If I’m being completely honest, there are times I still look at my calendar and can’t quite believe we are here.
Seven years.
If you told the 17-year-old version of me – the kid who failed his A/Ls, who was getting rejected by every single company just because of his age and that the side hustle he started would become a global agency, I would have rolled my eyes.
Today, Yellawt is a creative design and technology agency in Sri Lanka that helps founders all over the world build their dreams. But before the global clients and the polished portfolio, Yellawt was just a survival mechanism. It was built on pure, stubborn perseverance, born with close to zero capital, zero safety nets, and launched during some of the absolute worst times to start a business in Sri Lanka. Those who know, know.
To really understand how we got here, you have to understand where the hunger came from.
The Email That Saved Me
My career didn’t start with a fancy degree or a connection. It started with a desperate email to a hospitality tech startup in Colombo called Yoho Bed.
I was 17, tired of being dismissed because of my age, and honestly, a bit lost. I wrote them a long note that basically begged: Please, just don’t reject me for my age.
They took a gamble on me. Because I could speak English and Sinhala, and stumble my way through understanding Tamil, they put me in their call center. I was just answering phones. I didn’t know what “digital marketing” was, and I certainly didn’t know a world like this existed. But I had this quiet, intense obsession with design. I spent my free time looking at graphics and animation, trying to figure out how they were made.
Three months in, the management saw that spark and moved me to the marketing team.
I was lucky. I had mentors who taught me everything. But startup life is brutal. Not long after, the company had to downsize. We went from a bustling team of 60 people down to just 11. I survived the cuts, but suddenly, I was doing the work of seven different people for the exact same entry-level pay.
I didn’t complain. I couldn’t afford to. I was young, terrified of losing my shot, and hungry to learn. I worked constantly, and within a year, I was leading the digital marketing team.
But there is a moment when you realize you have to build your own table instead of waiting for a seat at someone else’s.
No Room to Breathe
During my last two months at Yoho Bed, I started Yellawt as a freelance brand. On November 4th, 2019, we officially started. By August 2020, we registered the business.
Our first “office” was a tiny room in Colombo. We could barely squeeze three desks inside.
We had no capital. No family money. And the timing was terrifying. Sri Lanka was hitting some of its darkest periods from the Easter attacks, Covid-19 and into the depths of the economic crisis. There were days we wondered if we’d even have electricity to run our laptops, let alone clients to pay us.
In the beginning, we did great work but almost at no cost. We built websites and did designs for friends, family, local businesses, anyone who would trust us. It was labor-intensive, exhausting, and for a long time, we were just trying to keep the lights on.
But we adapted. We realized we couldn’t just be another social media agency. We needed to offer real, compounding value. So, we poured everything we had into mastering UI/UX design and development services in our 3rd-4th year. We wanted to be the startup product development agency that took a founder’s raw, messy idea and turned it into an exceptional digital product.
125+ Brands Later
It still feels incredibly surreal to look at the growth…
From that cramped room in Colombo, this tiny team has shipped work for over 125+ brands across 14 global markets including the USA, UK, UAE, and Australia. We’ve gone from helping local startups find their footing to building large-scale platforms for major conglomerates.
Every single time a new client signs, or a project goes live, I think about that 3-desk office.
But the truth is, I didn’t build this alone. Yellawt isn’t just my story. It’s the story of my business partners, both past and present, who stood in the trenches with me. It’s the story of every designer, developer, and creative who has ever worked at a Yellawt desk. Whether you were here for a season or are still fighting the good fight with me today, you built this. I am eternally grateful to you.
We are still learning. There is still so much room for us to grow, to improve, and to do better work. But seven years in, I can honestly say: we are just getting started.
More than the clients, the markets, the numbers, I am most proud of the culture we’ve built at Yellawt, and I believe the team can speak for themselves.
This is just a glimpse of the story, and man I can’t wait for what’s next.
