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On (Startup) Chile

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Re: On (Startup) Chile

#11

Post by ew »

prateekdayal wrote: post #3

We are currently working on http://supportbee.com in Startup Chile. I spent some money from my Indian company's account when I was coming over but I could print out a few documents to prove it and it was done in 20 mins. Atleast that is no longer an issue here. It does take about a month for the first reimbursement to roll in and you have to manage till then. The account executives (the ones handling your reimburseme…

They are getting better with each iteration. For example, when we first arrived nobody knew whether it was acceptable to pay for something using PayPal. That took months to clear up and me and others directly asking for clarification.

The hardest part of the entire situation is that we came here to work, not do a song and dance. Even the fact that I feel obligated to post about this on HackerNews is a giant waste of my time, but it will ultimately be good for everyone involved (from the government to the startups) to grow and learn from the discussion.

Re: On (Startup) Chile

#12

Post by ew »

crcsmnky wrote: post #6

While the reimbursement policy is certainly (quite) troublesome and extremely annoying, I'm more concerned about the climate/environment in Chile once the program ends. More countries need to foster entrepreneurial endeavors with a solid mix of residents and non-residents (almost like an exchange program) to get a better global mix of problem/market/solution. Startup Chile appears to be a good first step at addressin…

As it stands I have little (actually zero) incentive to stay here after January. I'm distanced from my partners, friends, family, and investors who actually spend their money. I'm also not interested in spending 3 months, and a lot of money, incorporating a company here when I already did it in less than 24 hours back home in Canada.

Re: On (Startup) Chile

#13

Post by andrewcooke »

from my own experience (as an englishman living in chile) i tend to look to "social differences" to help understand conflicts like this.

one of the main themes in the link is (imho) anger at a lack of trust - the need to justify each expense, and to follow somewhat arbitrary rules, even after winning the grant. and that (again, imho) reflects a difference in culture between americans and chileans. in support of this thesis, there was a chilean presentation at startechconf (the recent web dev / technical conference in santiago) that seemed (i admit i left part-way through in search of a more technical talk) to be arguing the same point: that chileans need to trust each other more. my own amateur anthropological take on this is that the difference comes from chilean trust networks being based on family ties rather than professional relationships.

it will be interesting to see if the technocrats/bureaucrats that saw startup chile as a way to "educate chileans" will themselves learn from this. to the credit of chilean society, "they" (sorry) do (yet again imho) take criticism - particularly from outside - quite seriously, so i think there is a real possibility of change.

[edit: the talk was "Agustín Villena: Que mantener, arreglar e intentar en la industria chilena de software" http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/440025/Que-mejorar,-m... - slide 11, 89% of Chileans don't trust their neighbours]

Re: On (Startup) Chile

#14

Post by amix »

I was in same group as Herval and he is a good guy. This said, I have a huge problem with this general mentality and I think a lot of today's entrepreneurs are spoiled brats that don't have their perspectives right.

I have had an awesome experience in Chile and it has been one of my best decisions I have made. I have met my girlfriend here, I have scaled my business a lot, I have learned to surf, I have met amazing people from all around the world etc. On top of this, my company got $40.000 free money. The reimbursement process could be improved, but generally I did not have that much problems with it.

The problem I see is that people expect everything on a silver plate. They expect everything to be perfect. And of course, if you expect this you will be disappointed by Chile and Start-Up Chile - - because it isn't perfect and they have a long way to go, but they are trying hard to create a good platform for entrepreneurs and so far I think they are doing a great job (and a better job than most other countries in the world).

Maybe this lack of perspectives is culturally/experience bound. For me, my dad's story as an entrepreneur gives me perspective that I have it good and that I have much better opportunities than he ever had. My dad was an entrepreneur that quit his factory job to start his own business in his early 20's. He worked 12 hours pr. day at least. He worked and scaled his business for over 20 years - - to provide education for my siblings and good life for my family. Then the Bosnian war came and we lost it _all_. We had to relocate to Denmark, a country where we did not speak the language (and I can tell you that Danish isn't an easy language to learn). What did my dad do? He learned Danish and started another successful business in his late 40's.

So when I see people complain about the process of getting free money or that the chairs in the offices are bad then I laugh, because I think they have no perspective of what it takes to build a business, how hard building a business is for majority of people or what struggles other people have.

Re: On (Startup) Chile

#15

Post by herval »

amix wrote: post #14

I was in same group as Herval and he is a good guy. This said, I have a huge problem with this general mentality and I think a lot of today's entrepreneurs are spoiled brats that don't have their perspectives right. I have had an awesome experience in Chile and it has been one of my best decisions I have made. I have met my girlfriend here, I have scaled my business a lot, I have learned to surf, I have met amazing p…

Dude! U are one of the clever guys! I just presented a point of view from someone that tried to follow the rules, that's all. Spoiled is the last thing I am, I can assure u. Just honest.

