4 ms·
To the program participants: are these 40000 USD meaningful for doing a startup there? Is it like living on noodles or better/worse?
by alexro 15y ago
To the program participants: are these 40000 USD meaningful for doing a startup there? Is it like living on noodles or better/worse?
- jot 15y agoAccommodation costs are low, housing allowance is enough to live in a modern apartment (often with a pool) for 6 months. Food costs are similar to Europe / US. If you do eat cheaply you'll have more personal cash to spend on other things / save to stretch out your stay.
- newyuppie 15y agoWe at @agentpiggy went from no product to version 1 for soft beta launch with that money, living comfortable enough and eating salad and chicken.
- decurated 15y agodecurate.com. If you're a 2 person team with development skills, the $40k will easily cover living expenses and product launch. You're capped at a salary of $750 each + $1200 for rent total (these were the limits for two members when we were there). We developed the site in 10 weeks and had a significant amount of money to invest in customer acquisition.
- IanOzsvald 15y agoI'll echo @jot, we're another UK team (Round 2, been here 8 weeks). The pricing is similar to Brighton back home (smaller than London on the south coast), we get a 2 bed very nice apartment for £850UKP equivalent (though we pay a £100 excess each for that, no pool here sadly either), our bills for cooker-gas/electric/internet are another £100/mo on top. We could have chosen more central, smaller and cheaper but we chose a nice/larger place. The Metro is roughly £1 per journey (bus/metro/both). Cell SIM is £20/month for HSDPA with a reasonable data limit. Food is similar to back home (lunch costs £10, evening meal £10-£30, supermarkets the same as home). Basically we get to live in a city for the cost of a small UK city which, for us, is quite a nice deal. Nobody else has complained about the amount of money (which comes for 0% equity), the problems are more around the govt. bureaucracy and the refund process which saps time. We jut got almost 100% of our requests first month reimbursements back at a time-cost of 1.5 days. At the end of the day we've got $20k USD to invest in people and $20k to live off here. Fine for MVP->launch (we're 3 weeks from alpha launch with http://strongsteam.com/ http://strongsteam.com/ ).
- corford 15y agoHi Ian - quick question that you might be able to answer (since you're currently out there!): do you happen to know what the policy is if a founder wants to take his non-business partner with him (i.e. long term gf or wife)? Is it something generally discouraged or is it fine if one covers the costs out of ones own pocket? Do you know of any team founders/members currently down there that have done this? Thanks! I had a skim through the FAQs on the startup chile site but couldn't find a direct answer.
- andrewcross 15y agoThere's at least a few people down here that have brought down their wife/gf. It doesn't seem to be viewed as a problem at all.
- corford 15y agoAwesome, thanks!
- jot 15y agoIt's fine (or at least has been to date). I know wives, girlfriends, husbands and boyfriends that have all been supported with identical 12 month work visas to founders but their costs are not covered so it'll be out of your own pocket. If you're a sole founder I recommend putting them on your application form as you'll be able to reimburse more for accommodation, salary, flights and visas which are probably your main costs.
- corford 15y agoThanks!