About Rafik
The team
The founders, developers and advisors behind Rafik, and the purpose bringing them together.
A shared purpose
Rafik brings together software development, practical fitness advice and regional marketing experience. Mohamed Marei, cofounder Sami Azzam and the team share a goal: making quality athlete-management tools more accessible to institutions in the region, starting with collegiate sport and supporting professional sport along the way.
The project focuses on the work connecting athletes, coaches and institutions: structured training, recorded participation, assessments and follow-up. Its open-source direction lets institutions evaluate and operate their own instance with their own identity.
Mohamed Marei
Founder and lead developer.
Mohamed is a full-stack software engineer with experience across education, aviation and fitness. He holds a BSc in Computer Engineering from the American University of Ras Al Khaimah and the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification. His work spans Vue.js, Nuxt, TypeScript, backend systems, cloud infrastructure and delivery automation. At Rafik, he connects that engineering background with the team’s interest in structured training and collegiate sport.
View Mohamed’s LinkedIn profile
Sami Azzam
Cofounder, fellow developer and core maintainer.
Sami is a software engineer with experience in production web applications, desktop software, SaaS and AI-enabled products. At Elbruz Technologies, he was the principal developer of Triplo AI’s desktop application, working on its Electron/React architecture, interface, synchronisation and releases. He holds an MSc in Software Engineering from United Arab Emirates University, with research into multi-agent LLM orchestration. He and Mohamed both studied at the American University of Ras Al Khaimah. As Rafik’s cofounder and core maintainer, Sami is central to its development and ongoing maintenance.
AbdulMounem Shetta
Personal trainer and fitness advisor.
AbdulMounem contributes practical fitness and personal-training advice to the project, bringing a training perspective alongside its software development work.
Follow AbdulMounem on Instagram
Mostafa Hendy
Marketing advisor for the region.
Mostafa’s background includes teaching IGCSE accounting, business and economics at Quatro Center, as well as earlier junior marketing and accounting roles. That mix brings business education, reporting and communication experience to his role as Rafik’s regional marketing advisor.
View Mostafa’s LinkedIn profile
How Rafik evolved
- November 2024: Mohamed’s professional project history dates Rafik to this period.
- March 2025: Early public posts described a fitness-coaching platform built around structure, accountability and connecting people with coaches. Sami shared that early work with his network.
- The current direction: Rafik focuses on institution-operated athlete and coach workflows, bilingual access and open-source self-hosting for organisations. The earlier coaching-marketplace messaging describes the project’s history; the current feature guides describe today’s scope.
Building in the open
The team’s shared ambition is broader access to useful sports software. The current open-source approach gives institutions the code and deployment guidance to evaluate Rafik for their own setting; hosting and operational responsibilities remain with the institution.
Read about Rafik, explore the features and their institutional value, or see how to contribute.