Why we built Owelz
Studio software was designed for a different market. Here is what running a studio in Cairo actually looks like, and what we changed.
Every studio owner we met in 2024 ran their business on the same stack: an Instagram page, three WhatsApp groups, a Google Sheet for packages, and a notebook at the desk. The tools that existed — built in the US and Europe — assumed card-on-file billing, English-only members, and a front desk with time to configure things.
That is not the studio we know. Members pay with Instapay or cash. Half of them prefer Arabic. The owner teaches four classes a day and does the admin between them.
What we changed
Payments are sources, not gateways. Owelz does not force a payment processor. Every sale is tagged with where the money came from — cash box, Instapay, card terminal, Vodafone Cash — and the wallet reconciles per source. Your accountant gets one ledger.
Attendance is the unit of truth. Booking is a promise; check-in is a fact. Payroll, utilisation, retention scores and now public reviews are all computed from attendance, so the numbers you see are the numbers that happened.
Arabic is not a translation layer. Members switch language themselves. Names, notes and notifications exist in both. Your public page is bilingual from day one.
The studio is still the customer. As we add public pages and instructor profiles, nothing on your page can be used to poach your staff, and your data never leaves your tenant.
What is next
This site is the first piece of a larger change: documentation you can search, a blog with practical playbooks, and public pages for every studio and instructor on Owelz. Instructors get a profile that follows them; studios get a page that turns Instagram traffic into leads; members get attendance-verified reviews they can trust.
If you run a studio and any of this sounds familiar, start a trial — it is 90 days, no card, and we migrate your members for free.