Should You Build your Company in a Country Like Peru?

Last week, we were in Lima for our second stop of the Momentum Tour (video here!) We met with government officials — the people who oversee the support that startups receive directly from the country — investors investing in the country’s best seed-stage founders, and corporates doing business with the country’s newest startups.

Everywhere we went, I asked this one question. Did they feel like Lima was a great place to grow a startup?

And, everyone’s responses seemed to distill down to five common themes around what it means to build a company in an emerging market.

Starting Up in Lima

Identifying Problems
First, Lima is in an ecosystem full of startups that know how to identify problems and their founders aren’t afraid to go and build solutions to them. They’re either identifying challenges specific to Peru or they’re seeing solutions to problems in countries around the world and then bringing those solutions to Latin America. As an example, Lima hasn’t had a system for booking restaurant reservations, so Mesa 24/7 designed one. And, there hasn’t been a way for Peruvians to search and apply for mortgage loans online, so Regajas Tus Cuentas built one.