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Flip-side of Startup Chile

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Re: Flip-side of Startup Chile

#5

Post by rdl »

I'm incredibly suspicious of any "government affiliated" startup programs. As far as I can tell, they universally suck (Startup Chile is the least bad).

They have growing "compliance requirements" class over class, most of which are irrelevant. While I appreciate that money is in short supply in an early stage startup, founder time is, too -- so wasting time of founders is absurd.

Re: Flip-side of Startup Chile

#6

Post by alphydan »

He's surprised that you actually have to do something in order to get free money? And that tax payers require transparency about how it's spent?

I was part of Startup Chile and got into a VC run accelerator in the US, and bureaucracy in the US was much worse (Lawyers and accountants required for everything, incorporation as C-corp as a pre-condition, immigration acrobatics, etc). He may change his opinion if he has to move to a US accelerator with a $40k - $50k investment (just icing, as dashr rightly points out).

Re: Flip-side of Startup Chile

#7

Post by progrocks9 »

I think one of the biggest problems is to find good local developers. I think that the local market is very small and also not many locals are fluent in english. Getonboard is a good place to start but maybe the startup program should look at this training local students / devs for make them useful for startup ecosystem.

Re: Flip-side of Startup Chile

#8

Post by toomanybeersies »

rdl wrote: post #5

I'm incredibly suspicious of any "government affiliated" startup programs. As far as I can tell, they universally suck (Startup Chile is the least bad). They have growing "compliance requirements" class over class, most of which are irrelevant. While I appreciate that money is in short supply in an early stage startup, founder time is, too -- so wasting time of founders is absurd.

New Zealand has Callaghan Innovation, who are a relatively bureaucracy-free grant provider. They're very fond of paying companies to take on interns for projects, which is good for the company, and good for training up developers.

[0] https://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/

Re: Flip-side of Startup Chile

#9

Post by bramjans »

alphydan wrote: post #6

He's surprised that you actually have to do something in order to get free money? And that tax payers require transparency about how it's spent? I was part of Startup Chile and got into a VC run accelerator in the US, and bureaucracy in the US was much worse (Lawyers and accountants required for everything, incorporation as C-corp as a pre-condition, immigration acrobatics, etc). He may change his opinion if he has t…

Very much this.

I was also part of Startup Chile (8th gen) and the demands of the program were very reasonable. Gaining the RVA points to foster the community was really a small price to pay for basically "free money".

The transparency into spendings was very understandable and additionally largely due to some pretty shameless abuses in previous generations.

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