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

nextmontreal.com

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

#21

Post by andrewcooke »

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…

for $125 i agree it's not worth arguing about, and also support is reassuring. but if someone does want to save some money it's worth knowing that you don't find apts at that price in unsafe areas. santiago is very divided (physically) by class.

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

#24

Post by plamb »

mituljain wrote: post #4
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…

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?…

As a current member of the program, I would argue that it is better suited for a company in idea-phase, where the founders likely still having a savings account available (for the two month money issue Ken describes).

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

#25

Post by plamb »

matthewphiong wrote: post #6
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…

Hi Andrew, As someone who is going to Santiago as part of the program, I've done some research based on previous participants' experiences. Find apartments using Home Chile ( http://www.homechile.cl/ ) and all are furnished. Many recommended Providencia area. Since you are based there, hope you don't mind if I ping you for questions. matt

(startupchile participant) I highly, highly recommend homechile. Fernando, the manager, speaks good English, was a big help in finding an appropriate place and has helped us multiple times with translation when issues like having our internet randomly go out have come up. Providencia is a nice centralized location and near the office. If I could do it over I probably would have tried to pick a place in Manuel Montt (Providencia) as it is walking distance from the office and also near most of the nightlife.
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