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Chile to give 300 startups $40,000
- Vermeer999 16y agoWe tried that in Quebec during the mid-90's. The goal was to create a Silicon Valley in Montreal. Then other regions got upset and it was made province-wide. Then non-technology entrepreneurs got upset and the definition of "technology" was enlarged to include anything that had a web site. Then the money dried up and we still don't have more world-class technology companies than before. The morale of the story: Silicon Valley is what it is because there is a critical mass of venture capital and world class universities within a small region. That's not something that's easy to replicate in 40K increments.
- kjksf 16y agoThe false assumption you're making is that the ambition of the program is to replicate the success of Silicon Valley or that anything short of that is not worthwhile. Chile wins if this program generates positive ROI on the investment, even if it generates only 1% of success of Silicon Valley. Economic stimulation, if done properly, works. I find it amazing that a government initiative makes so much sense and is executed, as far as I can tell, so well, so big props to Chilean government for doing that.
- CodeMage 16y agoGiven the number of times I've heard the Chilean government talk about establishing a Chilean "Silicon Valley", I think we can all safely assume that's more or less what they're trying to do. As someone who has been living and working in Chile for more than 10 years now, I'm not at all surprised to see them throw money at the issue yet again, instead of working on changing the way things work. But I've already talked about that stuff before: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2068429 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2068429
- sebkomianos 16y agoWhat's the point in creating "Silicon Valleys" everywhere anyway? You don't need to have a specific area in which technology/innovation/money flourishes. Why not try to promote the "startup spirit" countrywide?
- cabalamat 16y ago> What's the point in creating "Silicon Valleys" everywhere anyway? The idea is that if you have a lot of businesses near to each other in the same business sector, you can get synergy between them. the whole is greatrer than the sum of the parts.
- brianbreslin 16y agoThis is the 2nd year of this, last year there were 40 grants right? Guess they were content with the results.
- trevelyan 16y agoI'm in Santiago now and can confirm this an amazing program. There are some great companies down here and the application process is only getting more competitive as more people find out about it. March 15th is the last day to submit applications for this round, so don't put off applying if you're at all interested. Stay up late and get your proposal finished.
- ultrasaurus 16y agoDo you know if it's 11:59pm March 15th? Those of use finding out today might be a little pressed for time.
- trevelyan 16y agoIt's today (March 15), 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time.
- OstiaAntica 16y agoThis program is $12 million total. Chile's per capita GDP is $12,800. Lets say their avg. income, payroll, and VAT burden is 40% of that total. So 2,344 Chilean workers will waste 40% of their working lives this year to pay the taxes to fund these 300 startups.
- kragen 16y agoThat sounds like a good bargain. Each startup only needs to create 8 jobs for a year (or 4 for 2 years, or 0.8 for 10 years) in order to pay it back. Right?
- OstiaAntica 16y agoSounds more like forced labor to me. If this money was returned to those taxpayers, there would be more resources for the private Chilean economy to create jobs. This is command economics with a Web 2.0 veneer.
- kjksf 16y agoThe false assumption you're making is that an average Chilean can generate better ROI than a bunch of selected, high-tech startups. If that were true, Paul Graham would be giving out handred dollar bills to random people instead of investing in startups that he personally vetted.
- mynameishere 16y agoThe average Chilean would spend his money as he pleased, which would go to businesses that are satisfying a real demand, rather than something a bureaucrat guesses might fulfill a demand.
- kjksf 16y agoSo you're basically arguing that taxes should be completely abolished.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- acgourley 16y agoHow's the internet over there?
- daniel-cussen 16y agoPretty good, and getting better all the time. I'm not sure about the prices and speeds, but can tell you telecoms here sometimes feature P2P capabilities on ads.
- daniel-cussen 16y agoPretty good, and getting better all the time. I'm not sure about the prices and speeds, but can tell you telecoms here sometimes feature P2P capabilities on ads.
- millettjon 16y agoIt works well for me. I've been in Puerto Varas, Chile for the last 8 years and quite happy.
- vrikhter 16y agoJust visited Puerto Varas a few months back. What a beautiful place! Good for you :)
- bluehat 16y agoHacker Dojo work has caused me to run into a number of governments / entities with money trying to do things like this by either directly handing out cash or handing out goodies and tax breaks. One of the oddest/largest is in Vietnam http://www.quangtrungsoft.com.vn/ http://www.quangtrungsoft.com.vn/ This doesn't prove it's a good idea, but it does help to realize that there are enough of these programs going that they can at least learn from each other's mistakes.
