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Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

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Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#11

Post by trevelyan »

mituljain wrote: post #5
mituljain wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hey, since you've been through the program and we recently got selected I had a few questions - that I hope you'd answer: 1) Can you stay on there longer after the 6 months? What are the permit restrictions etc? 2) How many people actually came there with little or no product ready and actually built up while in Chile itself? 3) What are the odds that people who fall under the category of 2) got funding there itself?…

and in that case what are the odds of actually finding investors during the program? (do they have serious investors visiting etc?)

We got serious inbound inquiries just from taking part.

Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#12

Post by andrewcooke »

matthewphiong wrote: post #8
andrewcooke wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sure - email in profile. most appts here are unfurnished, i think (makes sense for local long-term use) which probably explains why homechile (which i didn't know about, thanks) exists. providencia is a nice place to live (i live there and i imagine it's similar standards to what people from the usa would be used to), but it's certainly not the lowest price area. ps wasn't going to post this as a separate answer beca…

Thanks! From the Startup Chile FAQ, participants are entitled up to $600,000 CLP monthly spending on rental. Many had fully furnished apartments around Providencia with facilities like pool and gym (from HomeChile listings, apartments with such facilities are around 400k-600k). Providencia are also recommended because it is said to be safer. PS: Another website similar to HomeChile is ContactChile ( http://www.contac…

ok, so now i'm curious - if they paid less for somewhere to live, would they have more money for their startup? i'm sure you can imagine that the programmers that they are hiring for $1m a month don't spend 60% of their wages on pads with gyms and pools...

Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#13

Post by matthewphiong »

andrewcooke wrote: post #12
matthewphiong wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! From the Startup Chile FAQ, participants are entitled up to $600,000 CLP monthly spending on rental. Many had fully furnished apartments around Providencia with facilities like pool and gym (from HomeChile listings, apartments with such facilities are around 400k-600k). Providencia are also recommended because it is said to be safer. PS: Another website similar to HomeChile is ContactChile ( http://www.contac…

ok, so now i'm curious - if they paid less for somewhere to live, would they have more money for their startup? i'm sure you can imagine that the programmers that they are hiring for $1m a month don't spend 60% of their wages on pads with gyms and pools...

From what I know, yes. But the total reimbursement is capped at $40k USD which includes salaries and rental expenses.

Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#14

Post by capken »

trevelyan wrote: post #2

As someone who went through the program: (1) it's not technically true that you HAVE to spend the money before you get it reimbursed. We were given the option of purchasing insurance from the private sector to cover the government in the event of the funds being misallocated. None of the teams decided this was worth doing since it takes time to arrange the insurance and you end up paying the bank for holding the risk…

I'm the writer of the post. You were in the Pilot of the program, they adjusted the rules of the program through their experience with you, our program is subsequently different. The same thing is currently happening from feedback within our cohort and they are adjusting it for the next cohort, it will be a different program for them than it is for us. I stand fully behind the $10K being the number needed to fully access your grant. This is a critical number that the new cohort should know so that they don't come in and end up in a difficult position.

Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#15

Post by capken »

andrewcooke wrote: post #12
matthewphiong wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! From the Startup Chile FAQ, participants are entitled up to $600,000 CLP monthly spending on rental. Many had fully furnished apartments around Providencia with facilities like pool and gym (from HomeChile listings, apartments with such facilities are around 400k-600k). Providencia are also recommended because it is said to be safer. PS: Another website similar to HomeChile is ContactChile ( http://www.contac…

ok, so now i'm curious - if they paid less for somewhere to live, would they have more money for their startup? i'm sure you can imagine that the programmers that they are hiring for $1m a month don't spend 60% of their wages on pads with gyms and pools...

Yes. As a single founder in the program I can claim up to 400 000 CLP, I currently pay 300 000. The difference is now available for me to use for any other purpose that is reimbursable.

Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#16

Post by capken »

andrewcooke wrote: post #3

i was surprised by "agent fee for finding your apartment" - apartments are listed in el mercurio. just go to http://www.propiedades.emol.com/_portada/index.aspx and do the clicky. also, i imagine you can't claim for housing deposits because it's a deposit - you get it back. [i'm a software engineer that lives in santiago and i'm in the middle of buying an appt as an investment and would be happy to rent it to someone…

Using an agent is a good idea when you have no lay of the land. There are safe and less safe areas here, knowing the difference is what an agent does for you. Also, if you do not speak the language negotiating can be extremely difficult, a local agent can iron all those out. For me the fee was only around $125 USD, which is reasonable for the work they do upfront and the ongoing support they can give you on the backend.

Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#17

Post by mituljain »

trevelyan wrote: post #11
mituljain wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and in that case what are the odds of actually finding investors during the program? (do they have serious investors visiting etc?)

We got serious inbound inquiries just from taking part.

thanks for the quick answers! can I contact you in any other way with more questions please?

Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#18

Post by trevelyan »

mituljain wrote: post #17
trevelyan wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We got serious inbound inquiries just from taking part.

thanks for the quick answers! can I contact you in any other way with more questions please?

absolutely -- contact info through profile. It's a brilliant program though -- if you've been accepted, by all means go. :)

Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#19

Post by jot »

capken wrote: post #14
trevelyan wrote: post #2

As someone who went through the program: (1) it's not technically true that you HAVE to spend the money before you get it reimbursed. We were given the option of purchasing insurance from the private sector to cover the government in the event of the funds being misallocated. None of the teams decided this was worth doing since it takes time to arrange the insurance and you end up paying the bank for holding the risk…

I'm the writer of the post. You were in the Pilot of the program, they adjusted the rules of the program through their experience with you, our program is subsequently different. The same thing is currently happening from feedback within our cohort and they are adjusting it for the next cohort, it will be a different program for them than it is for us. I stand fully behind the $10K being the number needed to fully ac…

I'm also on the current program. It's true, you need at least $10K cash in the bank to be able to gain full access to the grant. We thought it would be around $5K that we would need but it's turned out to be much more.

I very much hope that this changes for the next cohort of participants.

Re: Start-Up Chile is a Great Experience But Be Careful Too

#20

Post by [deleted] »

capken wrote: post #16
andrewcooke wrote: post #3

i was surprised by "agent fee for finding your apartment" - apartments are listed in el mercurio. just go to http://www.propiedades.emol.com/_portada/index.aspx and do the clicky. also, i imagine you can't claim for housing deposits because it's a deposit - you get it back. [i'm a software engineer that lives in santiago and i'm in the middle of buying an appt as an investment and would be happy to rent it to someone…

Using an agent is a good idea when you have no lay of the land. There are safe and less safe areas here, knowing the difference is what an agent does for you. Also, if you do not speak the language negotiating can be extremely difficult, a local agent can iron all those out. For me the fee was only around $125 USD, which is reasonable for the work they do upfront and the ongoing support they can give you on the backe…

[deleted]
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