Moving to Argentina

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=408190

by guiseppecalzone • 18 years ago

26 46 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm an entrepreneur, moving to Argentina.

Anyone know builders, developers, entrepreneurs, or innovative companies hiring in Argentina?

aristus• 18 years ago

You'll have lots of fun, regardless. :)

Send me an email (in my profile) and I'll check around. I know a few people in Brasil and Venezuela.

Maciej Ceglowski of Yahoo Pipes fame spent a year in Argentina, maybe you can ask him? http://www.idlewords.com/2006/04/argentina_on_two_steaks_a_d...

davidw• 18 years ago

Direi dal tuo nome che sei italiano... o sbaglio? In any case, good luck, but IMO there are better places to go if you want to avoid some of what's wrong with Italy. Just guessing, though:-)

guiseppecalzone8• 18 years ago

ho passato molto tempo en italia, ma non sono italiano. sei italiano?

maneesh2• 18 years ago

dove sei stato in italia, ho vissuto a firenze

zzzmarcus2• 18 years ago

I lived in BsAs and Montevideo for over a year (all of 2007).

I seriously doubt you'll find a company based in Argentina that will pay you enough to live the lifestyle you want (I'm making a pretty big assumption about your lifestyle based on my lifestyle coming from the US). That having been said, there are tons of smart developers there and the community is pretty great. A lot developers seem to focus on outsourced work for other countries, notably the US.

I guess the biggest question is what do you want to do? Are you a web developer? What do you do now?

Congrats on the move... I bet you'll love it there. I did.

wehriam• 18 years ago

How good is your Spanish? From your perspective, what level of proficiency is required to live in Buenos Aires?

zzzmarcus2• 18 years ago

My Spanish is good. To live there though, you'll do okay with just basic Spanish. There are lots of tourists and lots of porteños speak some English. In my experience, they really appreciate any effort to speak their language and will work with you to communicate.

dtaylor2• 18 years ago

My list:

- Core Security Technologies: http://www.corest.com

- Three Melons: http://www.threemelons.com/en/

- Sabarasa: http://www.sabarasa.com/

- Nektra Advanced Computing: http://www.nektra.com

- Globant: http://www.globant.com

- Flaptor: http://www.flaptor.com/

- Popego: http://www.popego.com

- Zauber: http://zauber.com.ar

brl2• 18 years ago

Interesting. How did you find the companies you have listed?

dtaylor2• 18 years ago

My day job is knowing about more advanced companies, beyond common IT services.

hhm2• 18 years ago

Visit http://palermovalley.com/ (the event is held once a month or two I believe)... it's useful for networking and full of entrepreneurs, developers and builders. The founders of Core, Popego, Sabarasa, etc. can be found there sometimes too.

guiseppecalzone8• 18 years ago

dtaylor and hhm, great links. thank you!

ryanwaggoner• 18 years ago

If you're an entrepreneur, why do you care who's hiring? ;-)

guiseppecalzone8• 18 years ago

haha, right on. I just ended an all out, all consuming project. I'm hoping to enjoy the finer things in life in Argentina. Hence, employment (not forever mind you :))

RobertL• 18 years ago

I think Chile is a better option. Much more capitalist oriented government. Income tax is at just over 40% though but there are lots of jobs, lots of activity, and the government is pro-immigration. Especially if you have technical skills.

Also Chile has huge Lithium deposits and could become Saudi Arabia of Lithium if these new electric cars work out. Get your citizenship early. Before everyone starts moving there.

After a year of Mr. O this country's entrepreneurs are probably going to be bailing out and the place could get real crowded.

laut• 18 years ago

Move from where? Consider getting income from "the first world" (US, Europe etc.). Income levels are not the same in Argentina. But many things are cheaper, such as food. The beef is great :P

Computers or other things imported from "the first world" are hit with high import taxes. For instance if you want a laptop take it with you from "the first world" where it's cheaper.

guiseppecalzone8• 18 years ago

Moving from San Francisco, CA.

I hear ya. I'm actually just looking to be cash flow neutral where I'm there. No need to make it big. Just keep me going.

matthewhuebert• 18 years ago

Why Argentina?

