Corzent, a rising product development company in Sri Lanka, is using technology as a medium to create its impact on the world. With a team of passionate individuals working toward this cause, Corzent’s software development approach sets them apart from the rest. “We have created a people-centric culture where our primary focus is our employees, who blend with our customer teams to build world-class products with a Sri Lankan flavor,” elaborates Aravinthan Ramaraju, the Managing Director of Corzent.
Corzent advocates for helping customers turn stories into products. Closing upon a year since the company began, it specializes in a spectrum of niche software engineering solutions such as full stack development, quality engineering, UI/UX engineering, DevOps, and cloud enablement. Corzent partners with two types of clients: early-stage startups looking to build MVPs to go to market and scale-ups with years of experience looking to enhance their products.
Building a Tech Startup to take Sri Lanka to the World
Corzent began with its Founder, Sameera Gunasinghe, who has a strong passion for building innovative products for the world and wanted to showcase the talents of his home country, Sri Lanka. However, he conveyed the need to build the right team with a common interest and drive to move forward to accomplish this. Aravinthan and three others who’d be the Co-Founders joined him, and thus, Corzent was born.
Building momentum along its way, the team was pieced together to a member count of 22. This figure is projected to increase to 35 within the year ahead. “The success of a startup largely depends on the resilience of each member working collectively towards a common team goal. Therefore, I consider the inception of Corzent as the day our team was complete,” shares Sameera. Today, the company has grown to work with partners in Europe and Australia in banking and finance, project management, and ERP implementations.
Life at Corzent – What’s it like?
In conversation with Arteculate, Sameera shared that members of the top-level management at Corzent are firm believers of Richard Branson’s ideology of taking care of employees first. “To quote the founder of the Virgin Group – by first making sure our team members are happy and content to do their job, we are reassured of recurring customer satisfaction in the long run.” Hence, by placing its people as its number one priority, Corzent has created an active, caring, and fun work environment for all employees to thrive. “Our recruits are hired for attitude, not aptitude. So together with being tech savvy with ambitious goals, we also wanted people who love what they do and working together as a team,” explains Aravinthan.
To promote this open working environment of trust within the company, the management at Corzent has gone the extra mile in executing their “people first” ethos. As shared by the duo, here are a few examples of the culture instilled at the core of the tech startup:
A Work Culture where it’s People First, Always
“We weren’t challenged in the least in implementing our unique company ethos, as it came from within the people we hired,” shares Sameera. While the team had been looking for great talent, they recalled that some individuals had reached out expressing their interest in joining Corzent’s workforce. With a sense of belonging and belief in their growth, Sameera states that Corzent’s very first recruits were of this nature – these individuals have an undivided focus on developing their skills and performing exceptionally well towards the company’s growth.
Together with this, the duo shared their sentiment of challenging corporate norms and being completely transparent with the team. Elaborating on a recent example, Aravinthan shares that the management realized the redundancy of not having leave or insurance policies at the probationary level and decided to scrap such procedures within the organization. He states, “We have built an environment where we do not distinguish people on a probationary or permanent basis. This approach has made all our team members open enough to approach the management with their problems at any time.”
The people-centric culture at Corzent extends beyond the workplace. Aravinthan reveals a daily tradition of the entire team logging in to greet the rest before starting their day. Likewise, workdays at Corzent end sharply at 6.00 pm with an evening coffee, where the team unwinds over non-work-related bonding. “What is remarkable is that neither of these daily meetings is mandatory, but the entire team logs on to socialize. This would not have happened if we did not have the right kind of people at Corzent,” he highlights.
Initiatives and Space for Growth Through Learning
Mentorship and educational programs are a big part of life at Corzent. Personal care is given to all recruits in mastering the basics through ‘web 101 boot camp sessions, and they are encouraged to reach out to experts within the company for guidance. In addition, the company provides its employees ample time and resources to sharpen their skills through these programs. Sameera and Aravinthan believe that although these are costly efforts for the startup, it is a necessary management decision to encourage its people’s growth.
As explained by Aravinthan, working on a single project for 6-12 months limits a developer’s exposure to other technologies. “By creating a learning platform and bullpen, we encourage our team members to experiment and learn the basics of new technologies that would later serve as the foundation for building modern software solutions.” He also shares that they’ve curated a vast library of learning material. This library consists of content from open sources, paid courses, and instructor-led workshops on various topics. None of this content is static, as the management is keen to expand this library with new material and technology in the future.
Making the Right Decisions Ahead of An Economic Crisis
At the onset of the local economic crisis in early 2021, Sameera, Aravinthan, and the rest of the team began studying other countries in similar situations to understand how to cope with the months ahead. As such, they were one of the first companies to proactively peg salaries to the US dollar at a base rate of LKR 200. “It is not about what we did during this time, but rather how we did it. The pegging mechanism at Corzent is amongst the cleanest examples confirming Sri Lankan laws and committing to paying EPF and ETF for the pegged salary,” Sameera points out.
Throughout the months, the management kept all team members informed of their decisions to help them out. These efforts helped them better understand some of the pressures felt at an individual’s level and strengthened all members’ sense of belonging to the company. Sameera affirms, “We wanted our people to know that we are not the type of company who would organize something fun to forget our problems, but rather talks about it and addresses them head-on.” Elaborating further, he adds that to stick to Corzent’s ‘no work after 6.00 pm’ policy, all team members received a package with a steady supply of power that helps them overcome electricity disruptions during the day.
What’s next for Corzent?
Aravinthan expresses the immediate plan of continuing to build a people-centric organization that is capable of pushing interesting products out to market. In addition, he envisions serving in niche markets with a technically sophisticated team that can solve complex problems at a rapid pace. “In terms of improving our culture, several other initiatives are in the pipeline that would help our team take a break and reconnect with each other – like weekly mindful sessions,” he shares.
As a one-of-a-kind tech startup working out of Sri Lanka, Corzent is set on using the team’s strong passion for tech to create positive impacts, causing ripple effects to the country and the rest of the world.