Founder Institute to launch operations in Lanka

Tech giant to guide potential entrepreneurs :

By Lalin Fernandopulle

Sri Lanka's technological entrepreneurship will receive a boost with mentoring from Silicon Valley tech giant, Founder Institute, which hopes to operate as a BOI company in Sri Lanka by the end of this month, Founder Institute, Co-Director Hakieem Samsz told the Business Observer last week.

The Founder Institute with operations in over 50 countries is an early stage start-up accelerator and global launch network that helps entrepreneurs create meaningful and enduring technology companies.

The Institute brings together experienced CEOs and Founders in a collaborative environment to help launch 1,000 companies a year worldwide.

Samsz said, "Our aim is to guide potential Sri Lankan potential entrepreneurs to think big, expand their outreach and be successful global players. The Sri Lankan team will comprise three directors including Hakieem Samsz and a mentor who will select entrepreneurs following an entrepreneur DNA assessment which will help fine tune their entrepreneurship skills, scale up operations and carve a niche in the global arena". The other directors are Tharindu Dassanayake, founder, Square Mobile, Varatharaja Kumaraguru, founder/Director, The Mentor International (Pvt) Ltd, and the mentor Sachi Smarasinghe, founder/CEO of Social Mappers (Pvt) Ltd.

The Founder Institute will create 500 companies in Sri Lanka which will generate US$ 1 billion in revenue within the next five years.

The company will invest US$ 2 to 3 million initially that would come from venture capitals and mentors within the next five years, Samsz said.

"Our aim is to globalize Silicon Valley enabling companies to build strong global brands.

We opted to come to Sri Lanka due to the immense potential in the country for growth in information technology. The universities with globally renowned engineers and BOI facilities with tax concessions for foreign investors are key factors that attract big global brands to pitch operations in Sri Lanka," Samsz said.

The Founder Institute headed by Adeo Ressi has mentored 1995 companies across the globe with a 80 percent success rate and 15,000 jobs created a year.

Pethub, Udemy and Retailigense are some of the globally acclaimed brands built by the Founder Institute which targets to create one million jobs worldwide within the next five years.

'Our focus is to create the right mindset that is needed to build lasting brands. We will support Sri Lankan businesses to be successful and long lasting companies," Samsz said.

Google, Space X and Paypal were mentored by the Founder Institute.

"Sri Lanka has good businessmen who can be successful entrepreneurs. However many Sri Lankan start ups do not have a proper strategy to be globally recognized and be successful. We could help Sri Lanka to shift from its conventional exports to IT based products," Samsz said.

The Founder Institute is the world's premier start-up launch program for talented entrepreneurs. It's mentoring support and global network has helps create enduring companies.

Samsz said the banking sector could be developed with solutions to make transactions efficient. The tourism industry could be expanded with more income opportunities created for those skilled in various crafts to impart the knowhow and share their expertise.

There would be many multi-billion companies coming to Sri Lanka when it has more global recognized brands.