Following months of preparation, HatchX, Sri Lanka’s first fintech accelerator, hosted its big day on the 10th of September at the Hatch premises. HatchX Demo Day aimed to showcase the seven selected fintech startups in the program while building awareness on the overall initiative among the Sri Lankan community. The program is an initiative in partnership with the Lankan Angel ...
What’s worse than having a leak in your boat? Not knowing about it. This is similar to the realization that one business owner had after setting up an ERP system in his organization and finding out that his sales team had been selling high-value products (worth over 40 million LKR each) below cost for the past two years. In the ...
The dawn of ride-hailing apps has completely transformed the global taxi industry. Even in Sri Lanka, ride-hailing has quickly become a busy space with numerous parties offering different value propositions. Amidst all this, Pink Drives officially became the latest entrant into Sri Lanka’s taxi industry. But this particular service comes with a catch. Pink Drives is an all-female taxi service ...
The season of reading is here. COVID-19 might have made things tricky for booklovers. But that didn’t stop the Big Bad Wolf book sale from coming back for the fourth time. This time, however, with a little twist. The 2020 edition of Big Bad Wolf Books in Sri Lanka will be entirely online. So how is it all going to ...
“If you get asthma, diabetes, or cardiac disease, then you’ll be most likely taking pills for life,” says Co-Founder and CEO of Healthnet, Deeshana Basnayake. His words serve as a grim reminder of an invisible yet prevalent problem in Sri Lanka. According to a 2018 report by the Ministry of Health, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of premature ...
A salesperson’s job is not an easy one, a flawless performance (no one is that good) can at best get them 50% of the way there. The buyer needs to meet them halfway to complete any transaction successfully. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, to learn that the average close rate for a salesperson across different industries is ...
She loves tech is the world’s largest startup competition for women in technology held in over 30+ countries across the globe. Pushing for more and more women-led tech startups, the competition cultivates an ecosystem for women to break boundaries, shatter glass ceilings and thrive across all industries. Now in its 6th year, the competition shifted to virtual format and expanded ...
Laptops have come a long way since its early days. Today, laptops cater to almost every specific need in the market. Whether you’re a video editor, a game streamer, or a business professional, there’s bound to be a laptop for you. Ultrabooks in particular, are among the most popular of any type of laptop. As such, Asus has a new ...
In a 1996 essay, Bill Gates coined the term “Content is King” to describe the future of the Internet as a marketplace for content. In a recent Pandemic Punditry conversation with Graham Hawkins, he correctly affirmed that not only is content king but it is the entire royal family! Christopher Lockhead co-author of best-selling book Play Bigger recently said, “You ...
“It was never done before. We went in expecting a lot of challenges,” says Nio Liyanage looking back on the past 4 months. Originally, HatchX, an initiative by Hatch in partnership with the Lankan Angel Network and funded by the Ford Foundation, was only meant to be Sri Lanka’s first fintech accelerator. A tough undertaking in its own right. But ...
Back in 2014, PickMe was an idea in its infancy meant to serve as a ride-sharing app for tuk-tuks. Today it has evolved to a feature-packed eCommerce experience. Whether it’s renting a van for a long-distance trip, getting an important document delivered, or just simply ordering food, PickMe caters to many logistical needs. With consumer behaviour shifting towards more technological ...
Data. It’s how Netflix builds entertaining content and it’s how Starbucks improves company performance. The importance of data cannot be overstated in the modern environment, especially in the business context. As the saying goes, data is the new oil. But how does one gain access to this oil? This is where companies like Zkewed come into the picture. Started almost ...
Cutting Edge, IIT’s annual event manages to draw the crowds every year. The event hosts some of the most creative exhibits IIT students have to offer. While previous years featured a big exhibition, 2020 took a different turn. The coronavirus pandemic prompted IIT to host the big event entirely virtual. Here’s how IIT Cutting Edge 2020 fared. Organizing an event ...
Data is moulding our future, it allows us to predict consumer behaviour patterns, optimise services and enhance the way the world works. For Sri Lanka to join the fourth industrial revolutions, it would require a skilled set of creative problem solvers who are capable of formulating solutions to this rapidly changing environment. Opening up pathways for the youth of Sri ...
According to Mckinsey – “COVID-19 has created a massive humanitarian challenge: millions ill and hundreds of thousands of lives lost; soaring unemployment rates in the world’s most robust economies; food banks stretched beyond capacity; governments straining to deliver critical services. The pandemic is also a challenge for businesses—and their CEOs—unlike any they have ever faced, forcing an abrupt dislocation of ...
Imagine you’re at the starting line of the 100m dash. You have trained hard and have had your best-ever track times during practice earlier this year. You are in a position to earn two distinctions – becoming number one and beating your personal record. While waiting for the gunshot to start your sprint, your inner voice questions, “Am I ready ...
Among the many assumptions that today’s business leaders make is that buyers buy and sellers sell. In their minds, there is a clear distinction between buying and selling. Within that paradigm, sellers “push” and buyers “pull,” and these transactions are linear, logical, predictable, and measurable. If that is indeed the case, why are companies struggling to sell? That struggle has ...
In June 2020, the Indian multinational HCL Technologies announced it’d begin operations in Sri Lanka. Currently, it plans to invest $10 million in Sri Lanka while hiring 5,000 professionals and school leavers, over a period of 3 – 5 years. To better understand the potential HCL sees in Sri Lanka and the impact of its investment locally, we sat down ...
At some point in our lives, we’ve all been involved in a financial emergency. For many including middle-income families, this became a painful reality in the wake of the coronavirus. Unfortunately, access to financial resources remains to be a challenge. Often simply due to a lack of collateral by those who need it most. But the deeper underlying issue to ...
When we visited the IIT Careers Day last year, the halls inside BMICH were packed and buzzing with activity. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic requiring us to practice social distancing, events of such nature are no longer possible. Still, for many undergraduates, career fairs are important. It’s where they’ll land their internship or first job after graduating. For corporates, ...
