Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

startupchile.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 78 posts

Re: Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

#11

Post by thaumaturgy »

andrewcooke wrote: post #6

i live in chile, although i work for us companies. when this was announced i was pretty sceptical, but it does seem to be making a significant difference to the local culture. there is a lot more "buzz" - many more meetings, job offers, companies appearing. there's even a conference being organised - http://www.startechconf.com

Nice, you might be able to answer the number one question I have about this program: how do native Chileans feel about this? Is there a perception that they're being skipped over, do they feel negatively towards outsiders being brought in through this program, or are they generally positive towards it?

Re: Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

#12

Post by andrewcooke »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #11
andrewcooke wrote: post #6

i live in chile, although i work for us companies. when this was announced i was pretty sceptical, but it does seem to be making a significant difference to the local culture. there is a lot more "buzz" - many more meetings, job offers, companies appearing. there's even a conference being organised - http://www.startechconf.com

Nice, you might be able to answer the number one question I have about this program: how do native Chileans feel about this? Is there a perception that they're being skipped over, do they feel negatively towards outsiders being brought in through this program, or are they generally positive towards it?

i haven't heard anything negative (as i said, the general response is a positive "buzz"), but i agree you might expect it. it might be because the kind of people i talk to are more developers than founders, or because i am a "gringo" myself, but i think there's also a feeling that it is helping locals. also, there may be similar schemes for local businesses - it wouldn't surprise me. i know other chileans read here, so perhaps one will answer?

ps also, if your experience of latin america is mexico, i should add that chile does not have the anti-gringo sentiment you find there. not at all. it was a real shock for me, to go to mexico...

Re: Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

#13

Post by corry »

What's the cost of living like down there? What's the equivalent of ($40k in Chile) in a typical US city? i.e. ($40k in Chile = $x in Atlanta).

Seems like a cool program, just trying to understand how far that $40k would go (or even the $5k that you can pay yourself).

Re: Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

#14

Post by thaumaturgy »

Since it's a frequent topic of discussion here, it's worth pointing out that Chile is still not bound by the Patent Cooperation Treaty (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/dapp/pctstate.html), although they are taking some steps in that direction (http://chile.usembassy.gov/press20090731_mou.html).

If you have a product that you think might be popular enough to run afoul of the U.S. patent mafia, it might be worth consulting with someone versed in Chilean patent law and trying out a launch there instead.

Re: Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

#15

Post by andrewcooke »

corry wrote: post #13

What's the cost of living like down there? What's the equivalent of ($40k in Chile) in a typical US city? i.e. ($40k in Chile = $x in Atlanta). Seems like a cool program, just trying to understand how far that $40k would go (or even the $5k that you can pay yourself).

there's a lot of info at http://www.quora.com/Hows-life-in-Santiago-Chile but basically: if it's imported, it's more expensive than the usa, but if it's local then it's less so. so the cost of living depends a lot on your standard of living. if you want all the luxuries you might expect in the usa or europe, you'll need to spend a similar amount. but if you're happy living in a cheap part of town, eating local fresh food, you could get by on much less.

you could rent a small apartment in a good area (providencia) for $300 a month; a ride on the metro or bus is $1 - $1.50; bread is around $2.50 a kilo... minimum wage here is about $500 a month (the quora page is a bit out of date - the dollar has lost some value...). i imagine you'd need to pay around $2,500 a month for a decent programmer - less for someone with less experience.

so bring a laptop with you!

Re: Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

#16

Post by iamelgringo »

smogzer wrote: post #7
iamelgringo wrote: post #4

I met one of the associate directors of Startup Chile last night at a Hackers & Founders event. These people are amazing. They are trying to revamp their economy by changing the culture, and to do that, they want to import startup culture. So, their government has set aside $100M over the next four years to get 1,000 startups to come to Chile for six months and work. But even more than that, their vision is much larg…

Free lunch ? Or do they want equity ? Can't leave Chile for X years ? Must have headquarters there ?

$40k grant. Free as in beer. No equity.

They want you to move to Chile for 6 months, and go to some events and meet some people while you're down there.

Re: Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

#17

Post by [deleted] »

iamelgringo wrote: post #16
smogzer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free lunch ? Or do they want equity ? Can't leave Chile for X years ? Must have headquarters there ?

$40k grant. Free as in beer. No equity. They want you to move to Chile for 6 months, and go to some events and meet some people while you're down there.

[deleted]

Re: Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

#18

Post by almost »

smogzer wrote: post #7
iamelgringo wrote: post #4

I met one of the associate directors of Startup Chile last night at a Hackers & Founders event. These people are amazing. They are trying to revamp their economy by changing the culture, and to do that, they want to import startup culture. So, their government has set aside $100M over the next four years to get 1,000 startups to come to Chile for six months and work. But even more than that, their vision is much larg…

Free lunch ? Or do they want equity ? Can't leave Chile for X years ? Must have headquarters there ?

Apparently there's a pretty horrible form to fill out, but that's about it. I know a couple of people out there at the moment and it sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

Re: Get $40k grant for your startup. Live in Chile for 6 months.

#19

Post by hugh3 »

andrewcooke wrote: post #15
corry wrote: post #13

What's the cost of living like down there? What's the equivalent of ($40k in Chile) in a typical US city? i.e. ($40k in Chile = $x in Atlanta). Seems like a cool program, just trying to understand how far that $40k would go (or even the $5k that you can pay yourself).

there's a lot of info at http://www.quora.com/Hows-life-in-Santiago-Chile but basically: if it's imported, it's more expensive than the usa, but if it's local then it's less so. so the cost of living depends a lot on your standard of living. if you want all the luxuries you might expect in the usa or europe, you'll need to spend a similar amount. but if you're happy living in a cheap part of town, eating local fresh…

What about non-Santiago parts of Chile? If I were going to spend six months in Chile I might be tempted to forego the metropolis and find a nice town by the seaside or the mountains (both of which seem to be pretty easy to find in Chile). But are there "nice" areas outside the big city, or is all the wealth concentrated in Santiago?
Post reply on HN