Lima Makers

Ricardo Torres and Toshiro Tabuchi, the two founders of Lima Makers breathe the same air. The one of independence and liberty to spend their energy on making and supporting their team and their community.

Both find the time to teach in engineering universities, respectively in PUCP and UTEC. But in Lima Makers, Ricardo, an industrial designer, plays the role of product developer while, Toshiro, in line with its engineer mechanical training, is the fabrication director of the makerspace.

They are helped by Daneth Negreiros for all administrative stuff like purchases, taxes,… Their paths crossed while Lima Makers moved to its current location as she was working for the former tenant. In the meantime, Estafania KU is part of the team as a maker and community manager whereas it is not its native occupation. And, to complete the team, Miguel Quispe is a TECSUP student and gives a hand on many projects.

To be part of the team, the most important is the readiness to learn and to share its knowledge.

« Who are the users of the Lima Maker makerspace? Hummm…in fact… the only profile not represented is the doctors ». All is said.

In Lima Makers, there is no membership « off the shelf ». The access condition is adapted to the user needs. One could think it could be difficult to manage but in reality, this flexible way of doing is the concrete manifestation of the free spirit of Lima Makers.

In contrast, you can’t enter the lab for the first time whenever we want. You need to ask a meeting for the sake of security and also to be sure there will be someone to welcome you. And don’t worry if you don’t know how to use the machine. You can join the “intern program” during which the team will train you and give you all the keys to success to make your idea come true in exchange of participation in their project.

If you are just curious or need specific training, you can enjoy on a Saturday of every month, various courses to teach how to use the machine. Depending on the level of the students they can even make a more technical focus on a process o material.

To attract new members, they organize successful Open Days every last Friday of the month which attract a rich set of people with multi-disciplinary and multi-profiles. They also have the chance to live with cool neighbors so they can organize barbecues with the community in the street!

If you ask the team about the incomes, surprisingly they tell you that it never was a problem for them. They had quickly reached the breakeven point. However, the real question is about the sustainability of their business model. Since the creation of the Fablab, they tried 2 different models but are still looking for regular incomes.

Firstly, they opened a space similar such as a co-working space with digital fabrication for entrepreneurs. They brought their personal machines (manual tools, 3D printing, and laser cutter) and rent the space with monthly and annual memberships. They earned salaries but the problem of this model lies in the limit of the growth and sustainability. It depends on few entrepreneurs who could stop anytime, it didn’t foster collaborative investigation necessary for the team to develop new skills and the limit of the space didn’t allow to increase the number of users.

Secondly, they opened a new space, the current one, financed by services to make products based on digital files gave by clients and by projects to develop solutions and products from idea or problems jointly identified with the clients. After 6 months, they earned enough money to pay the rent of the space, to earn a minimum salary and to buy progressively new machines such as CNC or circular saw. To diversify their activity and reach their original mission of democratization, then they opened their space to everyone through paid workshops and pay-as-use machines. The workshops compensate a drop in projects or services. However, the rent of the machines doesn’t finance the space but increase and strengthen the community. This community also provides great financial support by participating in projects in exchange for free training. If this business model works in Peru it’s because manual work is not valued. People prefer to pay someone to make their product than learning how to do it. They are also ready to pay either for unique pieces or for cheaper products than the ones sold in the market.

Nowadays, they are looking for developing a specific line of products made with digital fabrication to ensure regular incomes and to smooth the workload. They also expect to develop long-term projects with companies such as investigation lines to help them benefit from technology while ensuring fixed and mid-term incomes.