Businesswoman aims to bring tuk-tuks to Sac
Manushi Weerasinghe is the founder of Capital Tuk-Tuk, an eco-friendly tour company that aims to bring the tuk-tuks, a threewheeled 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 motorcycle to transport, which was totally unsafe but the laws are different out there. So getting that tuktuk 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.” ...
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 . ... 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 . ...
Q:
How did you come up with your tuk-tuk 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 . ...
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. 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 . ...
Q:
What’s next for Capital Tuk-Tuk?
A:
We are in the process of bringing a tuktuk 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.