performed a small function in that.”
The Platform: Extra Than Two Wheels
Immediately, Dosy capabilities as a whole mobility ecosystem.
“We provide 4 fundamental providers,” Farouk says, counting them off. “Coaching, a ride-hailing service, a market for promoting and renting scooters and bikes, and some complementary lessons — roller-skating and self-defence.”
The e-commerce characteristic permits anybody with a scooter or bike, not solely Dosy instructors, to record it on the market or hire by the web site or app. “That was our first step towards scale,” she explains. “We wished the platform to attach girls — whether or not to be taught, trip, or purchase.”
Then got here ride-hailing. “It began purely from person demand,” she says. “Ladies wished security, consolation, and affordability. So, we constructed a service that offers them that. Most apps give attention to pace and protection. Ours focuses on belief.”
She pauses, then provides, “We didn’t even promote it a lot. It unfold by phrase of mouth. That’s how you recognize there’s an actual want.”
The Classroom: Ladies Instructing Ladies
Coaching stays Dosy’s spine. “After we began, we simply posted on social media on the lookout for feminine scooter instructors,” Farouk remembers. “Some ladies already knew tips on how to trip, so we interviewed them, skilled them, and supervised their first lessons.”
That course of developed right into a system. “Now, girls who end their coaching with us can develop into instructors themselves,” she says. “We give attention to character as a lot as talent. Instructing somebody to trip is private. You want belief.”
Every session is monitored for high quality and security. “It’s not nearly approach,” she provides. “For some girls, getting on a scooter means overcoming their fears. And I’m not simply referring to driving or site visitors, I’m speaking about their fears of judgment and failure. It’s a must to create an surroundings the place she feels succesful.”
Pricing, Notion, and Practicality
Farouk is candid about one in every of Dosy’s greatest criticisms: pricing.
“Individuals typically say our costs are excessive,” she acknowledges. “However, prices have modified. After we started, scooter classes have been for EGP 800 [USD 16]. Now, gasoline, upkeep, and transport for instructors have gone up. Most instructors reside in central Cairo, so touring to new areas prices extra. We alter costs accordingly.”
Dosy’s packages now vary from EGP 2,400 to EGP 6,000 (USD 49 – USD 122, respectively), relying on length and site. “We’re engaged on extra versatile plans by the app,” she says. “However, growth takes time.”
The corporate’s viewers, she admits, nonetheless skews towards middle-income girls residing in compounds. “We began there as a result of it’s safer and simpler to coach; the infrastructure and site visitors in Downtown Cairo just isn’t a secure instructing surroundings,” she says. “ The last word aim, nevertheless, is to succeed in everybody, in all places.”
From Service to Sisterhood
Over time, Dosy’s neighborhood has develop into its best power. “A lot of our instructors have been as soon as college students,” Farouk says proudly. “Some even turned supply riders. It’s like a cycle — no pun supposed — of ladies supporting girls.”
She usually receives messages from trainees sharing milestones: first solo rides, first commutes to work, even first journeys outdoors their neighbourhoods. “That’s once I realise how emotional this work is,” she says. “We’re not simply instructing girls to trip; we’re serving to them declare house.”
Even Dosy’s identify displays that spirit. “It comes from the Arabic phrase ‘dous’, which means ‘press on’ or ‘go forward,’” she explains. “It’s our message to each girl: simply go.”
Nonetheless, Farouk doesn’t romanticise the backlash. “At first, the feedback on-line have been terrible,” she admits. “‘Return to the kitchen,’ ‘That is un-Islamic,’ ‘You’re encouraging dangerous behaviour.’ It was limitless.”
As a substitute of ignoring it, Dosy engaged. “We replied, defined, and shared tales,” she says. “Over time, these voices quieted down. Now, most suggestions is supportive.”
Public notion, she believes, is shifting sooner than anticipated. “The extra folks see girls driving, the extra regular it turns into,” she says. “I see younger ladies watching us on the street, smiling, pointing, asking questions. That’s how change begins.”
Nonetheless, infrastructure nonetheless lags behind tradition. “Older Cairo’s streets aren’t constructed for scooters,” she says. “There are not any lanes, no clear guidelines. That’s why we give attention to compounds and safer areas first.”
Rising with Objective
Regardless of its natural success, Dosy’s progress stays intentionally cautious. “We’ve been approached by traders,” Farouk says, “We’re selective. We rely totally on grants and partnerships for now. As soon as income stabilises, we’ll think about outdoors funding, however we don’t wish to compromise our mission.”
Revenue, she insists, just isn’t the precedence. “It’s about sustainability. Fast cash can destroy a purpose-driven start-up if it comes with strain to develop at any value.”
As a substitute, Dosy’s growth plans give attention to strengthening know-how and reaching new cities. “We’re engaged on app updates based mostly on person suggestions,” she says. “The imaginative and prescient is to make Dosy a nationwide mobility companion for girls.”
Her final ambition is regional. “Why not increase throughout the Center East? The challenges are comparable: tradition, security, and infrastructure. The answer we’re constructing right here may encourage others.”
Coverage, Infrastructure, and the Legislation
“If I may change one regulation, it could be transportation coverage,” Farouk says immediately. “Public transport in Egypt is chaotic. There are not any schedules, no construction, no security.”
For her, reforming transport would profit everybody, not simply girls. “If buses and microbuses have been organised and secure, fewer folks would wish non-public automobiles. Ladies would transfer extra freely. It could scale back site visitors, emissions, and stress. It’s a nationwide difficulty, not simply women-related.”
Nonetheless, Farouk doesn’t look ahead to coverage to alter. “We do what we are able to from the bottom up,” she says. “If the system gained’t make house for girls, we’ll make our personal.”
Six years into its journey, Dosy remains to be defining what sustainable success means. Its founders steadiness ambition with realism, a rarity in Egypt’s risky start-up scene.
“We’re rising slowly, however deliberately,” Farouk says. “I don’t wish to look again and see we misplaced our essence chasing numbers. Each trip we train, each girl who joins, is a win,” she says. “That’s how change occurs: small, regular, seen.”
Requested what retains her motivated, Farouk doesn’t hesitate. “Each time I see a lady trip previous me on a scooter, I really feel one thing shift,” she says. “After we began, it felt unattainable. Now it feels inevitable.”
Dosy could have begun with scooters, however its true engine is social momentum. “We began as a result of we couldn’t discover a feminine teacher,” Farouk displays. “Now we have now dozens of ladies instructing others, a whole lot driving every day, and a neighborhood that grows by itself.”
She glances on the street forward — actually and figuratively. “That is solely the start,” she says. “We’re nonetheless driving in opposition to the present, however the present is beginning to transfer with us.”