Their startup survived a tsunami and Sri Lanka’s fledgling internet. Now it’s booming

It was in the early 2000s when a group of five young, ambitious high school graduates from Sri Lanka realized their burning desire to strike out on their own. They were enthusiastic about entrepreneurship and yearned to make it big – building a company synonymous with quality and excellence.

Despite barely being out of their teens, the five friends proceeded to register and launch their company, Vesess. They called themselves “The 5,” and their company logo was five fingers and a palm. Initially they dabbled in several fields, trying to test the waters and see what would stick. One of their early products was a Flash-based Valentine’s card, which they hoped would appeal to the younger generation of Sri Lankans.

The biggest stumbling block the entrepreneurs faced was that not many people in Sri Lanka used the internet. They understood this was the future and it made sense to invest their time and resources in building a tech company, but there was very little traction on the ground. Furthermore, attitudes towards entrepreneurship were not as widely-ingrained – bigger companies felt uncomfortable working with startups as they felt they didn’t have enough experience and exposure to be reliable partners.

Reality hit hard when they tried to market their proprietary financial application, called Investor. It was aimed at facilitating the transition from traditional stock brokerage processes to digital. People wanted applications to monitor trends and analyze data, so theoretically the product should have taken off. Unfortunately, prospective clients were not convinced of the company’s viability and the idea tanked.

See: These brothers skipped college, taught themselves how to code, and built a site that attracts 100M monthly visits

Verge of collapse

Prabath Sirisena

Vesess faced an uncertain future. Some tough decisions needed to be made to ensure the firm stayed liquid and didn’t collapse. Cash flow issues meant they weren’t able to afford extravagant salaries and three of the original founders parted ways with the company, concentrating on their individual careers instead. The two who chose to stick it out were Lankitha Wimalarathna and Prabath Sirisena – currently the CEO and creative director of Vesess respectively.

Lankitha Wimalarathna

“We wanted to do something really beautiful – like Virgin. Build a brand which can be extended into any vertical […] We tried utilizing our skills in print design and web development but it was difficult and we almost collapsed,” explains Lankitha.

In 2004, Sri Lanka was hit by the huge Indian Ocean tsunami that brought death and widespread devastation.  The entrepreneurs wanted to help their country recover from the disaster and Prabath had an idea to design a site which would assist in transmitting information. Within 24 hours, the duo had a small web page ready, which provided contact information for all humanitarian organizations and government agencies working on the ground for disaster relief. Their site quickly became the sole point of reference for anyone interested in assisting Sri Lanka recover from the disaster.

“We started getting responses and inquiries from everywhere in the world, particularly Western countries,” explains Prabath. “Anyone who wanted to help got in touch with us and that was the turning point for Vesess.”

Social good led to opportunity

Constant innovation