Arts
Creating a revolutionary wave in local start-ups
Randhula de Silva: Showing leadership qualities from schooldays. Pic by Praveen Rodrigo
Randhula de Silva’s philosophy is simply to do what excites you. As Co-Founder and Director of Good Life X, trying new things and pushing boundaries in herself and in others are what have led her to the many roles she plays, rather than following a specific path or ‘career’. While navigating the challenges of demoralising social opinions and making headway in spaces dominated by men require “an extra bag of gut and grit”, Randhula believes that staying attuned to your moral compass, retaining clarity and above all, being passionate and honest are vital to true happiness in what you do.
Progress is not a destination, and there is no linear path. Rather, it is an interconnected web of many things that come together to define where you are right now, which in turn is simply a reminder of the impact you are creating for tomorrow by doing things differently today.
As someone who likes adventure and living on the edge, she believes that entrepreneurship, like art, is the ideal vehicle to help you expand horizons, transform into the new and better, and tap into the utmost creativity we have as humans.
Randhula attributes many of the milestones in her journey to her willingness to say yes to “many different and daring experiences in life” while never letting her fears overcome her. Whether it was her first leadership role as school captain when she was 18 or being the Executive Producer of the feature film ‘Avilenasului’ in her mid-twenties, stretching her horizons at every opportunity was something she embraced early in life.
Having worked in research and media analysis heading the information intelligence services at Verite Research, as well as securing her Masters and Bachelors from the University of Colombo, Randhula felt that she was uniquely positioned to “open a new chapter of change within the development sector in Sri Lanka” through her work in the innovation entrepreneurial eco system, particularly in problem solving.
In her previous roles as CEO of the change-making start-up space HatchWorks as well as Chief Disruptor at GIZ, a well-established traditional Development Sector organization, she was able to create and lead a new pillar in a conventional space, starting with SMEs and start-ups. Randhula reminisces that it “was an exciting place to be back in 2014”.
“This allowed me to experience the epitome of agility and become the ‘shapeshifter’ that I am, being a bridge and cross-pollinator between very different systems, disrupting the status quo of functions of different entities, and merge and amplify the good things in deep collaboration, to create a new reality.”
It was one of the biggest points of change for her, and the reward was seeing the many lives transformed and many more initiatives now blossoming through the work they started. Such initiatives included initiating University Business Linkage Cells as pilot and its circular through the University Grant Commission, building partnerships with Yarl IT Hub in Jaffna, amongst others at GIZ, while her work at Hatch included co-creating the FabLab, supporting to re-invent Disrupt Asia, as well as designing many incubation and accelerator programs and exciting activities to help people thrive.
This passion for revamping the local start-up ecosystem carried on into her work at Good Life X, which started in 2018 with the express purpose of “disrupting the old ways” that saw sectors weighed down by outdated models and colonial hangovers, and to create businesses that really mattered to people.
“Our programme fosters ethical and sustainable business ideas that help improve the quality of life of the modern conscious consumers of the world,” Randhula explains. “What makes us different I think is that we are committed to innovate in spaces that really need to be disrupted and make others grow in a good way. It’s in the way we approach problems and how we do business creating value to life.”
As Randhula describes it, the recipe that makes Good Life X as effective as it is includes no small amount of collaboration in their ways with no hesitation to learn from any mistakes and refine their process organically, which helps to form deep and meaningful relationships with like-minded people across the world.
“To be part of creating a revolutionary wave of Sri Lankan businesses that contribute to and lead this ‘good’ world is very fulfilling,” she tells us.
Her work in designing multiple accelerator and incubator programs coaching 150+ entrepreneurs across multiple communities has led to many firsts, including the first fabrication laboratory in Sri Lanka and the first female focused intubation programme Sri Lanka amongst others.
They were also firsts for Randhula herself, as she had to learn what she needed to know on the go by working with many people, as well as unlearning a lot more than she learned. She describes it as a humbling experience, to be open to admitting you don’t know something while having to work it out through trial and error many times over.
“Just not being afraid to try, not over analyzing, not dreaming about it or talking about it, but just doing it and learning by doing it and sustaining the effort till it succeeds,” she says about the process, adding that it’s always “a beautiful, brutal experience.”
“There’s something magical about creating something new that makes lasting ripple effects for many. Even though they may not be glaringly apparent today, it’s what makes the future.”