6 ms·

How Medellín reinvented itself as a tech hub

52 points by chrismealy 12y ago

beamatronic 12y ago
I thought this was going to be an article about Washington, DC
chulk90 12y ago
I just came back from Medellin this week (Monday), and I wouldn't say that Medellin is a tech hub or will be one any time soon. I think the most important reason against it is the Internet. It's hard to find even the average U.S. city Internet speed here. Additionally, you won't be able to carry your laptop around the city because there is no concept of "hot spots" (The only "public" hot spot is the Juan Valdez Cafe, which is the Colombian equivalent of Starbucks). Another major reason is that nearly no one speaks English. If you want to get by, you MUST know how to speak Spanish. This is a huge hurdle, knowing that English is the de facto technology, hacker language.
- mhoad 12y ago
  I was loosely playing around with the idea of checking the place out at some point over the next 12-24 months so this kind of advice is much appreciated.
- mamcx 12y ago
  > Additionally, you won't be able to carry your laptop around the city because there is no concept of "hot spots" I live here. And my brother travel all around the city, so if in USA you can get wifi free everywhere then this is true, otherwise we don't see that get internet acces is difficult at all..
  - ivanca 12y ago
    "Hot spot" is not data plan, is using real WiFi to get work done specially in coffee shops. But not even "Juan Valdez" here in Colombia has power sockets available for customers to use; while most of them in USA (at least in California) are filled with them. I lived in the US for some months, and then I tried to keep working on coffee shops when I came back here, but in Bogota is just not possible. The most similar thing is working from libraries, but you can't eat nor drink on those so it's very inconvenient.
  - brerlapn 12y ago
    Free wifi is likely less available there than we are used to in the US. I went to Europe last year for vacation and it was hard to find free wifi, too. I almost got stranded in Denmark one day because my credit card didn't work in Europe (no smartchip), and I had counted on using wifi to contact the person I was staying with. Every place in the US that I use for free wifi was charging for it in Europe, and even then it was harder to find paid wifi hotspots than back here in the US. In the US, you can get free wifi at any Starbucks, McDonald's, public library, most coffee shops, a lot of restaurants--we have come to expect it to be in a lot of places. When traveling, only hotels that are aimed at business travelers charge for wifi in the room (because business travelers aren't paying for any of it and thus don't care about the added cost for wifi)--the cheaper hotels offer it for free. When the OP complained about not having hot spots in Medellin, that's the expectation he's got--and he'd probably make the same complaint about Sweden, Denmark, or Switzerland (I know I did). EDIT: On review, basically what Ivanca said.
    - _delirium 12y ago
      It should definitely not be hard to find wifi in Denmark. The biggest coffee chain (Baresso) has wifi at all locations that isn't even passworded, and most smaller cafes have a hotspot with a password (in Copenhagen at least, working in coffee shops on laptops is very common). There is also wifi at public libraries, on the buses, on the commuter rail, in malls, at museums, etc. And in Sweden, every 7-11 has wifi, which means that hotspots are almost literally everywhere. I doubt you could walk more than a few blocks in Copenhagen or Stockholm without hitting free wireless.
      - brerlapn 12y ago
        Ah, well I wasn't trying to throw any stones at Denmark or Sweden. My point, probably phrased with too many words, was just that nobody would go to Denmark expecting chickens in the street or no civilization, but wifi just wasn't as available as I'm used to in the US there, either. (It was free at 7-11 in Denmark, too, although only for 10 minutes--that was still long enough to save me from spending a long afternoon at the train station in Aarhus.)
- jeromegv 12y ago
  I spent 3 weeks there and there was multiple areas with free wifi in the Poblado and the malls, I don't think it's any less prevalent than in the US or Canada. I was definitely carrying my laptop around for that. But I would say the issue with carrying your laptop is more around security. The city is much better than before, like those stories tell you, but I still don't feel secure like I would in North America so for me I felt a bit worried carrying my laptop around.
- smoe 12y ago
