Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution

It’s around midnight in Cairo, and the four business partners are huddled around a sidewalk table in the upscale neighborhood of Zamalek, downing cappuccinos, smoking cigarettes, and debating the two issues that dominate their lives: the revolution and their startup. “You have to change the system from the bottom,” says Mohamed Ashour, 28. “The system is rotten from the inside.”

Ashour is one of the founders of Maybe Two, Egypt’s first frozen-yogurt chain, which launched last January, just before the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak. Ashour and his partners are about to open two new stores, and their frustration is palpable. Ashour thumps his fist on the table as he details the maze of red tape confronting entrepreneurs in the new Egypt. At one site, he says, workers toil from 2 a.m. until dawn because the managers of the shopping mall in which they are opening have banned them from doing construction work during business hours. At the second location, a local official angled for a bribe to approve the company’s plans. To avoid paying it, the founders installed a large storefront window in the dead of night, without the official’s approval, then covered it with cardboard so he wouldn’t spot it. “This experience is going to either break us or make us,” Ashour says. At that, Yomna Bakry, a petite 28-year-old in ripped jeans who oversees the company’s online marketing, interjects, “And we want to make it.”