Start-Up Chile: $40k to Live There and Start a Company

http://ben.casnocha.com/2010/08/start-up-chile-40k-to-live-there-and-start-a-company.html

by dsplittgerber • 16 years ago

81 15 16 years ago

ben.casnocha.com

ccarpenterg4• 16 years ago

I'm a chilean entrepreneur and I'm looking for a cofounder. I'm solving graph and scheduling problems for some transport industry. BFS, DFS, Dijkstra, timetables, etc.

We could take advantage of this initiative and get those $40k.

I just updated my profile. ($2k a month is enough to not starve).

TheEzEzz2• 16 years ago

Enough not to starve?! I'm living in Santa Barbara, California, which is very expensive by the average American standard, and two people can get by here fairly comfortably with $2K.

What's the price of living like in Santiago? More importantly, if the real perk is money and lower cost of living... I could just move to Kansas and rent a room for $200 a month.

ccarpenterg4• 16 years ago

The real perk are those $40k. I'm living with $350 a month (cost living + food + rent). I'm including the living costs, rent, food, servers, travels, services, etc. in those $2k.

But you can make it with $350 anyway. I agree with Ben that isolation is the biggest downside of Chile and the lack of this kind of entrepreneurship (I mean Hacker News and Y Combinator style), but if you just need to focus on your first prototype I think it's a good deal.

EDIT: But if you are in the stage of looking for investment (Angel, VC, Y Combinator) and getting some press coverage it would be like a suicide.

sabj2• 16 years ago

It would seem like the big perk here would be the 40k.

I really like the idea of going to Chile to get that support to build a prototype etc, and if I had some friends who were similarly motivated I would definitely consider applying.

I would rather take the 40k to be in Chile than say, Kansas, because Chile would offer another set of novel learning experiences as well - which would be part of the reason for going.

ataggart• 16 years ago

Good idea! Why should foreigners be the only ones to mooch off the Chilean taxpayers?

lazyjeff• 16 years ago

Did anyone notice that 1) they are reimbursing you 90% of your startup budget rather than giving $40k cash money, and 2) you have to put in the other 10% which is 4k.

I don't know if you can just budget $44k as salary but I highly doubt it.

fierarul• 16 years ago

It's a contest basically, not a state-wide support program:

>The pilot program will select 25 entrepreneurs and offer them a 1-yr resident visa, a USD 40k grant to cover expenses for six months and local network and support.

heyadayo• 16 years ago

I didn't see the time frame for the program -- did anyone catch this?

MSWizard• 16 years ago

New post on Techcrunch about Chile "Chop-Shop Workers and Bootstrappers: Chile Really Wants You"

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/21/chop-shop-workers-and-boots...

Start-Up Chile: $40k to Live There and Start a Company

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