1. Context & Business Problem
Validate, launch, and expand Sri Lanka's first cricket analytics platform — starting from a university research project with no budget, no team, and no existing market.
FieldR began as a final year research project exploring cricket performance data. When several cricket coaches from clubs registered under Sri Lanka Cricket reviewed the project, they provided Letters of Intent committing to use the application and urged commercialization. In 2021, the project secured SAR 20K in pre-seed funding. The challenge then became: how do you build a product business in a market that has never used data analytics before, with a small team, limited budget, and no clear GTM playbook?
2. My Role & Ownership
As Co-Founder and Product Lead, I owned everything: product vision, UI design, user research, GTM strategy, monetization, and international expansion. I led a team of 12 across development, marketing, and operations. I also served as the primary commercial relationship holder with Sri Lanka Cricket coaches, scorers, and club administrators.
3. Constraints & Trade-offs
Zero precedent — no cricket analytics product existed in Sri Lanka, meaning there was no market education to build on and no comparable pricing to reference. Coaches and scorers were non-technical users, so UX had to be exceptionally intuitive. Budget constraints meant every GTM experiment had to be low-cost and high-feedback. The risk of over-building was real — adding features before validating usage patterns would have killed the product.
4. Discovery & Key Insights
Conducted direct user interviews and A/B testing sessions with coaches and scorers registered under Sri Lanka Cricket. Identified 30+ specific data points that coaches cared about — not generic statistics, but performance indicators tied to real coaching decisions (e.g. fielding position heat maps, scoring rate by over range). Discovery also revealed that grassroots club and school cricket was far more underserved than national-level cricket, making it the right beachhead market.
5. Key Decisions
Adopted a schools and grassroots GTM — going bottom-up rather than top-down through national boards. This built a larger, more loyal user base before approaching professional clubs. Introduced a digital scoresheet as a second, standalone revenue stream — giving everyday club players a reason to engage with FieldR even if they were not interested in advanced analytics. Expanded to Australia in 2021, signing two clubs from the Sri Lankan diaspora community as the first international users.
6. Execution Snapshot
Designed all UIs based on coach and scorer feedback, validated through A/B testing before final implementation. Built the scoring and analytics data architecture to capture 30+ performance metrics per game. Launched the digital scoresheet feature as a low-friction entry point for casual players. Executed the Australia expansion through community outreach to diaspora cricket clubs, securing two club sign-ups for the fielding performance analysis module.
7. Outcomes & Impact
Grew FieldR from a university project to Sri Lanka's first cricket analytics SaaS platform. Achieved 75% free-to-paid conversion among active users. Expanded internationally to Australia within two years of launch. Established two distinct revenue streams (analytics subscriptions and digital scoresheet). Secured SAR 20K pre-seed funding based on traction and coach adoption.
8. Learnings & What I'd Do Differently
Starting at the grassroots level built a far more loyal and vocal user base than a top-down institutional approach would have. Coaches became advocates who recruited other coaches.
I would invest earlier in B2B partnerships with cricket academies — they had the scale and budget to accelerate paid adoption much faster than individual coaches.