I'm considering spending a couple of months there next year to improve my Spanish while I hack away on a web app. A few years ago I lived in Guatemala for awhile and really enjoyed it. The people I met there were really warm and inviting.

guiseppecalzone8• 18 years ago

My one escape from the computer has been Tango... and as the Tango capital of the world, Argentina is killer. Besides, I'm going to take the first month or so and take intensive Spanish classes. Living in the mission district, my barber never understands how to cut my hair :)

If you go down, look me up. I may still be down there. Email: joseph dot walla at gmail dot com

dannyr• 18 years ago

matt,

I'm actually down here in Guatemala right now. Plan is to continue developing the app for my startup but I have been busy studying Spanish and doing the tourist stuff.

I'm in Xela right now and will be moving on to san Pedro and Antigua. I will be back in the US by the end of January.

compay• 18 years ago

If you want to go grab a beer and talk about the local scene, drop me a line. I'm an American web developer who's lived down here for about 6 years. My email is norman@randomba.org.

rabble2• 18 years ago

I'm a rails developer, working on setting up an office in Montevideo for entp.com, i was the architect on yahoo fire eagle, and worked with the yahoo folks on pipes, before that i built odeo.com. Needless to say, i do startup stuff.

There are lots of good developers here, both Montevideo and Buenos Aires. The overhead of running / logistics of a company here are much harder than the US, but the cost of doing business is lower, with a few exceptions. You need 10 months deposit to rent an office! Crazy expensive. Also paperwork on incorporation is a pain in the ass.

There's a MontevideoValley and PalermoValley, which are more biz focused groups in both cities trying to cultivate startup culture. I recommend you go to their meetings, hang out / work from the coworking spaces... (we're starting one in montevideo, there are currently two in buenos aires).

Hope that helps.

guiseppecalzone8• 18 years ago

Very helpful.

You mind if I ping you when I get down there? It'd be great to compare notes.

llopatin• 18 years ago

Hi there,

I'm the CTO of United Virtualities with our main production office (and myself) based in Buenos Aires.

There are some pretty neat tech companies in BA in the lookout for talent and you'll have a blast here as well.

Do contact me at llopatin@unitedvirtualities.com.

guiseppecalzone8• 18 years ago

Thanks for the reply! I just emailed you.

diego• 18 years ago

Ditto. I'm Diego, founder/CEO of Flaptor (and friend of llopatin). I lived and worked in the Bay Area for several years (the first .com cycle) and then started Flaptor in Buenos Aires. I'll be happy to share my experiences, my email is in my profile.

known• 18 years ago

Try http://buenosaires.en.craigslist.org/jjj/

kragen• 18 years ago

Bar Camp Buenos Aires last year was lots of fun; you can check out my post about it. I missed it this year. It's true that Chile is more capitalist; that could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your point of view. My wife and I just got our work visas last week after working on it for a year and a half. (It's much easier if you aren't trying to set up a new Argentine company, without Argentine employees or partners, at the same time.)

maneesh2• 18 years ago

Hey there,

I'm a freelance rails developer, done a bunch of startups and working on several new ones based in Europe and the US and I've been here for 3 months already. This city is amazing, and I've met a lot of programmers (even American ones doing the Tim Ferriss thing). When do you arrive? Feel free to email me, msethi@stanford.edu.

pibefision• 18 years ago

Hi!. I'm from Buenos Aires too.

We have BarCamp, WordCamp, PallermoValley, TweetBaires, Starbucks, and a few Apple resellers. What else do you need to live here?

guiseppecalzone8• 18 years ago

Haha. I like how you added Starbucks to your list.

Drop me a line and we'll get some coffee when I arrive. My email is joseph dot walla at gmail.

JP1• 18 years ago

Hey J.P. here! I work in keegy.com, and help with the organization of PalermoValley.com

Glad to see that some of the folks (Llopatin, Diego) already gave you a nice welcome :-)

In just one HN thread you managed to meet some of the top Argentinean IT players :-P

I'll love to share a glass of wine with you and the rest of the guys that just commented, so drop me a line: JuanPablo(at)Keegy.com

Moving to Argentina

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