20 April 2016 12:00 am
With the aim of uplifting the start-up ecosystem in Sri Lanka and to grow the start-up community, Startup Sri Lanka, represented by the Entrepreneurship Forum, which is an initiative by the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM), hosted and concluded another successful boot-camp.
Held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute recently, the boot-camp started off by having each entrepreneur giving out snippets of their story. Calcey CEO Mangala Karunaratne and Yamu.lk founder Indi Samarajiva talked about how they started bootstrapping their start-up and the effect it has on the business today.
Takas.lk founder Lahiru Pathmalal and Saraii Village founder Charita Abeyratne Hettiarachchi provided insights as to how funding helped them kick-start their start-up idea and what it is today, followed by a highly interactive panel discussion session moderated by Cinergix CEO Chandika Jayasundara. The discussion highlighted as to whether start-ups need to be bootstrapped and grown organically or to pitch it to potential investors for funding and have it grown faster, in comparison to bootstrap.
The diversified audience consisted of prominent founders of start-ups, aspiring entrepreneurs, tech enthusiast and investors and venture capitalists. Sri Lanka is experiencing a favourable environment for start-ups with access to various skills, resources and support. The country is also ambitious in increasing employment levels and investment opportunities from both local and global prospects and is gearing up for inclusive growth throughout the island in various sectors.
In conclusion these bootcamps will be an ongoing monthly event from the SLASSCOM’s entrepreneurship forum where the aim is to mentor, create awareness of local start-ups and educate the community at large as well as promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
The SLASSCOM is the national chamber for the IT/BPM industry in Sri Lanka and acts as the catalyst of growth for the Sri Lankan IT and BPM industry by facilitating trade and business, propagation of education and employment, encouragement of research and innovation, and by supporting the creation of a progressive national policy framework. It has an ambitious 2022 vision to become a US $ 5 billion industry, creating 200,000 direct jobs and launching 1,000 start-ups.