#HerImpact: An Interview with the Founders of Peru’s Quinoa Cafe

Endeavor Entrepreneurs Alexia Cook, Ariana Ferraro and Thais Maggiolo on scaling a business, learning to pause more, and building an all-female management team

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

Endeavor Peru spoke with Endeavor Entrepreneurs Alexia Cook, Ariana Ferraro and Thais Maggiolo, founders of Quinoa Café, a chain of healthy food restaurants founded in 2013, which offer an all-day experience with a purposeful brand. Alexia, Ariana, and Thais reflected on the challenges they’ve faced and what keeps them motivated as they work to scale their business. Read a selection of their Q&A below:

What’s one time you faced a challenge, setback, or failure as an entrepreneur? What did you learn from the experience?

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 six locations (going on seven!).

Describe a problem you’re solving as an entrepreneur. What is its significance to you, and what is the solution your business presents?

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 women 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. Today 100% of our management staff are women!

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of growth or a new understanding of self as an entrepreneur

One of our biggest accomplishments has been being selected as 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 helped us make better decisions and accelerate our growth in the direction we wanted to go.