By Theodora Yu
The Sacramento Bee
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) This week, The Sacramento Bee sits down with Manushi Weerasinghe, founder of Capital Tuk-Tuk, an eco-friendly tour company that aims to bring the tuk-tuks, a three-wheeled vehicle commonly found in Asia, to Sacramento.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
The number of Asian business women is on the rise nationwide.
A report by the Asian Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship shows AAPI women-owned business grew by between 76% to 108% in 2017.
As of 2016, about one-quarter of women-owned employer firms were minority-owned, and among them, more than half were Asian-owned, according to a 2018 statement published by the Census Bureau.
This week, we spoke with Manushi Weerasinghe, founder of Capital Tuk-Tuk, an eco-friendly tour company that aims to bring the tuk-tuks, a three-wheeled vehicle commonly found in Asia, to Sacramento. They have heated seats, rain covers and are fully electric. Weerasinghe, 29, shares with The Sacramento Bee how she founded the idea and pushed limits to make it happen.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your background.
A: I was born in Sri Lanka. My father bought a tuk-tuk because we are a family of five and we were using a two-seater motor-cycle to transport, which was totally unsafe but the laws are different out there. So getting that tuk-tuk for us was like buying a luxury car and transformed our lives. We were royalty riding around, saying hi to our neighbors and everyone was excited. I simply remembered that feeling and I never imagined that I (could) capture that moment again. That first experience was very special because of the way it happened – our family was all together.
Quickly after that we got an opportunity to go to the United States. We have a large family in Sri Lanka, but in America we had no support network, no family. My parents – Nihal and Ramani Weerasinghe – spoke English, but I was only 8 and only knew the word “cat.” Of all places, we moved into a tiny apartment in the middle of (Los Angeles). We didn’t understand the concept of an apartment because everyone has houses back in Sri Lanka. It was a bit of cultural shock, and this was 1998, right after the Internet launched. People didn’t know Sri Lanka, and the only way to communicate with family was through phone call.
It felt like I was truly like a separation. To be honest we didn’t understand we weren’t going back home. Two years in and we were like: so when is it time to go back to Sri Lanka? But we did feel that sense of loss. The people that did embrace us was the Sri Lanka community in L.A. who became our friends whom we consider as our family. It was a group of people we can speak to in our language, in Sinhalese. Some understood our language but couldn’t speak it. They gave us advice on schools, financial decisions, advice on relationships, college and applying for financial aid, as I am a first-generation college graduate. I didn’t understand the concept of college around age 17. It was a little late. But our community embraces education and our success was their success. They were really like our aunts and uncles. We were supported, so that cultural piece was so ingrained in me.
No matter where I end up in life, Sri Lanka will always be a part of my life.
I went to a community college in L.A., and later to UC Davis. As far as cultural shock, that was difficult for me as I always lived with my tight-knitted family. it felt challenging again to navigate an arena or spaces that I didn’t know.
Q: How did you come up with your business idea?
A: I explored different career paths after graduation and figured out those weren’t for me. I felt lost, not knowing where my life was headed, so I sat down and tried making a list of my goals and plans to figure out what I have to work with and what I wanted to work with.
I knew I wanted to work for myself and start my own business, maybe a cafe. In 2015, I lost a job and was moving from Davis to Sacramento at the same time because I ended up applying to graduate school. I wanted to continue my work in psychology, because mental health is important to me and would let me continue what I started already. And this was what brought me to Sacramento.
Sacramento is what sparked me. There is a heart here, something that I fell in love with and wanted to bring a piece of myself to this city. And I wanted to do it in a way that will connect things that I care about and still honor my roots, my family and my country.
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I grew up with the people who cared about each other and the community. People were happy. I saw the parallel here: there’s a sense of community here and people care about each other. I was really inspired by this town.
Here was my exact spark. There was a moment when I was scrolling Instagram. Someone in L.A. posted a picture of a tuk-tuk. I thought that was brilliant and I started doing research on how to get one here in Sacramento.
I found that the tuk-tuks made in Vietnam and India are illegal in the U.S. That same year that I looked, some people brought the tuk-tuks to the U.S., made it legal and marketable and were selling them out of Denver. So I flew there in 2016. I was barely surviving as a graduate student, but I made it work because it was a priority to me. It needed to become reality. It has to happen. Like divine intervention, I know it is going to work. That shift really changed what decision I made regarding the business.
