I've been thinking about this for a while.

Sri Lanka has a lot of talented people building interesting things. Startups, SaaS products, AI tools, mobile apps, side projects, and businesses.

But I feel like we're still missing a proper online space where people can openly talk about what they're building, share their struggles, ask questions, and learn from one another.

Most of the time, we only hear about startups when they raise funding, win an award, or become successful.

What about everything that happens before that?

The failed ideas, first customers, late-night coding sessions, finding co-founders, struggling with payments, figuring out marketing, and trying to build something from Sri Lanka.

That's the kind of community I'd love r/BuildInSriLanka to become.

Not another place filled with promotional links and corporate announcements. Just a genuine community of people building things.

I'd love to see:

• Founders sharing their journeys, including what went wrong.
• Developers and indie hackers showing their side projects.
• Honest discussions about launching and growing businesses in Sri Lanka.
• People getting feedback on ideas before spending months building them.
• Students connecting with experienced founders and builders.
• Local startup discoveries, useful resources, and opportunities.

You don't need to be running a successful startup to belong here. Even if you're just curious about entrepreneurship, you're welcome.

I'm hoping we can slowly build a place where people actually help each other and where interesting Sri Lankan products get the attention they deserve.

So here's my question:

What's something you wish existed in Sri Lanka's startup community that you haven't been able to find anywhere else?

Would love to hear your thoughts. We're only getting started.

We're just getting started here at r/BuildInSriLanka, and honestly, nothing is fully figured out yet.

The idea is simple: create a space where people in Sri Lanka can talk about startups, share what they're building, ask questions, find collaborators, and learn from each other.

Whether you're a founder, developer, designer, student, indie hacker, or just someone with an idea, this space is for you.

But rather than deciding everything ourselves, we'd love to hear what you actually want from this community.

A few questions:

• What kind of posts would make you want to come back regularly?
• Would you be interested in weekly threads to share your projects and get feedback?
• Should we do founder AMAs, startup discussions, or community product showcases?
• What's missing from the current Sri Lankan startup and tech communities?

Personally, I'd love to see more people sharing the realities of building in Sri Lanka. Not just success stories, but failed experiments, lessons learned, useful resources, and honest conversations.

There's no need to have a polished startup to participate. Even if you're working on a small side project or exploring your first idea, we'd love to hear about it.

We're at day one. Let's shape this community together.

What would you like to see here?

Hey everyone! I'm u/zerodayfounder, one of the founding moderators of r/BuildInSriLanka.

Sri Lanka has some incredibly talented founders, developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and creators building amazing things. But we don't always have enough spaces to discover each other's work, exchange ideas, or have honest conversations about building something here.

That's why we started this community.

Whether you're launching your first startup, building a side project after work, experimenting with AI, running a small business, or just exploring an idea — you're welcome here.

🛠️ What can you share?

• 🚀 Show what you've built — Startups, SaaS products, apps, AI agents, bots, or side projects.
• 💡 Ideas & feedback — Have an idea? Get honest opinions before spending months building it.
• 📈 Startup discussions — Funding, growth, marketing, legal challenges, and doing business in Sri Lanka.
• 👨‍💻 Building in public — Share your progress, wins, failures, and lessons learned.
• 🤝 Find your people — Connect with developers, designers, co-founders, and fellow builders.
• 📰 News & opportunities — Local startup news, events, hackathons, funding opportunities, and useful resources.

💬 The Community Vibe

This isn't a place for corporate marketing or endless self-promotion.

We want genuine discussions, constructive criticism, useful resources, and people helping each other move forward.

Share your work, absolutely. Just bring something valuable to the conversation.

You don't need to have a successful startup or a polished product to participate. Beginners, students, indie hackers, experienced founders, and curious minds are equally welcome.

👋 Let's Get to Know Each Other!

Since we're just getting started, introduce yourself below!

Tell us:

1. What are you currently building or interested in?
2. What's the biggest challenge you've faced building something in Sri Lanka?
3. What's one thing you'd love to get out of this community?

Feel free to share the subreddit with anyone interested in startups, technology, or entrepreneurship.

We're also open to people who'd like to help moderate and grow this space.

🇱🇰 Let's Build Something Together.

There's a lot of talent in Sri Lanka. Sometimes all that's missing is visibility, feedback, and the right connections.

Hopefully, this becomes a place where the next generation of Sri Lankan founders can meet, learn, collaborate, and launch something meaningful.

No gatekeeping. No unnecessary hype. Just people building things.

Welcome to r/BuildInSriLanka! 🚀

SLT-Mobitel launched SMART AI in August at the Sri Lanka AI Week launch. It's AI token credits bought through your SLT-Mobitel connection, giving access to multiple AI models on one platform. Pricing, the model list, and per-model credit rates don't seem to be published yet.

Questions for builders:

1. Is there (or will there be) API access? Rupee-billed API credits would solve the forex headache for small teams.
2. If you've seen pricing, how does it compare to paying OpenAI or Anthropic directly in USD?
3. Does a telco-run gateway compete with local AI wrapper startups, or give them a distribution channel?