On this week’s edition of ‘The Founder’ we feature the infamous Jeshan Nithiyanandan, fondly known as ‘Coach Jesh’. A legendary martial artist with over eighteen years of experience in professional fighting as well as coaching. With over fifty-two international placements, Jesh is one of the most decorated fighters in Sri Lanka to date. Jeshan is also the first and only Sri Lankan athlete to qualify for State and National level championships in all the states of Australia from 2009 to 2015.

In your own word’s what is ‘Combat By Jesh’? Combat by Jesh is a family. Every client who walks in through these doors will testify to this, they feel like they belong here. Combat by Jesh is a place where you are accepted for who you are. We do not discriminate due to race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Even if the person is with special needs, we welcome them with open arms. This is a safe place to be yourself, to train and learn new skills from scratch. To a lot of my clients, they call this their second home.

What inspired you? When I was a teenager, I spent my time perfecting the art of combat on my own. Having neither, Instagram or Youtube back then, I had five books with me and used that as my foundation. I utilized those five books to the best of my ability. I am forever grateful to my teacher, Master Iqbal from Trinity College who taught me the fundamentals. I lived in Australia for nine years and was finally awarded with the opportunity to compete but every school or dojo I went to, I was greeted with judgement and discrimination. I was the only brown-skinned male amongst hundreds of ‘white-skins’. It was frustrating and demotivating to train, and after countless of incidents, I decided to leave with my head held high, with the goal of opening my own school where everyone will be treated equal and with respect. After competing and setting National and International records representing Sri Lanka with fifty-three international podium placements that still stands unbroken to this date, I wanted to see the next generation reach bigger heights. I knew if they were given the opportunity, proper guidance and training, which I was deprived of when I started, they would do so much more than me.

What was the journey like, starting from scratch and building the business up to where it is right now? It was very difficult. Unlike most people, I was never handed anything on a silver platter. Financially, my parents were from a lower middle class family. I had zero financial support going into this. I had a vision and I shared it with my Mentor and good friend, Pastor Dishan. He said, "Son have faith, go for it." I was in no place to invest, because I had nothing in my bank account to invest, to begin with. Pastor D offered the rooftop at our church for me to train. It was six floors up and getting up there was a workout. But, it was an amazing opportunity. I had a roof above my head so we started from there, a humble beginning with five clients who were close friends and family that came to support my new venture. Eventually, word slowly got out and clients started to approach us and joined this awesome rooftop training area, overlooking Rajagiriya. I saved up every penny and my wife supported me throughout this time in running the house and all the other expenses.

We nearly collapsed at the beginning; the week I started I was hospitalised with dengue for almost three weeks. While, I was hooked up on the machines and saline drips, I started to write and come up with all the routines for fighters, since I had more time to spare laying on a bed all day. I wrote up guides and routines for fitness clients and weight loss clients as well. To this day, those very same routines are still followed at the dojo. We grew from the rooftop training area to a bigger place, in the heart of Rajagiriya / Kotte overlooking the lake.

Being an Entrepreneur, what was it like facing the global pandemic? It was an absolute horror. Seeing clients drop off one by one, receiving messages one after the other saying they can't come to train because their parents won't let them out or they are afraid of the virus etc. was a nightmare. The final blow came in the form of a lockdown. Before this recent wave we were doing very well. This pandemic hit the business really badly even with our online training program we have only about ten percent of our regular clients. Having no other income or a monthly salary coming in we faced a lot of trials and tribulations because we survived solely from the daily income that we charged from the clients per session. We don't believe in overcharging people big chunks yearly or monthly and the system we had in place worked flawlessly till Covid came into the picture.

What has been the most frustrating thing about being a start up? Most frustrating thing would be the lack of support from any institutions. I recall visiting so many financial institutions asking for help, to provide capital for me to invest and I remember how I presented my projects but got turned down so many times with their famous text book comment - "we will call you back.” It was frustrating and it even made me consider doing a regular 9 to 5 job just to get by at one point.

Explain a few marketing strategies you have implemented, and what makes them successful? To be honest, it was all through prayer. I had nothing but pure faith going into this but in the end that was all I needed. I have no marketing team or a fancy ad campaign. Nor do I have a website. I maintain a simple Instagram account (@combatbyjesh) and that is pretty much it. My work speaks for itself. Ninety percent of my clients have come through word of mouth or via a mutual friend recommendation. I don't even have a board outside my dojo to advertise, but clients keep coming in from all over Colombo, and some even travel over 20km to come for the sessions.

How did you get the initial start-up capital? I was not handed anything down on a silver platter. My parents couldn't help me out with my venture. The banks and financial institutions were a no go. So I resorted to selling off cameras and my lenses. I was a professional photographer prior to this and a very successful one at that with an impressive work portfolio from Melbourne. But I decided to give up on that dream and sell off everything I owned from the cameras to the lenses, my studio lights, tripods, editing computers, graphic tablets and even the carrying cases and memory cards. This was enough for me to buy the machines punching bags, gloves, wraps, the weights and the bare essentials that were required for boxing and weight loss training.

Why did you decide to enter this industry? I targeted people who wanted to get fit, be healthy and lose weight. In all aspects, I saw how unhealthy society has become. My own classmates whom I went to school with were merely a shell of who they were. I could not even recognise them and being the same age as me they looked 15/20 years older than me with complicated health issues, whilst I still looked like the kid who graduated from school more than a decade ago. I wanted to bring them back on track and try to inspire and motivate them by being an example.

Was your family supportive of your new venture? Initially, no. I've had two building openings and they still haven't seen them. The older generation has this fixed mindset of their children being doctors, engineers, lawyers, bankers, etc. Not that it is wrong to be in any of those professions but not everyone is built in that way to do that. When you step out of that norm and challenge the lifestyles it usually doesn't go very well with our traditional cultures and family. I hope they do come and visit me one day and see how I've grown from a humble beginning on a rooftop to where I am right now.

What is the end goal? The end goal is to be able to reach as many people as I can. Open up a few branches outside Colombo, expand and grow as a family to not only empower and make a healthy society but to also build a society that respects each other.