Greg Mitchell

Partner

PUBLISHED

August 2024

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Peruvians building communities
Community-first startups in Latin America

Amela community Event

Peruvians building communities
Community-first startups in Latin America

Peruvian founders are spearheading community-first startups in Latin America. These startups are promising businesses that are also pushing larger culture changes. The founders of these companies are passionate leaders who are demonstrating the power of community-building in startup business models. They represent both what the Peru startup ecosystem has already produced and what it promises for the future.

Laboratoria+ community event in Lima.

Which are some of the community-first startups led by Peruvians?

Amela, founded by Anais Cisneros and Michelle Fischman, is building a community of entrepreneurial women that supports both female startup founders and women who aspire towards entrepreneurship. Landa Club, founded by Gabriel Tudela, is building a community of talented advisors by providing them with the platform, resources, and connections needed to offer their expertise to startups and to learn from each other in the process. Laboratoria+, founded by Mariana Costa, is building a community of mid-career women in Latin America, giving them access to the skills, tools and connections they need to excel as leaders and make the next move in their professional journey.

Going through critical professional challenges in the company of other women with similar experiences is incredibly powerful. Belonging to a community of bright, like-minded women is by far the most valuable aspect of what we do at Laboratoria+ for our members.

Mariana Costa

Why are these startups having success?

These startups share three characteristics that are the key to their initial success: experienced founders, a community-first approach, and an initial monetization strategy. Founders’ experience. What is exciting about these companies is the experience that the founders bring to the table. They are taking off from an extremely informed position. Anais has previously been a founder and an investor at US and European funds, she has earned her MBA at INSEAD and has wide experience in both Latam and Europe. Her co-founder Michelle, was previously at Endeavor and NAZCA, the largest Mexican venture capital firm. Gabriel has spent significant time working in Mexico prior to launching, including stints at Uber, Bird and KAVAK. Mariana previously founded Laboratoria, a coding school for female professionals. These prior roles combined with a keen awareness of the power of communities have been a powerful formula to success. Community-first approach. Building a community is hard. It involves the grunt work of holding events and making connections. there is a very dedicated, tailored interaction with each new community member. Eventually, the fruits of a tight-knit community with active, engaged members that give back, will lead to scale. Fortunately, these startups are using efficient tools and building out a technology platform so that the tech will be in place to scale as the community grows. Early monetization. Many B2C startups in Latin America struggle with monetization. These three have not shied away from charging members for their valuable services. This has allowed them to bootstrap and give important signals to users about their value. While each may keep tweeking pricing and strategy, they have certainly started with an important messaging to users, who have responded positively by paying for memberships. All three companies seem poised for take-off after their initial investment in community-building results in a passionate, membership base that shares content, recommendations and referrals.

Laboratorio+ community event.

Why are these startups and their communities so important?

These startups are empowering startup founders, leveling the playing field for professionals, and facilitating high-impact transactions. Below are a few examples as they apply to each startup. Empowering entrepreneurs. Amela provides a network, knowledge (resources + events), and a safe place to ask questions in order to accompany women that have launched startups or are in the process of evaluating their dream of becoming entrepreneurs. Anais and Michelle focus on enabling women who look for a place to explore entrepreneurship and also connect current founders with investors, advisors, and resources to help them raise money and close the huge funding gap that exists between male-founded startups and female-founded startups. Market-makers. Historically, in the Latin America startup ecosystem, it has been very difficult for advisors to efficiently match up with startups and charge for services. Now, Landa Club reduces friction to make it feasible for highly skilled advisors to work directly with startups – and make a living doing it. This is an important function that will make the startup ecosystem more sophisticated. In this sense they are having a key role as a market-maker. To the extent, we can normalize startups and scaleups paying for high-quality advisory services, frictions are actually being removed and Latin America will look like a more mature startup ecosystem. Leveling the playing field. Gender inequality across the workforce exists in Latin America and the small percentage of women with management and board roles is striking [1]. To address this issue, Laboratoria+ gives members knowledge-sharing from experts to support women in their career journeys. The startup provides guides, tools, mentorships and connections to turbocharge professional growth. Courses include leadership, personal brand, networking, and decision-making.

Our vision is to foster a more inclusive startup and tech landscape, where gender is no barrier to tackling the world’s most pressing issues.

Anais Cisneros

The impact these startups are making goes beyond the startups themselves, because their communities are giving the initial nudge to larger cultural shifts. As the startups grow and community member) are empowered, they will go on to have an impact in their workplaces and industries. Landa Club, Laboratoria+, and Amela are three startups led by Peruvians that are having an outsized impact on the Latin American startup ecosystem. The common thread in their impact comes from fostering strong communities among their customers. Anais, Michelle, Gabriel, and Mariana bring the relevant regional perspective to scale these companies and expand their footprint across Latin America.

Amela community event.

[1] https://www.iadb.org/en/news/study-reveals-high-gender-inequality-companies-latin-america-and-caribbean
Note: Amela is a portafolio company of AVP Ventures Investor Network, due to an angel investment from Greg Mitchell