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Pataz.com to revolutionise B2B marketplace 

19 Sep 2021

  • Brainchild of two Sri Lankans living in the US 
Two childhood friends from Sri Lanka have made it to California in the US creating a global platform to achieve the things that Alibaba was not able to, in the last decade.  Pataz.com is the platform the two friends Andy De Silva and Chamli Tennakoon had innovated to revolutionise the B2B marketplace by connecting suppliers, buyers, manufacturers, and wholesalers – on a global scale.  This week, we decided to talk to the Co-Founders of Pataz.com to know about their journey, challenges and any advice they could give to encourage the younger generation of entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.  Co-Founders and the story of Pataz.com  Andy, who was borned and raised in Sri Lanka, schooled at Nalanda College in Colombo for his primary and secondary education, and after trying out his luck at SriLankan Airlines and his father’s businesses, Andy finally migrated to the US in 1997 with $ 600 in his pocket.  In the US, Andy was able to set up his own company in the manufacturing and supply chain called Hotel Emporium which manufactures toiletries, soaps, and shampoos for hotels around the globe.  His business which he started off in his garage, now provides products to more than 15,000 hotels in over 55 countries.  Andy has the capability in building up teams, inventing products and analysing what the market needs, especially in the hospitality sector.  Meanwhile, Chamli is a digital strategist and an inventor who has about eight patents in the US, Japan and Europe on futuristic innovations more close to the media domain.  Recently, he had worked with Zee Entertainment in India and had played a major role in building up the ZEE5 OTT platform and helped them to increase their subscription base to 85 million.  Chamli has a background in consumer neuroscience and innovations.  However, the two friends who were in different industries finally came together when an idea Andy had for years made him realise was something the world needed especially with the Covid-19 pandemic.  Andy, who had visited China since 2000 to find factories for his products in his hospitality business had seen how China grew in the last two decades.  According to him, before Alibaba, it was really hard to find factories for his products as he had to go through chains of brokers who each got a cut of it.  But as Alibaba came out, he found it easy to find factories for his products although there were still many brokers within Alibaba’s process.  The idea of forming a global platform that would connect suppliers and businesses around the world first came during the period of 2014 and 2015 when Alibaba did not reach a global state.  But the story took a real turn when the pandemic hit and most of the hotels around the world were forced to close down. “I thought 25 years of my work was going to come to an end overnight from this,” he said.  However, soon he turned to the sanitiser and medical equipment business following a friend’s advice before the US was really impacted by Covid-19.  But he was not able to keep up with orders for his new business as he couldn't find factories for his products outside China because China was already at that time supplying at full capacity to Europe and inside China.  “If you go through google there are so many brokers but there is no platform around the world to find a factory. That's the time I realise someone has to do this,” he said.  Andy then pitched the idea to Chamil who had happily retired from his work which led to the creation of Pataz.com.  On how they came up with the name Pataz, Andy said they had tried about 800 names, and as Chamli was a perfectionist who wanted every aspect match, and when Andy finally said “I don’t care machan, immediately (Pataz gala) put a name!”, Chamli saw the perfect name for their new business.  The two had to pay a huge sum for the name as it was already taken.  How is Pataz.com unique?  Pataz.com is a unique B2B platform from other such platforms in the world as there is a human aspect to it other than the technology involved.  Pataz.com has a network of people called Patazians, who will help businesses to get the necessary exposure in foreign markets and showcase their products online.  “The Pataz network is people-driven,” Chamli said.  Patazians are ones who are dealing with the factories, and they are the people who bring the factories into the platform and do all these verifications throughout the process.  Once factories and businesses signed in for the platform, a Patazian will be attached to that particular factory or business and under that portfolio they will help that factory or business to showcase on the Pataz.com platform, and define based on their product line which part of the world they should tackle first.  “Our network will enhance their business strategies and the future goals of the small to medium factories we are going to connect with,” Chamli added.  