A startup company involves an innovative product, service, process or a platform. It is a newly emerged, fast-growing business that aims to meet a marketplace need by developing a viable business model.
Nowadays Sri Lankans are very much interested in startups, not because it is a worldwide phenomenon, but because people are freed to dream. Since the civil-war prevailed for 3 decades in the country hindered the dreamers.
Now, after 8 years of time, the magnificent dreamers who left the country had returned. They had started using their exposure, experience and also the incredibly creative minds to transform the valuable industries in Sri Lanka. Not only our capital city, but the Tier-2 cities such as Kandy and Jaffna are nurturing the industries as they emerge.
The Sri Lankans have to distinguish a startup from a small business, in order to transcend to the next phase. A startup cannot be built overnight, but it needs the cost (time & money) trial and error, and most importantly it must be significant for the ecosystem to absorb. The obstacles and the misconceptions occur to most of the entrepreneurs when leading a startup is due to,
- Lack of understanding the mental, physical and psychological demand of being an entrepreneur
- Spending little or no time to try to understand their customer’s problem.
- Building too much, too fast with no validation
- Being opinion driven rather than being data-driven
- Lacking a thorough understanding of the macroeconomics.
- Being bad at identifying and attracting talent.
Despite all the above-mentioned factors, 3 startups were found which might shine with outstanding development in 2018. The selection was not only based on their growth, but also the experience of the founders, investors as well as their ambitions. We can guarantee that you’ll have the best startup learning experience if you’re passionate about entrepreneurship. Their success is just a matter of time.
1. Yoho Bed
Status: Funded (2016)
About: A branded network of premium budget hotels. They offer standardized accommodation at competitive rates.
Speed and acceleration: They have reached 20% MoM growth on room bookings, in less than a year. During this short time span, their team has grown from 4 to 50 staff. They are looking to break even during the first two quarters of 2018, leading to a 5.2X growth.
The company is looking for Full-Stack Engineers and Property Revenue Managers.
2. oDoc
Status: Funded (2017)
About: An online platform which connects Patients to Doctors via online video consultations. They aim to make primary healthcare universally available, affordable, and accessible.
Speed and acceleration: They had reached 5,000+ downloads and 40+ doctors, in just 4 months of time. The app seems to be gaining traction with more than 1,200 positively rated consultations. Furthermore, oDoc won the 2017 Commonwealth Digital Health Award for telemedicine and is selected to the StartX Accelerator based out of Stanford. Heshan Fernando Co-founder and CEO told us that their target for 2018 is to reach 500 consultations per day.
The company is looking for Software engineers.
3. Cricrush
Status: Funded (2018)
About: A fun and addictive digital gaming platform based on the game of Cricket. It ties the real-time outcomes of a Cricket match played anywhere in the world to its mobile game.
Speed and acceleration: These guys are still in stealth mode. But with absolutely zero marketing, they have already racked up over 10,000 downloads with their MVP. The goal is to reach 1,000,000 downloads by the 2019 world-cup. In order to reach this target, they have secured key partnerships that would make Cricrush the ONLY legitimate cricketing app! And also two remarkable brand ambassadors are leading the way.
The company is looking for UX Designer and Marketing Guru.
