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.