Q: What are the challenges and opportunities you faced as an entrepreneur?
A: My first challenge was myself. Who am I? Initially I didn’t want to share this idea. I was worried it was dumb, and while I have a degree in psychology, I never took a business class or anything that could be related to running a business. I later realized that running a business is people work so the degree actually came in handy. But at the time I felt like an impostor.
I feel like more people like me needs to take up leadership roles to understand other people who look like me. If we allow the stereotypical profile of a leader, usually older white males, to continue to take up leadership roles instead of stepping up ourselves, we will never be represented. If I saw other CEOs, women of color and immigrants, represented, maybe my experience or adjustment period would have been easier. But I spent more time than necessary just to come with the fact that I can do this, just as capable as someone who fits that profile.
The next biggest thing was to speak up, to go to networking events and give myself a voice. In Asian communities you don’t see women speaking. It felt like I was going against those images that has been taught to us for so long.
So it was very empowering to me, and I was able to do that precisely because I have many great models that did that. So I am going to emulate them. They have the qualities that I want. It really made the difference because it allowed me to connect and collaborate with other people.
I was suddenly exposed to a lot of immigrant women entrepreneurs who are also glad that I exist. I found this immense support, this equal feedback of everyone feeding off each other on energy and support, in Sacramento.
Everyone wants everyone to win here. Anyone who can do something can find a group to support that. You just have to find the group. Not one person who I came across told me I could not do that, even though they were not able to help me they made sure to connect me to somebody who could.
I have found the most support in women. There is a way we see each other that cannot be compared. We understand each other’s struggle, knowing what we need to hear from each other.
Third, I found that what it takes to run a business is to have complete vulnerability. You need to be okay with asking for help, and to find people who can compliment you.
Q: Do you have a mentor or a person who inspired you to pursue this path?
A: It was a good reflection on how many people to be grateful for. The people who instilled the work ethic that I have was my parents. Before we came here, my parents and I lived a middle-class life. My mom worked at a university, and my dad at a bank. We had to start all over in America. Mom worked at Hilton as a housekeeper. They taught me to have no shame when it comes to work. There is always pride in doing what needs to be done and put on the table for family and to doing what you have to do to follow your dreams. I’ve seen my parents, the original hustlers of my life, doing it. Mom worked three jobs, came home to cook for us and never complained. They were grateful for the opportunity to make money.
I have taken those lessons with me throughout my life. No matter what I am doing with my life, I am grateful for the opportunity they gave me. They have been my motivation and my ultimate support and I would say they are the reason I do most of what I do. They have sacrificed so much to give us what we have. They were grateful to work because they knew their hard work will translate into support for their children, which then would translate to us being successful being adults to help them. They see the success of their children is worth the sacrifice. I’m just really grateful for them as a role model throughout my life.
Q: Do you have any advice for upcoming entrepreneurs?
A: You can’t wait for others to tell you who you are. You have to decide and show them, or else people will label you left and right and put their expectations on you, and later on on other people who look like you. If you internalize those expectations, you are going to believe that identity people gave you. I really had to check myself. No one gets to tell me who they think I am. My only job is to externalize my belief.
Going back to vulnerability: I didn’t expect it to be such a big part of entrepreneurship. I had to come to terms with it. You are not going to get anywhere without communicating where your weaknesses are and creating spaces to let others help you. There’s a lot of support out there. You just have to allow it. My business is 100% authentic. It’s all me, my journey and deeper details of my struggle. And people can relate to that honesty.
Q: What’s next for Capital Tuk-Tuk?
A: We are in the process of bringing a tuk-tuk here. We recently acquired an investor, which is a confirmation that what we are doing is of value, that there are people who want to invest in the city. Capital Tuk-Tuk will be weaved into Sacramento _ that’s my ultimate goal. The tuk-tuk should arrive Sacramento by mid-January at the latest. The next step is to apply for a charter license, and we’re hoping to fully launch by spring.
Capital Tuk-Tuk is in the industry of ecotourism, which aligns with the city’s green initiative. We offer a variety of tours, but also provide customized tours and transportation services. We hope to be the tuking capital of California. We strive to be more accessible and ultimately we want to partner with the City of Sacramento for future projects.
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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
