The problem with Yamu Media wasn’t about generating business.
It was in clarifying the right kind of clients, and then finding specialized, senior employees who could support them.
Kanishka Wanninyaka’s digital media startup company is sailing now, with 15 employees and at least five more hires expected this summer.
He said the key was in taking a step back and being more specific about his company’s mission.
“We’ve learned that we want to serve scalable software companies that are driven by a purpose, that are solving for a real human need,” Wanninayaka said. “We want to know their product is valuable. Then we help them scale.”
It wasn't always this way. Throughout the early stages of the pandemic, Yamu Media struggled to match its ideal level of service to a wide funnel of clients that included small businesses. He said the decision to seek out purpose-driven tech companies and to match them with senior-level professionals finally aligned around the end of 2021.
Wanninayaka said his company primarily works off revenue-sharing agreements and is transitioning into a “venture studio” model where his company makes investments and takes equity in its clients. Yamu Media is in the process of handing off clients who don’t fit in that model to other agencies.
Wanninayaka was born in Sri Lanka and then moved to Dubai before coming to the University at Buffalo on a student visa. He graduated in 2019 with degrees in media studies and business, but found a professional network in Buffalo’s startup community and decided to start his own company here.
Yamu Media celebrated its second anniversary recently, but it was more than a chronological milestone. It was a recognition that Yamu Media knows what it is now: a scalable startup that helps scalable startups.
“Yamu Media is becoming a place that fosters thinking about innovation in a very human-centric and consumer-centric way, versus a shareholder-centric way,” Wanninyaka said.
