The Secret to Success — Collaboration!

By Praveeni Senanayake

The fact that our choices determine our level of success rings true now more than ever. At a time in which choices are limitless Nevindee and Hansini made a choice to venture into the journey of entrepreneurship.

The duo Nevindee Amarasinghe — a passionate dancer, hardworking entrepreneur and an evangelist of self-love — and Hansini Sovis — an expert digital marketer, enduring entrepreneur and also a dancer herself — is a classic example of the power of collaboration in the startup world.
Nevindee was freelancing with an event management company based at HomeTree Coworking when Hansini joined the coworking space post-April 2019. They both happened to be working in the Ocean Room — which is the haven of freelancers and solopreneurs who share the ocean-themed office dedicated for hot deskers and fixed deskers. The Ocean Room is especially known in the space for the camaraderie between the coworkers. They have been spotted at ice cream hauls and chilled out catch ups by the balcony. So it was only natural that Nevindee and Hansini got to talking. They had known of each other, but had never conversed before. With having so much in common, they spent quite some time sharing ideas, knowledge and experiences. Little did they know what they were going to achieve together in the near future.

By August 2019, the going got tough for Nevindee and Hansini offered to share the work and profits of her company — Promo Box.

Promo Box

Hansini had gained extensive experience in the industry of Digital Marketing and Public Relations for 8 years, before venturing on to start on her own. Promo Box is an Email Marketing Specialist and offers tailored advertising solutions for clients and produces extensive results in getting the word around about their clients.

As Nevindee joined Promo Box, they opened up an arm for event management under Promo Box. It was through this arm that they managed a major event which was a huge success for which Hansini is quick to credit Nevindee.

All the while, Hansini was encouraging Nevindee to start her own venture — “I don’t want to let her go, but she should start her own venture and bring her true potential to life.” “That is women empowerment for real,” Nevindee observes. Thus, Good PR was born.

Good PR

Good PR offers event management and PR solutions. Nevindee came up with the concept and the roadmap for the company upon carefully considering her own strengths. With Hansini’s encouragement and help of other colleagues in the coworking space, Nevindee established the company in October 2019. Good PR was all about collaboration in action. It was in fact Sajid Salih who designed the logo and Suresh who did the content writing for the website — both Sajid and Suresh are members of HomeTree.

Although Promo Box and Good PR go as separate companies, the founders Nevindee and Hansini work together on both companies . They are upfront with their clients on their capacity and capabilities, while they deliver what they promise. They are confident that their businesses matured and in the case of Good PR, came into fruition thanks to the power of collaboration and community at HomeTree Coworking.

HomeTree Coworking is a creative coworking space that focuses on promoting wellness, sustainability and the power of co-creating. Nevindee and Hansini are grateful for the space and the community that brought them together which has resulted in their present success. “We want to take this forward and support all entrepreneurs — be it men or women and continue to create opportunities for freelancers and other startups. We are also currently planning personal grooming sessions around the island to make sure we give back to society.” Thus, they look forward to supporting other startups and in creating an island-wide impact themselves.