After narrowly escaping a brutal civil war in Sri Lanka, my family was forced to flee the country, seeking refuge in Canada. The Canadian Dream started, with a newly claimed refugee status and no more than $30 to my family’s name.
Throughout my childhood, I carefully watched my father build small businesses from the ground up. From a pizza shop to a mechanic garage to an airport taxi service, I first learned business principles from my father, adopting his work ethic and immigrant hustle.
I decided to enroll in an accounting degree at the University of Guelph, fascinated by the language of business. Numbers came easy to me which allowed me to fast-track through my degree and get hired by the university as a Teacher Assistant (TA) for my own cohort.
While in university, I began developing and selling websites, sealing my first deal with a local accounting firm. Eventually, the student councils noticed my work and hired me to develop websites for them too. As my website business started to grow, it had to be put on hold as I was recruited by Deloitte to work in their downtown Toronto office. I graduated from The University of Guelph with High Distinction and jumped into the corporate world.
At Deloitte, I felt that I just wasn’t challenged enough, constantly dreaming of pursuing entrepreneurship. I would work at Deloitte throughout the week and drive cabs on weekends for my dad, in order to earn more money to fund my future business idea. After watching my father struggle with digital marketing solutions for his small business, I spotted an opportunity. I knew that there had to be a better way to scale digital marketing solutions for small business owners, like my father.
With that, I started ClientFlo out of my condo which was the answer for small business owners to acquire new customers through pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. ClientFlo eventually evolved to manage campaigns and build tools for over 300 clients including InMode ($448m IPO in 2019 NASDAQ: INMD) and Cynosure (acquired by Hologic for $1.8bn in 2017). ClientFlo was awarded Top PPC Agency in Canada by Clutch in 2017, 2018, and 2019. I was awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 by the Canadian Tamil Chamber of Commerce for my work at ClientFlo.
I have since gone on to start and invest in other business ventures as well, including PureFilters, an eCommerce business specializing in air and water filtration products, Viostream, an Australian-based enterprise video software business, and Soutron Global, the leader in library, archive, and knowledge management software.
Today, I am focused on Atlasview Equity, a private equity firm making control investments in software, tech-enabled services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. On the side, I also invest in public equities and multi-family real estate in the Greater Toronto Area, managing a portfolio for myself and my family.
Outside of entrepreneurship and investing, I enjoy writing on my blog, my newsletter, and my Twitter account. I’ve amassed 27k followers/subscribers and my content generates millions of monthly impressions. I also enjoy reading and traveling as much as possible!