Abultewi came up with the idea for Wasselni when, as a
22-year-old, she was waiting for a lift in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

Funding for the idea was not initially forthcoming when she
pitched it to investors in 2011. With the help of Gaza Sky Geeks, the first
start-up accelerator in the Gaza Strip, she scored funding from Palinno, a
Palestinian operation that works in both Gaza and the West Bank. It was one of
the first start-up investments in Gaza, and she sees it as a step toward
changing attitudes that still linger in the Middle East.

Taxi drivers and taxi companies who join the Wasselni system
are sent real-time notifications from users using the mobile and web app
connected to Wi-Fi. The taxi company deals with incoming requests from
customers and then forwards them to drivers who do not have smartphones. The
taxi drivers/companies pay a portion of their Wasselni-linked earnings back to
the company.

Wasselni also works as a social network, allowing users to
follow each other, find their friends’ trips, add comments on each other’s
posts, and even ask to join their friends’ trips.