Does Sri Lanka Have A Start-Up Culture?
A small businessman in Kandy.
Since I was six all I ever wanted to be was a writer. Since I was 19 I knew that outlet was blogging. Since then I’ve just wanted to be a pro-blogger (it is possible), I just haven’t focused and done it. Why not? Well, if you’re good at something you keep getting dragged into doing services for other people, and you need the money. Then six years are gone and you’re no closer to your goal.
I think that’s one reason why start-ups in general suffer. If you have a good idea and talent, there’s a real temptation to pick the fruit before its ripe. It’s like a farmer who’s hired to till other peoples fields but then, come harvest time, he’s got nothing at home. This year I’m trying to manage my cashflow, borrow money, and focus, but it’s still damn hard.
Kiriappee’s Experience
I was flying kites with Adnan Issadeen a while back and he mentioned that he wanted to start a Silicon Valley in Sri Lanka. Without thinking I said, ‘that’s a stupid idea’. I dunno what got into me. Silicon Valley was a verdant nexus of universities, capital and coffee shops that Sri Lanka isn’t, but we could still have a start up culture better than the one we’ve got now. I thought about it and it’s not a stupid idea at all, but about the time I figured this out, Adnan had come round to disappointment.
So there I was standing in front of the crowd holding a mars bar in my hand and telling them that the mars bar would go to the first person to say they would step up to take the challenge next month. I knew we had plenty of web developers in there. I know we had plenty of people fresh from their degree with final year projects having been completed and could easily step up to demo them. But as I stood there almost pleading with someone to step up and take the challenge I realised even before I started the auction style count down that no one was going to come forward. And I said, “going once… Going twice… Remember what Steve said people.. real artists ship.. aaanndd… gone!”
The mars bar remained with me. (T3ch |\/|u5e)
Why does he think other people didn’t step up?
There’s a big cultural barrier that needs to be broken down to get a silicon valley created in Sri Lanka and ons of the hardest factors to out is our inability to accept failure as something that can be respected. Especially after someone attempts something brand new. Even worse, the critics are happy when whatever they said would go wrong does go wrong. They berate people. And in many communities it becomes something that defines that persons future with him/her being considered unsuitable and far too unstable for a marriage. This is reality.
On this I broadly agree, but I think there is a start-up culture on another level. Otara started ODEL selling clothes out of her car and a small shop on Dickman’s Road. I met a guy in Colombo North who started a business importing locks and supports a family and more now. There are businesses that start, but they’re mostly brick and mortar. In terms of digital businesses we have Millenium IT and Virtusa, which are services companies. There are start-ups like CurdBee and Create.ly, but those are within an international loop, not coming out of any culture here.
Within urban culture, especially Muslim culture, I think there is a premium on entrepreneurship. I know a few Muslim guys who were basically discouraged from school and told to go into business (they went anyways) and that idea of striking out on your own is acceptable. So it is possible. The thing is that great products have to also be of international quality online, so it’s rare for that drive and design-sense to meet.
Is It Possible?
So, is a start-up culture in Sri Lanka possible? Well, yes, I think it is. I mean, definitely. It’s possible, perhaps not likely, but when Kottu started it was like 50 people and I knew all of them. Now there are 1000 bloggers there and like 10 different syndicators. People thought the Internet in Sri Lanka was a joke, or that social media was a joke, but nobody’s laughing now.
But seriously, if you have any start-up ideas, publish them, share them at Refresh, or polish them and let them know. I did some asking around and there’s actually no shortage of funding, and I like to think that ideas are infinite. So grab the Mars bar and let them out.
Posted on Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 in Business, Sri Lanka.
Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice 
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
Good article again Indi. We could meet up sometime & have a discussion :)
The general belief is not helping towards a start-up culture. Everyone is trying to be a doctor, engineer or an accountant. Eventually to work under someone.
The education system also not geared to it. Entrepreneurship was never taught in school. We hardly found any impetus even at tertiary level (But right now there is some movement @ University of Moratuwa – http://www.ft.lk/2011/11/05/ndb-bank-sponsors-entrepreneurship-training-at-university-of-moratuwa/)
We are culturally backward and afraid to get failed. Need to break it. Perhaps need a bit of bait like the ‘mars bar’. Also remember ideas can come from the most inhibited places. Trick is to get it out and trigger innovation. We have to keep trying..