- acabal 16y agoI've never been to Chile, and I don't think my company is technically a startup anymore (otherwise I'd apply), but I highly encourage anyone who's even remotely considering this to apply. The cash isn't the important part, in my mind; it's the experience of living in a very different culture and part of the world for a year, with more or less a full safety net. The amount of entrepreneurial good that could be done for the world if Americans--with their can-do spirit and work ethic--were more aware of the people outside their borders would be staggering. And I'm not saying that in a derogatory way, just that with a country as big as the States, it's often hard for Silicon Valley to give some thought to the business-solvable problems people have in New York, let alone Tierra del Fuego.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- ultrasaurus 16y agoIt's a government program, so there are some less agile/more bureaucratic, for instance "Upload complete passports: Make sure that Number, Nationality, Gender, Picture, Date of Birth, Residency are legible. You must scan all pages." instead of YC-style questions.
- webwright 16y agoYou also need CVs and a business plan. I don't think the best candidates for a program like this would have either on hand.
- ammmir 16y agois it really necessary to collect all applicants' passports even if only a fraction will be accepted?
- wiseleo 16y agoThe questions they ask you after that are quite YC'ish. :) They also respond very quickly.
- cellurl 16y agoI had phone interview with them. If you are married its probably a stretch. My worry was housing, where, how... I have been there before. Its very very calm. Looks dry and dusty like LA, but cheap seafood that the locals are sick of.... Buddy there says, whenever the govt needs money for a social program, they dig in the mountains. Every mineral on earth is located there with the exception of Uranium.
- onwardly 16y agoThe U.S. budget for 2011 is $3,690,000,000,000. Can we spare just a sliver of that for innovation and job creation? Imagine a national contest, YC-ish if you will. 500 businesses walk away with $100K each. That costs just $50M. What would you get in return? You'd get tens of thousands of people racking their brains and being brave and innovating. Even if they weren't chosen, many of them would have a solid plan and go for it. If we really believe that creating new jobs is our top national priority, then we need to find new ways to create new jobs. After all, that's where 80% of jobs come from: new companies. I can already imagine some of my friends screaming: "You Socialist bastard!". No. It could be done to reward merit, and it would provide critical support to promising startups right when they need it most. This is not about handouts- its about rewarding and encouraging innovation and supporting job growth. Angel investors might be pissed though.
- herval 16y agoI don't think US would need any such contest to attract talent - all the gov needs to do is allowing people to open businesses there and be granted a visa. I'm pretty sure a lot more than 500 companies would apply in a matter of seconds (mine included)
- absconditus 16y ago$100K is not enough money to do anything in any field that matters. I rather not have my tax dollars given to more inane web startups.
- nika 16y agoApple was founded with the proceeds from selling a VW bus and an HP calculator. Maybe with inflation that's $20k in today's dollars. And they were building hardware. If anything the cost of doing significant startups in the intervening years has declined, certainly for software, but also for hardware too. Apple had to build their own factories, even after they got venture funding. Now nobodies can hire factories on demand for your hardware. $100k in the right hands would do a hell of a lot. However, the government isn't usually the best at determining the right hands.
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- shii 16y agoI mentioned my possible intentions to apply for this to my Spanish teacher one day, yet she cautioned me saying Chile like many South American countries is quite racist towards blacks and that I should consider somewhere like Brazil instead if I was still interested in the region, since it is much more welcoming and less prejudiced than somewhere like Chile. Curious what those actually living in or from the region perceive as to the racial climate there in Chile and Sourh America in general.
- herval 16y agoI don't think south america is any more racist than any developed country at all. We have a lot of black people in important positions (specially in brazil/venezuela/uruguay, where there are a lot of artists, sports people and politicians). There are, though, a bit more poor black people than poor whites, which kind of "justifies" the prejudice in some regions (mostly south of brazil). It's important to notice that racism is A LOT more common with indian-descendants and people from poorer regions (mainly north and northeast) than black people. disclaimer: I've never been to Chile, so I'm not sure if any of this applies there...
- shii 16y agoFrom what I understood from my teacher, mostly southern region of South America (Argentina, Chile) is heavily prejudiced against blacks and indigenous peoples.
- kragen 16y agoArgentina is incredibly racist, although it was not immediately obvious to me as a white guy. I don't know how racist Chile is. Brazil is the least racist place I've ever been.
- hparra 16y agoI lived in Chile for 4 years. The problem is that blacks of any ethnicity are extremely rare, so at the very least you'll immediately draw attention. A friend of mine recently posted (FB) the following story on the police blitzing a black foreigner for jaycycling: http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/detalle/detallenoticias.asp?idnoticia=468927 http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/detalle/detallenoticia... I'm inclined to say the same about Argentina and Uruguay, where I've traveled a few times, but not lived. I've also been to Brazil, and can tell you people of darker skin are quite the norm, as in the caribbean like Venezuela, though I wouldn't recommend going there for other reasons.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- wiseleo 16y agoI applied and got to final stage last year. I think they got scared by what my product was about to do (self-healing computer networks, which would undermine their nascent IT industry). It's sitting on the backburner for now while I am working on something a bit less threatening to properly fund the main product. Might try again this year. :)