Ruta Startup

The long haul

Peru enters its 75th day of government mandated quarantine today. Unfortunately, despite the quick, strong action to enforce physical distancing, Peru continues to be deeply affected by the coronavirus.

I was recently reminded of the Stockdale Paradox, which highlights the benefits of balancing optimism with reality when faced with extreme challenges. James Stockdale was a Prisoner of War in Vietnam. He said the following:

Aprende, siempre aprende

Uno de los elementos que más me motiva de mi actividad laboral y empresarial es intercambiar ideas y aprender en el proceso. Ayer cuando terminó el Comité de inversión del Winnipeg Capital Startup Fund, donde aprobamos una inversión sentí realmente una sensación de satisfacción enorme.

Crehana adds a key Peruvian investor

Few local Peruvian investors backed Diego Olcese when he launched Edtech startup Crehana out of college. Now he is one of the most sought after founders in Latin America.

PECAP’s new leadership team

The members of PECAP have chosen new leaders to set the course for the coming year and continue to build the venture capital asset class in Peru.

Maria Pia Morante, of Acumen LatAm Capital Partners, and Meghan Stevenson-Krausz of INCA Ventures became new members of the PECAP Board and continuity was achieved as Alain Elias, of PAD – Red de Inversionistas Ángeles , Martin Aspillaga, of Salkantay, and Jose Deutsua of UTEC Ventures will continue another year. Jose Deustua takes the helm as President, after the very successful leadership of Alain Elias that culminated in the recent publication of the 2019 Report.

Startup strategy framework for Covid-19

Each startup in Latin America is affected by the repercussions of Covid-19 in a unique way. The impact often depends on how the startup entered the crisis and the sector in which they operate.

At the onsite of the crisis, forward-looking startup investors were quick to present action plans and decision matrices that stressed cost-cutting, hiring freezes and doing everything possible to extend runway. The Sequoia Matrix and the Kaszek Survival Guide have been great resources founders in Latin America.

The precise measures to be taken are a bit more nuanced and there is no one-size fits all aproach.

KPIs: Entendiendo el PxQ de tu startup

Entender y medir los Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) son claves cuando una startup está empezando a generar tracción. Es crucial para los fundadores y potenciales inversionistas observar y analizar estas métricas mensualmente debido a que ayudan a entender la lógica detrás del revenue y sus drivers. Los KPIs pueden variar de acuerdo al enfoque de la startup, B2B o B2C, y al modelo de negocio como Softwares-as-a-service (SaaS) o Marketplace.

Fintechs unite

Crises can divide or unite. In the case of the fintech community in Peru, the Covid-19 pandemic and fallout has helped to bring together entrepreneurs in the local fintech community.

Scenario planning

Startup founders are used to thinking big and building projections of exponential growth based on highly scalable business models. Weekly, monthly, and annual projections are the typical guideposts for determining whether execution is on plan. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused projections to go out the window.

Today, some much remains uncertain that it is impossible to accurately project what will happen. Startups need a new set of guideposts to determine what is happening and make crucial decisions on what need to be done.

The 2020 PECAP Directory is out!

Last month the Peruvian Seed and Venture Capital Association, PECAP, published its Directorio de Miembros PECAP 2020. This is a great step to provide access to information on active early stage investors in Peru.

¿Cómo en Talently hackeamos nuestro camino a 500 Startups Latam?

Hola, soy Doménica, co-fundadora y CEO de Talently, un programa que prepara al talento tech latinoamericano para conseguir trabajos top en cualquier parte del mundo, y fuimos la única startup peruana seleccionada para el batch 11 de 500 Startups Latam de un total de 1,700 aplicantes de toda la región. Hoy les quiero contar de qué manera creamos una aplicación que nos permitió hacerlo aún con poca tracción, pero demostrando superioridad en visión, equipo y modelo de negocio.