Working at an Early-Stage Startup in Sri Lanka
All the first employees of our new venture Vgo came from corporate backgrounds. None of them had worked at a startup before. The entire Vesess team, on the other hand, had never worked at anything other than a startup: for every one of us, Vesess has been the first and only place of work. There was clearly a culture gap to be bridged.
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Warrantless Wiretapping Legal in Sri Lanka
If you are being investigated for a “computer crime” in Sri Lanka, a police officer can—without a warrant, at his discretion—seize your computer data and intercept and collect your communications (“wiretap”). There is no specific authority to authorise or oversee such wiretaps beyond the investigating police officer. While the technical details about wiretaps might be murky, the law itself is quite clear: all of this appears in the Computer Crime Act, No. 24 of 2007.
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Coca-Cola and Sri Lankan Water Stories
The old water stories and myths of Sri Lanka arose from a culture that had a symbiotic relationship with the rivers and lakes. The new stories that we create reflect the modern dynamics of this old relationship. Now we transact. It’s all very businesslike. Give me water, and take my oil while you’re at it.
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Coca-Cola’s Oil Spill and Sri Lanka’s Impotence
Few things are so cliche as an oil spill by a large multinational corporation in a third-world country. Except, perhaps, when that country is yours. When that oil is in the very water that you drink. When, one morning, you open the tap and smell diesel.
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Adapt or Die: Surviving the Multinational Threat
In today’s turbulent business environment, organisations need to be able to adapt quickly to ensure continued success. Our local services will have to make swift improvements or risk losing significant marketshare to large, innovative multinational corporations as they expand their reach.
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JVP’s Brand Crisis: Communist Red vs. Sexy Crimson
At its heart, JVP is a Marxist-Leninist communist movement. Its loyal voter base is red hot, not crimson cool. As with most political campaigns, their 2015 rebranding was mainly targeting the undecideds, who seemed to be supportive of them, but didn’t convert that support into votes come election time.
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Ken Segall and Sri Lankan Delusions
SLASSCOM introduced Ken Segall as the “Former Creative Director of Apple Inc.” Why would they run such a disingenuous campaign? And why would Ken Segall not correct them? We can only speculate.
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Colomboard: The Failure of a Good Project
Colomboard was a “good” project, both in terms of business potential and social impact. It empowered a group of very talented young entrepreneurs by providing them with a fair and accessible platform to build their businesses.
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How We Give and Take Design Feedback
Since the very beginning we have tried to nurture and encourage the spirit of the “bomb comment” at Vesess. We have benefitted greatly from this culture that encourages giving and receiving candid design feedback without any need to make them palatable.
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Problems with Youth Entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka
It will take a concerted effort from both public and private sectors to come up with long term strategies that encourage youth entrepreneurship and drive technology innovation in Sri Lanka.
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