3 ms·

Wow, 154 at once. That's impressive. I'm very interested to see how this turns out. With these kind of numbers you really might end up generating a startup h

by pg 15y ago

Wow, 154 at once. That's impressive. I'm very interested to see how this turns out. With these kind of numbers you really might end up generating a startup hub. It's a comparatively cheap experiment, considering the upside if it works.

oguz 15y ago
Given our experience for the first two months with Start-Up Chile, I couldn't be more agreed with that. It's not directly competing with TS or YC and maybe startups like Heroku, Sendgrid, Airbnb and Dropbox are never going to come directly from there but at the end of the experiment, it's most likely that there will be hundreds of competitive / innovative startups took the sign of this.
jot 15y ago
It'll likely be considerably more in future rounds. The goal is to fund 1000 over three years and we're almost a year in already. Start-Up Chile is the closest I've seen to anyone trying to implement what you described in: http://paulgraham.com/maybe.html http://paulgraham.com/maybe.html I was funded in the last round of ~80 startups. Experiencing it first hand I think they're well on way to creating a startup hub. The only thing holding them back is bureaucracy that comes with the government funding. This leaves many teams spending too much time worrying about the process rather than their startup.
nirvana 15y ago
This evening, I realized that if we get in, effectively Chile will have hired me for 6 months to come there and help local entrepreneurs, and is paying me less than a third what I'd make in any american city as a programmer. Really, its even less because the $40k would be shared with my 2 co-founders. I've been working at startups, and starting businesses for 20 years... I think they got me as a consultant cheap! I really don't mind at all, of course. I think it is a great program and a great country. Many years ago I visited Santiago Chile on a vacation, and I couldn't help but feel like the culture was very "capitalist" at the time. Rather than the beggars you might find in many countries, the kids were selling coke or cigarettes, etc. The cabbie we met at the airport was efficient, dedicated, responsive, and ended up providing all the rides we needed the whole trip. If there's any people who are primed for the transition to a vibrant entrepreneurial culture, I think they are it. But, $40k for at least one entrepreneur to come and spend 6 months meeting with local entrepreneurs seems reasonable, and if any of the companies are successful, that's a big bonus.

by pg 15y ago

oguz 15y ago

Given our experience for the first two months with Start-Up Chile, I couldn't be more agreed with that. It's not directly competing with TS or YC and maybe startups like Heroku, Sendgrid, Airbnb and Dropbox are never going to come directly from there but at the end of the experiment, it's most likely that there will be hundreds of competitive / innovative startups took the sign of this.

jot 15y ago

It'll likely be considerably more in future rounds. The goal is to fund 1000 over three years and we're almost a year in already. Start-Up Chile is the closest I've seen to anyone trying to implement what you described in: http://paulgraham.com/maybe.html http://paulgraham.com/maybe.html I was funded in the last round of ~80 startups. Experiencing it first hand I think they're well on way to creating a startup hub. The only thing holding them back is bureaucracy that comes with the government funding. This leaves many teams spending too much time worrying about the process rather than their startup.

nirvana 15y ago

This evening, I realized that if we get in, effectively Chile will have hired me for 6 months to come there and help local entrepreneurs, and is paying me less than a third what I'd make in any american city as a programmer. Really, its even less because the $40k would be shared with my 2 co-founders. I've been working at startups, and starting businesses for 20 years... I think they got me as a consultant cheap! I really don't mind at all, of course. I think it is a great program and a great country. Many years ago I visited Santiago Chile on a vacation, and I couldn't help but feel like the culture was very "capitalist" at the time. Rather than the beggars you might find in many countries, the kids were selling coke or cigarettes, etc. The cabbie we met at the airport was efficient, dedicated, responsive, and ended up providing all the rides we needed the whole trip. If there's any people who are primed for the transition to a vibrant entrepreneurial culture, I think they are it. But, $40k for at least one entrepreneur to come and spend 6 months meeting with local entrepreneurs seems reasonable, and if any of the companies are successful, that's a big bonus.