iFurniture Lab

Lima District 15057, Peru

Makerspace

Superficie 50 m²

Ouvert en Janvier 2016

Type de structure Private company

Exploré en Octobre 2018


We're a platform that connects designers and people with makers spaces and fablabs to generate a business model of furniture around the world.

Thématiques principales

Entrepreneuriat Mobilier & maison Design

Cet atelier est fait pour les :

Grand public Makers professionnels Designers

Join our red of designers or discover our products online!

Notre atelier en détails

Découvrez en plus sur notre espace, nos membres, nos machines & services !

“I was born and raised in the second floor of my grandfather carpentry shop.” 36 years later, the 3rd July 2018, Vaneza Caycho Ñuflo received the international award of Women entrepreneur in the APEC 020 Summit 2018 in Taiwán. Why? Because she using digital fabrication to make carpentry accessible to everyone, either to designers who can create innovative and disruptive furniture or to customers who can buy online personalized furniture and even learn how to make it. The cherry on the cake, through her project, she empowers women to develop their businesses and she fosters local production supported by local makerspaces.

But this success wasn’t reached in the blink of an eye. Her family passion for wood led her to undertake architecture studies and it could have stopped here if she hasn’t discovered digital fabrication during the Fab7, the first event of the FabFoundation in Peru in 2011. She quickly identified the potential of this perfect mix between maker and technology to bring her family business to another level. After graduating the FabAcademy with Benito Juarez, she started to use her new creative freedom enabled by digital fabrication to produce innovative furniture and lamps both easy to reproduce and to personalize for customers. To promote her products and to handle the demand, she had the idea to send them online. With this idea called “Interactivo Furniture”, she won the 2014 entrepreneurship contest in UTEC and then the Program StartUp Perú in 2016 which has fastened its development thanks to the financial support, the communication and the business advice she benefited from both incubators. Her success story has known a new and unexpected boost when the national TV has dedicated a large part of the Sunday edition to broadcast IFurniture story and vision to all Peruvians. This experience has accelerated the creation of an online platform to handle the requests, which is now a pillar of IFurniture operational activities, and to develop a red of designers and makers in her opened makerspace to offer and produce innovative furniture.

Before selling furniture in all the world, Vaneza aims to improve her platform and to open a new and larger space where she could welcome and strengthen her community of designers and make digital carpentry accessible to anyone through workshops.

If this project was born and raised along with Vaneza Caycho Ñuflo’s working experience, the current space and digital platform are the fruits of cooperation with a team of people as passionate as her. They come from different and complementary areas and what brings them together is both the vision of IFurniture and the values and skills of its leader and funder, Vaneza.

The first who supported her was her father. Her common passion comes from her grand father so all the family was involved to contribute to her success and to the continuity of their wooden expertise. Then, in 2015, she met John Lozano and Pedro Velasque Calle in the UTEC University where she won her first award and incubation program. Together, they adapted her premises to install the machines and the office: it became the first makerspace of IFurniture. John and Pedro are still working in the team as technical experts and they have been progressively supported with the arrival of Ofelia Viloche Pulido, responsible of the design lines and of the red of designers, with Cristian Loayza Egoavil, responsible of the digital platform development and part-times with Stefanie Vidarte Cruzado, in charge of the marketing and Daniela Viloria Rivas for the development of new products. Occasionally, the team is reinforced with trainees, especially in web development to improve the platform, and by volunteers in exchange for a training in design in partnership with Fablab Lima.

Because of his hybrid and innovative structure, both physical and digital, the community of IFurniture lab is divided into 2 categories: the red of designers and the red of customers.

The designers are joining the lab to be trained to digital fabrication and then to sell their products online with the IFurniture platform. The objective of the funder, Vaneza, is to empower women with entrepreneurship and digital fabrication, which was mainly held by men, so she offers training mainly to women. If they were 50 in mid-2018, their number is increasing each quarter, the training program lasting 3 months with around a dozen of designers for each session. The advantage of this training is both the flexibility, the price, and the follow-up. The women interested receive a personalized training, only the Saturdays, and for free in exchange for an income of their 3 first products sold in the platform. In addition, they benefit from a support after the training to use the software and machines, they can receive a “refresh training” and they receive the last information about the design methods and evolutions of software.

