In Peru, digital agency Liquid is now looking to find new ways to deliver value to startups. We talked to Program Manager Diana Castaneda Herrera about the new Liquid Venture Studio that aims to open doors for startups in the Andean nation.
Peruvian digital agency is aiming to break the mould this year by launching Liquid Venture Studio in the hope of enticing new Peruvian startups to join forces. Program Manager of the new venture, Diana Castaneda Herrera mentioned how the new initiative made for a natural marriage as “the services we provide at Liquid like digital products, marketing and strategy are all viable for startups as they’re small and have a small budget.”
The initiative runs on an equity-for-services model where Liquid takes a stake in the startup in exchange for promotional services that are usually under the gamut of services provided by the agency. The aim is to then grow the company and eventually have them join on as regular clients of the agency.
Liquid are looking to run this program annually, if not more often, with startups in the digital space that are early stage and have a large market potential where their capabilities can make a big impact and are in need of a better digital product (like an app for example).
“You can market a product all you like but get no results because the product is poorly designed or has bad user experience. And that’s why we started working on that part of the equation.” Herrera told LATAM.tech.
Liquid Venture Studio are now past the scouting process and have whittled the applicants to a select 12 startups where they can then better diagnose their situation. They will then select 6 who can benefit the most from their capabilities.
As many in Lima know, the three core streams of Liquid revolve around design-based thinking where they aim to provide Customer Experience Design, Product & Service Design as well as Marketing and Communications services. For example, their client Walmart Chile was able to improve their customer experience on financial services by improving the digital channels.
It is anticipated that the new venture can be of great benefit to the growing ecosystem within Peru, which has come leaps and bounds as seen in the government’s recent Startup Peru initiative. “If you allow a startup to grow and become a company, you’re helping to create quality jobs, much more than with small enterprises.” Herrera said of the great new potential with LVS.
