Roshni Wijayasinha is a marketing professional with over 15 years of industry experience, having launched over 50 products and brands in over 20 markets worldwide, helping companies attain nine-figure investment rounds.
She is a graduate of BBA Co-op Honours from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2006 and earned her MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business in 2009. As an advocate of continual education, she pursued a Chartered Marketing designation in 2018 and completed Harvard Business School Online’s Disruptive Strategy Course in 2019.
She started her career working with leading consumer brands in the agency domain. She has established a reputation for bringing innovation and strategic thinking to top global technology companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Kobo. Following that, she made a career move to build out marketing teams and brands at local, domestic startups such as Juice Mobile, Thinking Capital, and Benecaid.
This Was The Perfect Opportunity.
Roshni Wijayasinha comes from an entrepreneurial family. Moreover, she has always admired the ability to bring people together towards a common goal and to build something of their own. These factors influenced Wijayasinha’s wanting to venture out and become an entrepreneur.
Starting her career with large companies and later transitioning into the startup space, Wijayasinha helped these fast-paced companies grow with limited resources. Working in-house, she realized a gap between the talent startups could afford and the needed talent. She observed that most were operating with interns or junior marketers, and very few senior experienced marketing leadership, as they couldn’t afford a full-time head of marketing.
Having worked at a few startups and knowing that a small amount of expertise could have a significant impact in helping them achieve their lofty goals, she decided to branch out and develop a company that would be able to help startups and fill this gap for senior-level marketing talent.
She founded Prosh Marketing, a marketing consulting practice specializing in strategy, planning, and communications, to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and startups access experienced marketing experts part-time with less risk and at a fraction of the cost of a full-time, permanent hire.
More Than A Regular Marketing Agency
Marketing is essential to the growth of all startups. However, startups lose a lot of time and money due to their lack of knowledge or experience in the field, leading to costly mistakes.
Prosh Marketing aims to be more than a regular marketing agency or marketing consulting practice. They believe that the intersection of a consulting practice that offers strategic help and a marketing agency that helps with execution allows a startup to build a plan and implement it.
They understand that startups have small budgets and don’t believe in charging them an agency rate for junior talent. Their idea of assisting with implementation is not just doing it for the client but empowering them to do it themselves, and in doing so, building and training internal resources.
Their Fractional CMOs and Marketing Directors strategize, plan, and work with in-house talent to train them on program implementation, communications, and general marketing best practices. This sustainable approach allows startups to build internal talent and the Prosh Marketing team to focus on the most value-added activities, such as finding new opportunities or campaign optimization, all within leaner budgets.
Position As Experts In The Field.
As the leader of Prosh Marketing, Wijayasinha successfully scaled their client base across multiple markets. Even during the most challenging year, when the pandemic hit and clients were saving their funds, unsure when they would be able to raise more, Prosh was able to acquire clients in Europe and the United States.
They believe in providing exceptional customer service and are vested in their growth. Their success comes from delivering satisfying results to numerous clients, growing through word-of-mouth recommendations and receiving referral business. In addition, they have also invested in thought leadership activities and content marketing, which allow prospects to learn about startup marketing, product launches, and marketing best practices, which position them as experts in the field.
Being a part of the Forbes Communications Council and volunteering at accelerators and incubators gave Prosh Marketing great exposure and built credibility and authority in the marketing field.
Value As One Of Their Brand Pillars
Prosh Marketing places value as one of their brand pillars. They offer their clients marketing consulting and ongoing education to ensure they learn how marketing works and can make better business decisions. This happens through their ongoing coaching, webinars, and some of their published content and articles.
In addition to marketing consultation, they offer advice on operations, product management, and customer service, opening doors for their clients to potential customers and partners through their vetted vendor list. In addition, they connect clients to government funding opportunities and grants to help them afford marketing services. They also connect their clients to academic institutions for them to access young, affordable, and bright talent who helps them implement marketing activities more cost-effectively than hiring an agency.
As a small business owner, Wijayasinha understands the budget constraints of a growing business and the need to maximize limited resources. Hence, they don’t charge startups for junior interns and hire internal talent so that they can grow with the company and perform tasks without the markup of an agency.
Initiatiations In A Time Of Uncertainty
During the COVID pandemic, Prosh Marketing created learning sessions (webinars) available for business owners to help them learn how to run some low-budget marketing programs. In addition, they changed their pricing model and offered flexible pricing for clients, as some could not meet payment commitments.
In a time of uncertainty, their team offered office hours to different accelerators like LaunchYu, York’s University incubator, to help support their many startups who needed professional guidance. In addition, they hired interns, allowing young marketers to grow by getting real-world work experience.
Wijayasinha loves sharing her experiences, processes, and best practices. Hence, she mentors aspiring marketers and budding entrepreneurs through programs like the American Marketing Association, Futurpreneur, MyRemote Clinic, and Ryerson’s Venture Zone. She also facilitates the peer marketing group at TechConnex and volunteers with her alma mater at the Schulich School of Business at York University.
She is an active member of the marketing, tech, entrepreneur, and startup communities. She has contributed to the Forbes Communications Council, spoken at conferences like DX3’s Global Retail Conference, and delivered workshops at accelerators like Cookhouse Labs.
Recognitions For Marketing Expertise
Roshni Wijayasinha has received several awards and accolades for her marketing expertise and work. She is the Enterprise Viewpoint’s CMO of the Year – Insurtech in 2021, Synthesio’s Top Canadian Marketers to Follow on Social Media in 2017, 360 Insight’s #WomeninTech in 2017, and DX3’s Top 100 Digital Marketing Professionals for 2014 and 2015.
She was selected as Marketing Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30 in 2013, Kobo’s Unsung Hero Award in 2013, Sony Ericsson’s Global Select Award in 2011, Dr. Overgaard’s MBA Award for International Marketing, and Scotiabank’s United Way Hero Award in 2006.
Roshni Wijayasinha’s current business interests are startups, startup marketing, technology, and coaching young marketers. To know more about her business initiatives and services, visit her website at https://proshmarketing.com/.
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