What Pataz.com offers and its goals  Pataz.com will be providing a platform and support for those businesses to go global by coming out of their cities, province, state and the country they are currently doing business with.  Pataz.com will take those businesses to the outside world based on the products and capacity and create a much larger portfolio for the businesses.  “We are creating virtual trade shows where they can showcase their products for niche markets. Pataz allows businesses to showcase their products in other countries without the hassle of government regulations, travelling and other related costs,” Chamli said.  Pataz.com has already identified a couple of Patazians on the ground running in Sri Lanka.  It is the responsibility of the Patazian to make sure it is a genuine exporter, supplier or a factory which they are bringing to the platform.  Talking about the future of the company, Andy said that Pataz.com could grow as any tech company in the world with the many avenues and roadmaps which are created for the company, and most importantly because there Pataz.com is covering a huge gap in the market directly connecting suppliers and businesses around the globe.  And he said it might not take five years to put them together because they are in the right country and the right state – California, where Silicon Valley is located.  Pataz.com has already connected with about 1000 factories globally which includes 15-20 Sri Lankan companies.  According to Andy, a big launch will be held in the US, where top celebrities in the US will endorse the brand which will make the brand a sensation overnight.  “In five years time it will definitely be a billion dollar company,” Andy said.  Workplace and challenges  Pataz.com has a startup culture in its workplace. “Freedom is what matters for all the employees,” Chamli said.  There is a structured team environment within Pataz.com which is driven by KPIs, where each member in the team has their own milestone which is a very unique way of achieving the best out of the best from the resources.  The main challenge the founders had in building up Pataz.com was that everything had to be done virtually due to the pandemic.  “In the real world environment when it comes to development I could not sit down with developers and build this which is the normal way of building applications,” Chamli said.  The two friends had to work mostly during night hours as many of their resources were located in other countries.  “It took a little longer than in the normal development environment since it could take 24 hours to change something. The pandemic gave us extra time to deal with things. On the other hand we had to do everything remotely,” Chamli added.  Moreover, due to the pandemic the company was not able to do a big launch in the Silicon Valley and do a launch in Sri Lanka.  How can Sri Lanka benefit?  At a time Sri Lanka is facing huge difficulties in terms of foreign exchange and import restrictions, Pataz.com could help Sri Lankan businesses to find buyers globally and help improve exports.  “We are creating the opportunity for small and medium businesses to do that because the large-scale businesses can do anything as they have the connections and the capabilities to do so,” Chamli explained.  For example, a handloom company could sell its products abroad through fulfilling the quality and other requirements expected by them.  “Even though we are a global platform we are starting with promoting Sri Lankan business as we are from Sri Lanka. So Sri Lankans will have the first chance to get exposure in the US, Europe, and the global marketplace,” Andy said.  This will help Sri Lanka to bring in foreign exchange to the country and develop the export sector of the country further.  A word of advice to young entrepreneurs  Even if the pandemic has taken young entrepreneurs a step back, Andy said the current generation has an exposure to the world due to social media which their generation never had.  He asks the new generation of entrepreneurs to always think outside the box and think there is always a way by never giving up.  “There are going to be 100 people that will bring you down and naysayers who say it’s not going to work. You have to listen to yourself, believe in yourself and your product or the service you are offering,” he said.  “If you think a pandemic has no opportunities for entrepreneurs it has more opportunities than you think and it’s right in front of you. We are the living proof of it,” he added.  Chamli said the young entrepreneurs should focus more on the product rather than setting up a company.  “Start innovating the first thing you see, what you see in day-to-day life and then start innovating what they don’t see. In that way, the process is going to be much easier for them such as creating a product and creating a company,” he explained.  He noted that in startups there is something called the horizon. “So you need to innovate things with the horizon. If you do it too far or too late in the game you are not going to succeed,” added Chamli.  He advised young entrepreneurs to innovate something people can use within three years and not beyond that in order to have successful innovation.


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