While Virtusa may be a service oriented organozation, Millennium IT is still very much a software house. I believe there are plenty of other (comparatively smaller) IT startups that have come up in the last decade or two (ie. hSenid, E-College, empriseIT, etc.). Most of these (if not all) are because of one individual who have ‘broken away’ from the usual employment and gone their own way.
I guess the states was established with people coming with the clothes on their backs trying to make a buck through entrepreneurship and other ventures. We’ve got the island mentality. Agree with MahoTrain on the education also…Maths and Science is good, Commerce mediocre and Arts the least accepted in some families. (Arts? What can you do with arts?)… I’m not generalizing but its true to an extent. So entrepreneurship takes the back seat.
The environment we are brought up in does not support the need to take risk. However with exposure you slowly get the confidence and by luck or chance (or prayer) you start to build the networks.
Kitsurfing Sri Lanka started off as a simple blog but now has nov evolved to an establishment through its training and hospitality arm Kitesurfing Lanka (www.kitesurfinglanka.com).
Will we fail? Will be succeed? We dont know but as my friend Tim said, you need to have the balls to just it. Take a risk.
@Dilsiri,
I have seen kitesurfinglanka growing from strength to strength.
Keep it going! It has great potential!!
It’s definitely a cultural thing, the family will never countenance mortgaging the house to raise cash for an uncertain venture, but will happily do so to pay for an education, and the opposite seems to be the case with Muslims families.
Well, now there’s another demotivator. What if the government decides your assets were underutilized? I’m surprised no one’s organised any mass protest or something against this yet.
Shammi the government can’t decide whether your assets are under utilized. It can only decide on assets built on government owned land. ;)
The problem with start ups in the lack of financing. Banks are reluctant to give you money unless you have a repo with them. But there are quite number of sucessful start ups. And phenomenally successful businessmen who made thier money with startups. Ashok Pathirage got into bussiness with nothing but eventually opened softlogic and then branched out. dammika perera, most likely the richest person in sri lanka, started off operating a handful of slot machines.
Couldn’t resist throwing that in ;) and really Dodo, lately this government has decided to do a lot of things we thought couldn’t be done. Anyway, lots of businesses are carried out on land leased from the state, and from what I’ve heard about the bill it’s rather vague on what underutilized exactly means, that’s the problem.
HEY, wait a minute. Was our Dodo ……?? oooooooo!
I wrote a long comment about how I am making money with the internet, not exactly blogging. I am sure you are very well capable of doing a good job of pro blogging and leading a few wise guys you can easily find. I know some of of those so called Pro Bloggers and wonder “why the Fcuk someone pay them such money?
Start ups are not that hard. In our tea estate, we gave one hour in the morning and in the evening for people who live in the estate and work, to grow vegetables. We gave the land as well. All in communal basis. I hear now, that one entrepreneurial couple buys the vegetables from others and take a quite a big load of vegetables to wholesale market or such thing. The negative is that they spend the money on alcohol and fight in the evening, more than before. So I wonder how long it will last.
But I am sure there are other possible start-ups for SL for sure. More likely what you need is somebody to bankroll new ideas. Find a rich guy who understands technology.
How about inventing a proper Chili pepper drying machine? (so I can travel to Jaffna without having to sneeze all the way with Chili peppers lying by the side of the road. That will be a good startup
“The environment we are brought up in does not support the need to take risk.”
Possibly one of the best explanations. People in Sri Lanka are grown into this O/L –> A/L –> get your rear into campus —> everything will be A-OK mentality. And most of them expect to be hit successes within days of starting up something new; when that success doesn’t arrive, MEEP.
[ I make games. People call me mental ].
Lol! I hope you have a lot of success. To my utmost horror my son’s stated ambition in life is to do something like that, and in typical Sri Lankan parent fashion my response was that he should make use of the free education he’s been blessed with first.
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I 100% agree with MahoTrain. We, as Sri Lankans are good at being confined into our comfort zones and conventional thinking, as our parents and grand parents did in their days. (The correct Sinhalese saying is “dena de kaala, wena de balaagena siteema”) We’re also afraid to take risks and thus avoid great opportunities fearing they’ll “fail”. How pathetic! Most students grow up without having a proper “vision” for their future life (trapped in the tuition-mafia) or most of them bear the same mentality, wanting to become either a Dr/Lawyer/Engineer. Who wants to become “entrepreneurs”? It’s time for a change else we will remain as a nation with no voice!
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