The customers are heterogeneous: they are children, students, fathers, grandfathers, all interested to buy personalized and quality furniture online. They share the values of the lab and want to support local production and women designers. If few of them are coming to the makerspace to make the furniture they chose, this situation is explained by the remote location and lack of space of the current makerspace. As a consequence, the team is waiting for their move in their new and bigger space in order to start developing the offer of workshops in their platform and social networks.

To attract designers and customers the first effective strategy was the word of mouth. Then, the media coverage made during each talk made by Vaneza and after each award won had boosted remarkably the reputation of the place and of the platform. In order to answer the increasing demands of visits, the team opened an activity called “Furnitour” which is an open day where everyone can discover the makerspace, exchange with the team and start making some basic furniture. Eventually, the advertising made by the National TV with a report broadcast during high peak audience and the international prize won in Taiwan increased its reputation beyond the boundaries of Lima and of Peru. However, the main objective of the lab is to retain the current communities rather than increasing the number of designers and customers at a fast pace. For that, they invest a lot in the quality of service and products and in the support for the designers.

The business model behind IFurniture is unique and promising: it’s based in a red of designers who produced designs of furniture sold to clients via an online platform. Then, it’s made by the lab and sent to the clients. It’s a win-win approach for :

  • the designers, who are trained by IFurniture to design furniture ready to be produced in a makerspace, benefit from its platform and services (IT tool, communication, support) to sell their products
  • the clients who can buy local and personalized furniture
  • IFurniture who receives a percentage of the price of each piece sold by a designer or the total amount of a piece designed by the team.

They financed the 3 months training of the designers by acquiring the property of their 3 first designs. In this way, the designers don’t have to pay to benefit from the courses and they are sure to receive a high-quality training until they are able to produce designs because it will benefit to IFurniture.

In a short-term, the team will open a bigger space to offer workshops, to train more designers and to have a physical store where they can show and sell their furnitures.

In a medium term, they aim to collaborate with a red of makerspaces to make locally the furnitures of the designs sold worldwide thanks to the platform.

“I was born and raised in the second floor of my grandfather carpentry shop.” 36 years later, the 3rd July 2018, Vaneza Caycho Ñuflo received the international award of Women entrepreneur in the APEC 020 Summit 2018 in Taiwán. Why? Because she using digital fabrication to make carpentry accessible to everyone, either to designers who can create innovative and disruptive furniture or to customers who can buy online personalized furniture and even learn how to make it. The cherry on the cake, through her project, she empowers women to develop their businesses and she fosters local production supported by local makerspaces.

But this success wasn’t reached in the blink of an eye. Her family passion for wood led her to undertake architecture studies and it could have stopped here if she hasn’t discovered digital fabrication during the Fab7, the first event of the FabFoundation in Peru in 2011. She quickly identified the potential of this perfect mix between maker and technology to bring her family business to another level. After graduating the FabAcademy with Benito Juarez, she started to use her new creative freedom enabled by digital fabrication to produce innovative furniture and lamps both easy to reproduce and to personalize for customers. To promote her products and to handle the demand, she had the idea to send them online. With this idea called “Interactivo Furniture”, she won the 2014 entrepreneurship contest in UTEC and then the Program StartUp Perú in 2016 which has fastened its development thanks to the financial support, the communication and the business advice she benefited from both incubators. Her success story has known a new and unexpected boost when the national TV has dedicated a large part of the Sunday edition to broadcast IFurniture story and vision to all Peruvians. This experience has accelerated the creation of an online platform to handle the requests, which is now a pillar of IFurniture operational activities, and to develop a red of designers and makers in her opened makerspace to offer and produce innovative furniture.

Before selling furniture in all the world, Vaneza aims to improve her platform and to open a new and larger space where she could welcome and strengthen her community of designers and make digital carpentry accessible to anyone through workshops.

If this project was born and raised along with Vaneza Caycho Ñuflo’s working experience, the current space and digital platform are the fruits of cooperation with a team of people as passionate as her. They come from different and complementary areas and what brings them together is both the vision of IFurniture and the values and skills of its leader and funder, Vaneza.

The first who supported her was her father. Her common passion comes from her grand father so all the family was involved to contribute to her success and to the continuity of their wooden expertise. Then, in 2015, she met John Lozano and Pedro Velasque Calle in the UTEC University where she won her first award and incubation program. Together, they adapted her premises to install the machines and the office: it became the first makerspace of IFurniture. John and Pedro are still working in the team as technical experts and they have been progressively supported with the arrival of Ofelia Viloche Pulido, responsible of the design lines and of the red of designers, with Cristian Loayza Egoavil, responsible of the digital platform development and part-times with Stefanie Vidarte Cruzado, in charge of the marketing and Daniela Viloria Rivas for the development of new products. Occasionally, the team is reinforced with trainees, especially in web development to improve the platform, and by volunteers in exchange for a training in design in partnership with Fablab Lima.