Re: On (Startup) Chile

#16

Post by davidw »

andrewcooke wrote: post #13

from my own experience (as an englishman living in chile) i tend to look to "social differences" to help understand conflicts like this. one of the main themes in the link is (imho) anger at a lack of trust - the need to justify each expense, and to follow somewhat arbitrary rules, even after winning the grant. and that (again, imho) reflects a difference in culture between americans and chileans. in support of this…

The whole article made me think of life here in Italy. Seems like there are a lot of things in common. Well, except for the massive copper resources.

They should have picked me, dammit:-) After years of living in Italy, these sorts of bureaucratic hurdles are easy to deal with. And I may not have an awesome, world changing startup, but at least my niche effort makes money, and... I've been around. I have war stories!

Re: On (Startup) Chile

#17

Post by [deleted] »

davidw wrote: post #16
andrewcooke wrote: post #13

from my own experience (as an englishman living in chile) i tend to look to "social differences" to help understand conflicts like this. one of the main themes in the link is (imho) anger at a lack of trust - the need to justify each expense, and to follow somewhat arbitrary rules, even after winning the grant. and that (again, imho) reflects a difference in culture between americans and chileans. in support of this…

The whole article made me think of life here in Italy. Seems like there are a lot of things in common. Well, except for the massive copper resources. They should have picked me, dammit:-) After years of living in Italy, these sorts of bureaucratic hurdles are easy to deal with. And I may not have an awesome, world changing startup, but at least my niche effort makes money, and... I've been around. I have war stories!

[deleted]

Re: On (Startup) Chile

#18

Post by rubyrescue »

amix wrote: post #14

I was in same group as Herval and he is a good guy. This said, I have a huge problem with this general mentality and I think a lot of today's entrepreneurs are spoiled brats that don't have their perspectives right. I have had an awesome experience in Chile and it has been one of my best decisions I have made. I have met my girlfriend here, I have scaled my business a lot, I have learned to surf, I have met amazing p…

I don't think it's a spoiled brat mentality. It's the difference between what Startup Chile appears to be and what it is. The pitch is it's a 40k grant. The reality is it's a 40k credit and anyone who doesn't really understand latin american bureaucracy doesn't know what they're getting into. I live in Argentina and deal with mind-numbing bureaucracy every day and I have warned some people to be careful before they accept... that said, i'm on the advisory board of one startup attending the next class and i think it's a huge opportunity for them because one of the founders is a "yankee" living in Argentina and he knows what they're getting into.

Re: On (Startup) Chile

#19

Post by andrewcooke »

rubyrescue wrote: post #18
amix wrote: post #14

I was in same group as Herval and he is a good guy. This said, I have a huge problem with this general mentality and I think a lot of today's entrepreneurs are spoiled brats that don't have their perspectives right. I have had an awesome experience in Chile and it has been one of my best decisions I have made. I have met my girlfriend here, I have scaled my business a lot, I have learned to surf, I have met amazing p…

I don't think it's a spoiled brat mentality. It's the difference between what Startup Chile appears to be and what it is. The pitch is it's a 40k grant. The reality is it's a 40k credit and anyone who doesn't really understand latin american bureaucracy doesn't know what they're getting into. I live in Argentina and deal with mind-numbing bureaucracy every day and I have warned some people to be careful before they a…

i'd be careful in extrapolating too much here. the cultural differences between argentina and chile are significant. for example, on the index of economic freedom, chile ranks 11 (just 2 below the usa at 9) while argentina is 138. similarly, on the corruption expectation index, chile ranks 22 (slightly above the usa at 24) while argentina is 100. those are huge differences - please don't tar chile with argentina's problems.

http://www.heritage.org/index/Ranking http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/#CountryResults

Re: On (Startup) Chile

#20

Post by abalashov »

andrewcooke wrote: post #19
rubyrescue wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's a spoiled brat mentality. It's the difference between what Startup Chile appears to be and what it is. The pitch is it's a 40k grant. The reality is it's a 40k credit and anyone who doesn't really understand latin american bureaucracy doesn't know what they're getting into. I live in Argentina and deal with mind-numbing bureaucracy every day and I have warned some people to be careful before they a…

i'd be careful in extrapolating too much here. the cultural differences between argentina and chile are significant. for example, on the index of economic freedom, chile ranks 11 (just 2 below the usa at 9) while argentina is 138. similarly, on the corruption expectation index, chile ranks 22 (slightly above the usa at 24) while argentina is 100. those are huge differences - please don't tar chile with argentina's pr…

Yeah, but Argentina's a lot more lively. :-) I'd definitely do my startup there if my goal were anything that could be described by the words "lifestyle business" or "work-life balance". Come to think of it, that is my goal. See you in Buenos Aires.
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