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Endeavor’s #HerImpact series is part of our ongoing commitment to increase gender diversity within the Endeavor network. #HerImpact is devoted to elevating the voices, sharing the perspectives, and showcasing the professional expertise of women in Endeavor’s global network. Learn more about how you can get involved with Women in High Impact Entrepreneurship at Endeavor here: endeavor.org/whie
Due to this, during this week we want to be a platform to our women entrepreneurs, listen their stories and learnings they have had during this entire journey.
In this first publication we talked with Alexia Cook, Ariana Ferraro and Thais Maggiolo, founders of Quinoa Café. They founded this chain of healthy food restaurants in 2013 in which they offer an all-day experience with a purposeful brand.
Learn more about their entrepreneurship path here:
One setback that comes to mind occurred when we opened our second location. Because of the success we had seen in our first venue, we were very eager to open the next one and rushed through the process. We underestimated the implications of opening with a new team and in a new area of the city that attracted a different kind of client. After a few chaotic first days, we had to pause and regroup. We closed for a couple of days and rearranged our team. We also tweaked our offering to cater the needs of our new clients. It took a few weeks and hard work to recover, but we made it.
After this experience, we learned to pause more. As entrepreneurs, making fast decisions is a crucial skill, however, being patient and analytical before acting is equally important. We have learned to find that balance and have now successfully opened 6 locations (going on 7!).
One of the pillars of our brand is fighting gender inequality. Unfortunately, Peru is still very biased towards men; there are still countless episodes of violence against women, and they are not considered as equals in the workplace. At Quinoa Café, we strive to make these differences disappear by offering women a place to work and grow as professionals. We hire mostly women (70% of our team are women – most of whom are head of households) and we favor women for promotions to management positions (100% of our management are women!).
One of our biggest accomplishments has been being selected Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Being selected has definitely opened many doors for us, allowing us to access services and people that would have been out of our reach without Endeavor. However, this is not the main reason that Endeavor has sparked a period of growth for us. It has been the work we did to be selected that made us reevaluate our value proposition and put into words what our company meant and what made it unique. As entrepreneurs, it is very easy to get lost in the day-to-day issues and lose sight of the “big picture”. Endeavor has helped us re-focus on our long-term strategy, which in turn has made us make better decisions and accelerate our growth in the direction we wanted to go.