May 15 2014.
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Young Entrepreneur Rukmankan Sivaloganathan
Pioneering a new trend in tourism in Sri Lanka, Rukmankan Sivaloganathan is the man behind Trekurious. An experiential travel company, Trekurious offers people the chance to experience different activities while in the country. Be it a walking tour to explore Colombo, dabbling in mixology or offering children an experience in making pizza, Trekurious has some activity to suit everyone.
What is the single most important reason for your success?
Well I have a long way to go before becoming a success so I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer this! However, I think it’s generally important to have a positive attitude, be prepared to work hard, and have a long term focus.
How did you come up with this idea?
The general concept of experiential travel came when I was in Vietnam. The tour guide who was supposed to take us to see the ruins at My Son was unable to make it so the tour operator got an archaeologist digging on the site to take us around. The knowledge and passion he had made our experience a far superior one to what we would have otherwise had. The idea for the model came from my co-founder, Dilendra Wimalasekere.
How do you balance work, life and friends?
By maintaining very irregular hours. Catching up on emails takes place early morning or late at night and I generally try to work around (literally!) social obligations.
What were your most difficult obstacles when starting your business?
The concept was (and still is) fairly new and it was difficult to convince stakeholders that this would be a feasible business. Getting funding also wasn’t easy but we were lucky that the Lankan Angel Network was being formed around that time. They had their first Venture Engine seed funding competition around the time we launched so we used the competition as a springboard to both refine the model and also to raise funding.
Any advice for young people who don’t have the courage to start up their business?
Starting a business, while never easy, is probably the best professional education you can have. For a young person, there really isn’t anything to lose. Even if you fail (and you will… at least once!) and want to get back into the corporate world, you would be a far more marketable person than if you had stayed the course as a paid employee for a company.
How old were you when you started your business?
I was 29 and I consider that pretty old for a first time entrepreneur!
When did you first get the idea for your business and what did you do towards making it a reality?
The ‘when’ was explained earlier but the ‘what’ was basically a matter of building a business plan, testing assumptions, finding investment, setting up the company etc. The key for us was the partnerships we built early on with eminent personalities.
If you could add a famous entrepreneur to your team who would it be and why?
Probably one of the Google founders. I’d put them to work on optimising our site for SEO and online digital marketing!
How did you get the capital to start up your venture?
We raised our seed capital from the Lankan Angel Network through the Venture Engine competition.
What is your “Golden Rule” in business?
Be bold and try things out. If it works, then great. If it does not, then move on. You won’t get anywhere unless you are willing to take risks.
Where do you hope to see your business in 5 years’ time?
I’d like to see Trekurious become the ‘go-to’ lifestyle and travel brand across Asia.
Text by Tina Edward Gunawardhana
Photos : Manoj Ratnayake
0 Comments
Sharanyan Sharma says:
May 24, 2014 at 12:00 amWish you all the Very best Rukmankan.