It’s Time for Women to Take Over LatAm’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

Despite female-led ventures being 63% less likely to receive VC funding, the number of sole female-led startups that received funding between 2016 and 2021 increased by 72% compared with the period from 2011 to 2015; the funding amount raised increased fourfold.

Women entrepreneurs offer strong potential to create value and growth in the economy. According to a BCG study, startups founded and co-founded by women tend to perform better over time, generating 10% more in cumulative revenue over a five-year period and have a significantly better financial return on investment.

Latin America boasts one of the highest rates of female participation in entrepreneurship, with high-growth yield in traditionally male-dominated industries. This can be seen in the new wave of startups that are attracting millions of VC’s dollars into the region, where their teams have at least one female founder: Ximena Aleman (Prometeo), Florence Frech (Puntos Leal), Manuela Sanchez (Laika), Carolina Garcia (Chiper), Daniela Espinosa (Kushki), Susy Ferreira (Dinie), Brynne McNulty (Habi), Maricarmen Herrerías (Casai), to name a few.

In November, the world celebrated the International Day of the Entrepreneurial Woman and The Org spoke with Valentina Giraldo, a Colombian entrepreneur who owns LAVALENTINA, one of the most recognized digital creative agencies in Latin America. Her story is the reflection of what women are capable of.

Not trying to fit in

Giraldo is witty, quick to react and has managed to creatively intertwine her multiple passions.

“I always dreamt of being a fashion journalist, which is why I decided to study design, art and journalism,” Giraldo told The Org. Despite studying what she loved, she never felt she fit in in either of her academic worlds or possible future jobs: “I didn't fit into journalism because I was a designer; I didn't fit in as a designer because I was an artist; and I never fit in as an artist because I was a journalist,” she recalled.

Understanding that forcing herself to fit in was not an option, she decided to create her own design studio in order to make a name for herself in the industry. The studio would be a space in which she could simultaneously do everything she was passionate about under one roof: creating, writing and designing. That's how in 2015, from her mom's couch, LAVALENTINA came to fruition.

LAVALENTINA

Giraldo describes her company as “a convergence between art, design and journalism, where journalism brings research and curiosity, art provides the depth and the why behind why they do what they do, and design makes the end user the center of everything.”

She spotted the unique opportunity to work with brands that had limited budgets and thus limited access to traditional marketing channels. As a millennial, she was completely aware that the right message and branding was crucial for companies to connect and build their audiences in the social media world. “LAVALENTINA began by helping brands understand that the world was changing, that smartphones and social networks were game changers for brands that didn't even dream of appearing in traditional media but still had a lot to say and offer” Giraldo said.

LAVALENTINA’s first clients were early stage startups and small businesses, to whom she mixed a traditional brand agency offer (including logo, brand book, art pieces and copies) with social media consultancy.

“What the internet hadn't done in terms of digital brand awareness, social networks did,” she said. “The internet by itself didn’t have the reach that social platforms such as Facebook or Instagram gave to brands.”

It didn't take long for LAVALENTINA to garner interest from big companies who started to reach out for social media guidance. At the same time, some of her early stage startup clients started becoming high growth scaleups. “We started by accompanying small startups in their growth journey; today we help startups scale, and aid in the transformation of larger companies,” she said.

“One of our small clients grew from hundreds of followers on Instagram to more than 50 thousand in less than 2 years of working with us,” she said. “Of course, there are other variables affecting the growth of a business, but this exposure to the digital world allowed them to pass from having 2 employees to more than forty; from cooking at home, to building a factory with national distribution.”

LAVALENTINA has worked with more than 1,000 companies and startups both regionally and internationally, including Segway, Didi, O’Boticario and Rappi.

A sense of belonging: the animal team

Since Giraldo knows a great deal about not fitting in, she made sure to build LAVALENTINA to be an inclusive and open environment. When a new team member joins the company, they choose an animal that they identify with during their time at the design firm as an additional way of expressing themselves. In turn, their company email is the animal instead of their name — for example, “crocodile@lavalentina.com”. “This was made with the objective of creating a sense of belonging within the team. We are a creative herd,” Giraldo says. This also helps its employees detach from the traditional world of creativity, where there is more recognition at the individual level than team level.

Giraldo has never had another job besides LAVALENTINA. She is a self-made entrepreneur and leader. “Despite never having a boss in my life, I truly believe that a leader is someone who charts the path, from the emotional and the rational, to reach an end or an objective,” she said. “Depending on the leader, different paths are chosen.”

The importance of culture

Giraldo not only wanted to build a company to be able to fit in, but to allow people to be the best version of themselves. Despite not having worked anywhere else and being exposed to other company culture in her professional life, she is obsessed with it. “Culture is the intrinsic way a company and its people do things,” she said. “It’s the path to make things happen.”

In LAVALENTINA there are three core values that frame the culture and govern each action, interaction and decision of the company:

1. We know that we do not know everything so we ask for help when we need it.
2. We ask for honest feedback and forgiveness.
3. We recognize and celebrate the achievements of others, internally and externally.

Giraldo is an example of thousands of women who are thriving in their entrepreneurial career. Women who are changing the industries where they operate, that are generating jobs and opportunities in the region, that highlight the critical role that women have as catalysts for change and success.