Luiza Oliveira, 19, founded Ipanu, which seeks to enhance the typical dishes of the African continent
With the aim of making African cuisine better known in Brazil, Luiza Oliveira, 19, created Ipanu, a gastronomic startup focused on the typical dishes of the continent. A resident of the Bom Jesus district, in the eastern part of Porto Alegre (RS), the young woman tells how the idea of becoming an entrepreneur was born.
“I heard about a new project by Rede Calabria to train startups. When I started the project, I thought it was just a professional course in gastronomy, but the proposal was more than that, it was a project of entrepreneurship and gastronomic innovation. The big challenge was to make a new business in the food sector possible in a practical way,” he explains.
By participating in the project “Escola Startup – Season 1: Food Makers”, by Rede Calábria, responsible for the management of social-welfare and educational activities with offices throughout Brazil, Luiza saw the opportunity to live new experiences, looking for elements that translated the narrative and story you wanted for your brand.
“I began to observe the themes that attracted my attention the most on social networks and the topics I talked about with my friends, the themes were always the same: cultural identity. I began my search for a dish that imprinted my personality”.
In January this year, the Ipanu initiative was selected as one of the finalists of the Prudential Young Visionaries Award. In Brazil alone, there were 112 nominations and Ipanu stood out as one of eight finalist projects.
Regarding the challenges she faced in setting up her own company at such a young age, Luiza comments that the difficulty is believing in her credibility.
“My biggest challenge is that some people don’t believe that someone young like me can start a company or do social enterprise. They don’t take seriously that I’m a businesswoman and also a black girl from the suburbs,” she says.
Muamba de Galinha, a dish well known in Angola and made with palm oil and vegetables, is Luiza’s favourite. And the entrepreneur is happy with the feedback he receives.
“I like it when people try our food and even if it’s not part of their daily life, they end up loving what we prepare. It’s a mutual welcome, and that’s exactly what Ipanu wants to be, to be a form of welcome, belonging and love, because I believe that gastronomy always touches our feelings and I am happy when we receive a loving and happy comment.
Food and representation
More than an innovative project, Ipanu is about stories, culture, representation, empowerment and people. “It is about restoring the erasure of culture which would be an educational right. It’s about food, love, belonging, respect, but above all, hospitality”.
“It’s the company I created to prove that black people aren’t just employees, they can be employers. Demonstrate to everyone that we can and have the full capacity to occupy great positions and that African culture and cuisine must be spread”.
Currently, Ipanu focuses on personalized service and although the kitchen is in Luiza’s home, the goal is to obtain resources to help grow the business.
“My biggest goal at the moment is to get investment to be able to open an independent kitchen from Ipanu, so that we can actually start selling lunchboxes, as that is not ideal in my house and for now we only produce lunchboxes on ordination”, highlights.
In his quest to embark, Luiza found his passion creating Ipanu, and as he navigated the challenges and obstacles of this journey, he shares what he’s learned along the way.
“The biggest lesson I learned was to be resilient and persistent, because the path of entrepreneurship is often strenuous, which many, many times takes you out of your comfort zone, but it’s also something very satisfying, and that gives me a lot of learning and unforgettable moments,” he concludes.
Source: Terra
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