Chile Wants to Borrow US Entrepreneurs for $40,000 • Hacker News Board

Re: Chile Wants to Borrow US Entrepreneurs for $40,000

#21

Post by laut » Sun, Aug 22, 2010, 2:10 AM UTC

organicgrant wrote: post #14

fmendez wrote: post #6

I'm not sure if i missed something when I initially read about the startup Chile program, but i don't quite remember the documents stating they only wanted US entrepreneurs, am i wrong?

They're not limiting it to US entrepreneurs, just limiting their recruitment efforts to California at present. K-Swiss and Apple have convinced the world that the world's best stuff is "Designed in California"

The world doesn't know what K-Swiss is.

Re: Chile Wants to Borrow US Entrepreneurs for $40,000

#22

Post by ez77 » Sun, Aug 22, 2010, 9:38 AM UTC

fierarul wrote: post #2

This is the first article on HN that specifically states it's 25 projects that get the $40.000, meaning they have an initial budget of $1M. To put this in perspective, the iFund, which supports iOS projects has a $200M budget. So, not that I have something with this Chile project, but I feel it's getting way too much "airtime" on HN. I don't need to see this daily on the RSS feed. I've always disliked contests of thi…

Oh, come on. For decades the US increased its brain power by actively promoting brain drain from other countries, not just by reducing R&D taxes internally. It would be amusing and certainly fair game if Chile managed to do the opposite with a mere 40K per project.

Re: Chile Wants to Borrow US Entrepreneurs for $40,000

#23

Post by known » Sun, Aug 22, 2010, 3:43 PM UTC

Why isn't govt offering software development services?

Re: Chile Wants to Borrow US Entrepreneurs for $40,000

#24

Post by rwhitman » Sun, Aug 22, 2010, 8:22 PM UTC

fierarul wrote: post #2

This is the first article on HN that specifically states it's 25 projects that get the $40.000, meaning they have an initial budget of $1M. To put this in perspective, the iFund, which supports iOS projects has a $200M budget. So, not that I have something with this Chile project, but I feel it's getting way too much "airtime" on HN. I don't need to see this daily on the RSS feed. I've always disliked contests of thi…

But isn't the cost of living in Chile markedly lower? So that $40,000 is potentially stretched a lot further.

Also its a grant, not an investment. So you basically get free $40k in living and startup expenses taken care of for free. If they're seeking to give this to recent grads with low salary expectations to begin with, I'd say its a fantastic opportunity. What is there to lose?

Re: Chile Wants to Borrow US Entrepreneurs for $40,000

#25

Post by adamstober » Wed, Aug 25, 2010, 4:42 AM UTC

First-time poster, go easy on me!

Lowering taxes may be better from a textbook economics perspective but this is creative real-world marketing that has already been somewhat effective simply by generating so many headlines.

I'm just one data point but I would have not considered Chile as a potential base for a small venture I'm working on otherwise. Now I will likely apply for this program and keep Chile in mind for future reference. I recognize most people aren't as geographically flexible as I am but the opportunity to spend time in Chile and speak Spanish sounds exciting to me.