We want to figure out how your story can be presented so people buy into it in a big way.
This offer is not going everywhere.
I picked Fouzul Hameed of Hameedia, Thilan Wijesinghe from the BOI, Dulith from Kapruka, and you.
I picked Fouzul because Hameedia is a Sri Lankan fashion brand I can actually show foreigners and say: look, this is ours. I also got a good suit from them for Captain Lasantha’s son Uwin’s wedding.
I picked Thilan because I like his thinking around investment and Sri Lanka going years without an IMF programme.
I picked Dulith because I like what he built with Kapruka, and even things like shaving his head when his father had cancer tell you something human about the guy.
And I picked you because there is something good in your vision that deserves not to fail simply because it was presented badly.
We are trying to build Sri Lanka’s name with US investors and international consumers.
Hameedia gives us fashion.
Kapruka gives us technology and commerce.
Thilan gives us investment and BOI history.
Trillium gives us something beautifully built in Sri Lanka that foreigners can actually see, understand and buy.
And you give us something bigger: a businessman who tried to cross from building companies into trying to run the country.
That story is unfinished.
A lot of Rachitha and Lekhya’s friends have already left Sri Lanka. We have many mutuals. A lot of them left.
We are a US corporation still here.
Like Shanil Fernando, Sanjiva who retired, or Kris, we are still here because we are Sri Lankan and Sinhalese and want something good to come back to this country.
Out of millions of American firms, we keep naming the same handful with meaningful Sri Lankan connections:
Sysco Labs. WSO2. Virtusa.
That should tell us something.
We are not here simply so somebody can pay a person $10,000 when the equivalent California minimum-wage figure is around $73,500.
We are here because we still believe something internationally valuable can be built from Sri Lanka.