Hatch Accelerateher Alumni – Ba.La.Mu by Shenuka Umagaliya

By Zuleika Buhar

The guides on Ba.La.Mu provides private tours tailored to your needs.
This app is a virtual guide to Sri Lanka bringing together three key travel tools to allow independent travellers to experience our beautiful homeland. Using an audio guide, a digital map, and a collection of images, Ba.La.Mu allows users to freely explore with no set schedules or timelines; Giving tourists an extensive guide available simply at the touch of a screen.

An alumni for the accelerateher program, we sat with the founder of Ba.La.Mu. Shenuka Umagaliya, and asked her a few questions about her business and how she made it to the level she is at right now.

Why is your specific travel guide so special?

Ba.La.Mu. is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, launched in December 2021. There are no audio guides available in Sri Lanka and right now tourists are very dependent on the local tour guides available which is a bit of a lottery. You could land someone amazing who gives detailed descriptions of the locations you’re visiting or you could also land someone who wouldn’t do as great a job. Similarly, when it comes to languages, this is a very powerful app as it allows foreigners who aren’t affluent in English or Sinhala to have the opportunity to be able to have a detailed tour guide as well. We’ve just introduced Arabic guides to Ba.La.Mu. alongside several other languages. You can have a guide in your preferred language.

As a woman in tourism, a predominantly male-based industry; What were some challenges you’ve faced?

As someone new to the industry, I can’t say I’m the best source to highlight the challenges of this specific industry but I do concede to the industry being very male-dominated. In my previous role as an IT consultant – another predominantly male-based industry, even though I worked there for 15 years, I had to work doubly hard to earn the respect my male co-workers got by just being there. You can have all the references and documents in place but until you go there and get that recognition you don’t get that respect. I worked as a program manager for a long time and I had a lot of European males’ report to me. Every time someone new came on board they would continue to question my authority and push the limit to see if I was meant to be put there. It was the same cycle for every new employee despite my many years having worked there.

Women are often expected to put their family before their professional life, how do you deal with that particular scrutiny?

It’s hard. As a woman, you’re expected to work like you have no house, no kids. At the same time, you’re expected to look after the house and kids like you have no work. It’s essentially working two full-time roles. The only way to get through it is to just get on with it at the moment. Hopefully, it’s something that’ll change in the future. I have two boys and I keep telling them, that when you have a partner, you need to have equal responsibility. Hopefully, things will change if we can teach our children that responsibility going forward.

Who do you look up to in this industry?

I think there’s been a lot of people I’ve come across within this industry, not any known names but very dedicated and passionate individuals who I admire. They want to put Sri Lanka’s story out there and that’s heartening to see. There is a lot of love for Sri Lanka within the industry. That resonates a lot with me because that’s how I feel as well.

How do you think a business like yours, especially considering that this is the tourism industry is persevering during these tough times?

Businesses in general are finding it very hard. In tourism revenue has gone down to almost nothing 3 times in a row now. With the Easter attacks, then Covid, and now the economic crisis. Personally, I’m quite privileged with the fact that this business is not something that needs to put food on the table, it’s something I do because I love it and I’m passionate about it. I don’t have the additional stress felt by the rest of the industry. If I were to be in that boat, I realize I would have to pivot and look for an income elsewhere. That’s something a lot of people have done. Sri Lankans in general are very resilient and when a problem arises, we tend to adapt to it. We just adapt to it, it’s both a good and bad habit.

What do you want to achieve next following this program?

This is simply the start of the journey for Ba.La.Mu. I want Ba.La.Mu to be the go-to travel guide in Sri Lanka. The app that gets downloaded by default when you travel to Sri Lanka. I want to see it succeed and establish itself well in Sri Lanka. Following this, I hope to establish Ba.La.Mu internationally.

If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be? 

Follow your passion do what you think is right and it’ll work out. If you enjoy what you’re doing, it’s going to work

What is one thing that you are most proud of?

Personally speaking, I used to swim when I was younger and I captained the Sri Lankan team. That’s something I’m really proud of. Professionally speaking, launching Ba.La.Mu is one thing I am proud of and also my career as an SAT consultant. I was a freelance consultant and I hardly had any time on the bench. I spent over 10 years with them in the end. Those two feats are what I’m proud of for sure.

Shenuka is tough, level headed and extremely bright. Accelerateher has some exceptionally talented alumni this time around! We wish Shenuka the very best for the rest of the accelerateher program.

Accelerateher is a curated 3-month program tailored to your startups’ needs and growth objectives. 

The program mentors and experts are individuals with deep industry, investment, and entrepreneurship experience, and have worked across all stages of a startup.

They’ll be on hand to guide you and your team towards your growth objectives.

Head on over to their website to learn more!

http://www.accelerateher.asia/