Academy for Women Entrepreneurs alumna Cathy Perugachi is an Ecuadorian fashionista who is helping women redefine their self-image from the inside out.
In 2015, Perugachi co-founded an e-commerce business, Quipu Pallay, to promote Andean heritage and bridge the gap between English-speaking American consumers and Spanish-speaking artists. Hoping to grow her business, she focused on increasing ties with the United States. She had already completed an undergraduate degree in Orange County, California at Chapman University when she saw an advertisement for the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) on U.S. Embassy social media. She applied on a whim, not thinking she was qualified and was shocked when she found out she was selected.
“When they called to tell me about my acceptance, the first thing I said was ‘I think you have the wrong person,’” she recounts.
This feeling of self-doubt is not uncommon; many women entrepreneurs talk about feeling an “imposter syndrome,” which is a tendency to doubt one’s own abilities and achievements or feel like a fraud. For Perugachi, AWE helped her to overcome these feelings.
Perugachi says that participating in a U.S. Embassy-led initiative like AWE is prestigious thanks to its proximity to the U.S. business community. "It is not just any type of network, it gives you a golden pass to boost not only your business but also your professional growth,” she says. “It gives you a sense of name recognition and legitimacy.”
As the youngest AWE participant in her cohort, Perugachi was thrilled to be surrounded by other women entrepreneurs. She was impressed to see how her AWE classmates – many full-time moms -- were taking a step towards economic empowerment for themselves, while also providing jobs in their communities and taking leading roles in their families. She soon realized that the AWE experience was helping her to feel part of something larger, and less alone.
“AWE was a way to remind myself that other women have probably gone through the same experiences, and they have conquered their problems,” she remarks. “I was so scared of doing things on my own, I remember thinking that I was not good enough or that I needed a man to lead.”
Being part of AWE’s community of strong women helped strengthen her identity as a woman entrepreneur, and pivot professionally. It gave her the courage to separate herself from male business partners and branch out on her own.
In 2020, she founded a new business, Handmade LATAM, an artisanal consulting firm that currently supports designers and local brands in the U.S. reach out remote communities and coordinate successful manufacturing and exporting of artisanal products into their markets.
Her AWE experience helped her to be more independent in her decision-making, and she wanted to pay it forward. Perugachi currently serves as AWE Regional Coordinator and Grantee for Ecuador’s capital region, organizing networking and training events for hundreds of AWE alumnae to support their business development around Ecuador. She built a curriculum that focuses on helping women to overcome imposter syndrome, something she feels is a serious internal obstacle for women’s business development.
Her AWE experience also exposed her to another U.S. government program, Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI), an educational exchange that sends young entrepreneurs from Latin America to the United States for six-week internships with U.S. companies.
“While sitting in one of the AWE workshops for one U.S. government program, I learned about another!” The session was taught by a YLAI alum who talked about their experience with the program, inspiring Perugachi to apply. “You have to be open to continuous learning and other opportunities you may not have expected.”
She was accepted to YLAI in 2021 did her fellowship with a host organization in Chicago dedicated to promoting the World Fashion Festival and Latina Expo, and also collaborated with 12PointFive, a women-owned consulting firm from Washington D.C., to design new strategies for her business.
This was another pivotal experience. “YLAI helped me work with my mentor to translate a business challenge into a digital artisanal catalog for international buyers,” she says. She went on to design a two-month online workshop and workbook that included step-by-step guides and strategies to strengthen the artisans’ knowledge in cost structures, tariffs, logistics, and wholesale business.
“Opportunities come through international connections,” she says.
Perugachi now devotes her time to connecting people in both AWE and YLAI communities as part of a desire to “generate synergy” between the two programs. “I am applying the resources I got through YLAI through my work as Regional Coordinator for AWE. I see myself as the bridge between the two programs.”
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs, a program of the U.S. Department of State, gives women the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses. Since 2019, AWE has trained more than 16,000 women entrepreneurs in nearly 90 countries. The U.S. Mission to Ecuador partners closely with Quito Chamber of Commerce to run one of the world’s largest AWE programs, training more than 1,000 women entrepreneurs in all 24 provinces of the country.
For more information about AWE, please visit https://eca.state.gov/awe.
Original source can be found here.
