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Nayomini Weerasooriya — Her Story | satynmag.com
Founder · Editor · Entrepreneur · Advocate Nayomini
Weerasooriya
satynmag.com PR Agency Digital Agency SWFW Awards Retro Entrepreneur
Building businesses as a woman in Sri Lanka since 1995 — before the playbook, before the platform, before anyone called it entrepreneurship.
30Years building
5Ventures
27Years of satynmag
Scroll to read her story
Nayomini Weerasooriya
"I started satynmag the same year my son was born. He is 27 now. So is the magazine. Both are still going strong." — Nayomini Weerasooriya
Her story Thirty years.
Still building.

In 1995, Nayomini Weerasooriya started a PR agency in Sri Lanka before there was a playbook for what she was doing. No women's business networks. No social media. No startup ecosystem. Just a vision and the nerve to act on it.

In 1998, the same year her son was born, she launched satynmag — Sri Lanka's women's magazine in print. She ran both for fifteen years, through the internet's arrival, through the slow death of print advertising, through every moment the industry said it couldn't be done.

In 2007, nine years into building two businesses, she had her daughter — embracing late motherhood and fitting a newborn into a life already full to the edges. She did not step back from either business. She restructured and kept going.

In 2013, when most print magazines were closing, she took satynmag digital — not as a retreat, but as a deliberate reinvention on her own terms. In 2020, mid-pandemic, she launched a digital marketing agency. In 2021, she founded Sri Lanka's only women-focused workplace awards.

She never stopped. She is still building.

The timeline
1995 PR Agency — founded Pre-internet Sri Lanka. Building a business from nothing as a woman, before anyone had a name for what she was doing.
1998 satynmag launches in print Sri Lanka's women's magazine. 15 years of print publishing, through everything the industry threw at it. ♥ Same year her son was born
2007 Late motherhood — her daughter arrives Two businesses running. A nine-year-old son. She fitted it in without stepping back from either. ♥ Building and motherhood, at once
2013 satynmag goes digital 15 years of print. A deliberate reinvention — most magazines didn't survive this. satynmag did. ♥ Son was 15. satynmag was 15.
2020 Digital marketing agency — mid-pandemic 25 years in, she started something new. Reading a market others were fleeing.
2021 Satynmag Women Friendly Workplace Awards Sri Lanka's only women-focused workplace awards. She stopped talking about empowerment and built the institution that measures it.
What she has learned 30 years of building.
In her own words. Six insights from three decades of building as a woman in Sri Lanka — drawn from her newsletter, her writing, and the conversations she keeps having with women who are just starting.
On starting "Nobody is ever ready. I started the PR agency in 1995 not because I was ready but because waiting for ready is how nothing ever gets built." From her newsletter Retro Entrepreneur — on what she would tell a woman who is waiting for the right moment.
On motherhood and building "I had my son and my magazine in the same year. People said I was doing too much. I thought I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing." On 1998 — the year everything began. The piece that started her content series on 30 years of building.
On reinvention "Taking satynmag digital in 2013 was the hardest editorial decision I ever made. It was also the one that kept us alive. You do not always get to know which decisions those are until afterwards." On the 2013 pivot — and what she learned about knowing when something needs to change.
On persistence "There was a year I nearly shut satynmag down. I did not because I could not imagine being the person who gave up on something Sri Lankan women needed. That clarity got me through." On the hardest years — and what keeps a founder going when the practical reasons run out.
On female empowerment "I did not want to talk about female empowerment. I wanted to build something that outlasted the conversation. That is why the awards exist." On founding the Satynmag Women Friendly Workplace Awards in 2021 — Sri Lanka's only women-focused workplace benchmark.
On late motherhood "Having my daughter at 9 years into two businesses taught me something the first time around did not — that you get better at fitting life in. Not easier. Better." On 2007 — the difference between first and second motherhood when you are also a founder.
"I didn't just want to talk about female empowerment. I wanted to build something that outlasted the conversation. That is why satynmag exists. That is why the awards exist. That is why I am still here, thirty years later." — Nayomini Weerasooriya, Founder & Editor, satynmag.com
Retro Entrepreneur Follow the full journey.
Every week. Nayomini shares one insight from 30 years of building every week — honest, personal, and grounded in what actually happened.
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