Because of his hybrid and innovative structure, both physical and digital, the community of IFurniture lab is divided into 2 categories: the red of designers and the red of customers.

The designers are joining the lab to be trained to digital fabrication and then to sell their products online with the IFurniture platform. The objective of the funder, Vaneza, is to empower women with entrepreneurship and digital fabrication, which was mainly held by men, so she offers training mainly to women. If they were 50 in mid-2018, their number is increasing each quarter, the training program lasting 3 months with around a dozen of designers for each session. The advantage of this training is both the flexibility, the price, and the follow-up. The women interested receive a personalized training, only the Saturdays, and for free in exchange for an income of their 3 first products sold in the platform. In addition, they benefit from a support after the training to use the software and machines, they can receive a “refresh training” and they receive the last information about the design methods and evolutions of software.

The customers are heterogeneous: they are children, students, fathers, grandfathers, all interested to buy personalized and quality furniture online. They share the values of the lab and want to support local production and women designers. If few of them are coming to the makerspace to make the furniture they chose, this situation is explained by the remote location and lack of space of the current makerspace. As a consequence, the team is waiting for their move in their new and bigger space in order to start developing the offer of workshops in their platform and social networks.

To attract designers and customers the first effective strategy was the word of mouth. Then, the media coverage made during each talk made by Vaneza and after each award won had boosted remarkably the reputation of the place and of the platform. In order to answer the increasing demands of visits, the team opened an activity called “Furnitour” which is an open day where everyone can discover the makerspace, exchange with the team and start making some basic furniture. Eventually, the advertising made by the National TV with a report broadcast during high peak audience and the international prize won in Taiwan increased its reputation beyond the boundaries of Lima and of Peru. However, the main objective of the lab is to retain the current communities rather than increasing the number of designers and customers at a fast pace. For that, they invest a lot in the quality of service and products and in the support for the designers.

The business model behind IFurniture is unique and promising: it’s based in a red of designers who produced designs of furniture sold to clients via an online platform. Then, it’s made by the lab and sent to the clients. It’s a win-win approach for :

  • the designers, who are trained by IFurniture to design furniture ready to be produced in a makerspace, benefit from its platform and services (IT tool, communication, support) to sell their products
  • the clients who can buy local and personalized furniture
  • IFurniture who receives a percentage of the price of each piece sold by a designer or the total amount of a piece designed by the team.

They financed the 3 months training of the designers by acquiring the property of their 3 first designs. In this way, the designers don’t have to pay to benefit from the courses and they are sure to receive a high-quality training until they are able to produce designs because it will benefit to IFurniture.

In a short-term, the team will open a bigger space to offer workshops, to train more designers and to have a physical store where they can show and sell their furnitures.

In a medium term, they aim to collaborate with a red of makerspaces to make locally the furnitures of the designs sold worldwide thanks to the platform.

Technologies & procédés mis à disposition

Découpe laser Fraisage numérique Postes informatiques & logiciels Outils pour le bois Développement web

Services proposés

Missions de design Centre communautaire Prises de paroles & conférences Vente de produits Formations & ateliers pratiques

Nos pratiques inspirantes

Ce que nous faisons de particulier pour gérer notre espace collaboratif

Digital training and support in exchange of IP

catégories
Communauté Business model Formation

What is it?

Digital training of designers in exchange for the intellectual property of their 3 first designs.

In concrete terms?

Vaneza, the funder of IFurniture, wants to empower women with digital fabrication to make them overcome their prejudices and fears about manual work so that they can offer comprehensive products, easy to be produced in a makerspace, and start making a living with it. However, these women have neither time nor money. As a result, she offers them to be trained every Saturday for 3 months in exchange for the income of the products sold in IFurniture platform regarding their 3 first designs.

Why it’s interesting?

This deal is based on trust and creates a long-term relationship between the makerspace and the user. It’s a win-win that implies that both actors are deeply involved to win: the training and support should be great to produce bestselling designs with the 3 first shots and the trainee should be involved to monetize the time invested.

Contact : hola@ifurniture.pe

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