  I've spent the last 4 months working from Medellin and 10 months in total from various places in Colombia. It's not a tech hotspot as the article might suggest with cafes full of people sipping latte and working on the next big thing, but nonetheless an amazing city to live and work in. Personally, I'd prefer Medellin and Bogota over many "western" cities, but it really comes down to what you're expecting and requiring. Getting Wifi is not that big a problem in my experience, power sockets are though. But i prefer to work outside in the backyard of the hostel, so that wasn't a problem for me. Most of the people in tech or arts I met spoke english quite well. But if you really want to enjoy a country, you have to be willing to learn the language. And spanish is among the easier ones in my opinion.
- objclxt 12y ago
  > you won't be able to carry your laptop around the city because there is no concept of "hot spots" As a white European, I wouldn't carry my laptop around many parts of Medellin full stop! I ended up going to Medellin for a bit to oversee some outsourcing back in 2012. We outsourced because one of the co-founders of the company had moved their and set up his own offshore team. To their credit: * The team in Medellin were smart and capable * The quality of the product was no worse than any other offshore work we'd done elsewhere (conversely, it was no better either) * I never felt particularly unsafe, although you needed to take standard precautions I agree with you that nobody speaks English, and my Spanish is appalling. I found that quite hard. That said, all of the team I was working with had excellent English skills: from what I can tell, most engineers did. The biggest problem I had was around the availability of current technology. I would imagine this has changed a lot since I was there in 2012, but smartphones were not hugely prevalent, and as you mention, internet speeds were somewhat slow. For me, it wasn't a real success, but only because the experience and the final product was no better than outsourcing elsewhere. I loved working with the team (I imagine they'll probably come here and read this, so hi guys!), and I was somewhat sad it wasn't as a resounding success as I'd have hoped. Like you, I definitely wouldn't have called Medellin a tech hub, although I would hope it's come a long way even in the two years since I was last there.
- _broody 12y ago
  Your argument is basically "It's not exactly like California". In general, in Latin America, internet access is slower but like all sevices, a lot cheaper than the US, and phone carriers still can afford to offer unlimited 3G plans so people use that instead of wifi. Spanish as a native language isn't a disadvantage -basically every single developer or indeed any techie in the world knows english anyways.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
  Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn for a native English speaker.
mamcx 12y ago
I live here. Medellin have a lot of "sleep" talent, but not significant investment or "cool" job opportunities. The government have a "face" for be a tech hub, but fall very short. And despite the good intentions of some people I have know, barely pay attention to the community neither apply real steps to push harder. For example, I win one of the contest for tech startups among more than 1000 (or 2000? I don't remember) and the prize was US 2.000 aprox (with absurd restrictions: I only can use it for buy presentation cards, brochures and similars! And I get the full restriction only after the win!), with TONS OF USELESS "support" (ie: A lot of the money supposedly for impulse the startup machinery is for the consultants that provide "support" and "assistance"). For example, all the programs I have tried demand half-time for be in the "consultan support thing-y". For 6 MONTHS or more. All for the promise to travel to silicon valley, and meet some investors. So, is like when the vice-president of the SENA (the main tech-jobs-formation institution in the country) say to us (aka: a dozen of the "most promising founders back them) "We have US 5 millons to support yours" and NONE of us get more than a place to code and that was all. That is the bad. Sorry for the rant (I have tried for more than 4 years several things before quit) --- The GOOD: Medellin have become a very good place for turist and we have a lot of visits for all over the world, with the obvious USA/Australia/Europeans plus Chinese and others. The internet and related stuff is good. Not asian-amazing but for my understanding, far better than in USA. A LOT of internet penetration, more than in other latin-america countries. A lot of untaped potential. However, is hard to build a startup: The idea of not get money for months is something very few can do it (And I mean: can. Is not about want or desire). I'm lucky doing alone, but honestly I'm too relaxed than most ;), however, convince others to join me (and others startups) is very hard. Except if you promise a classic job arrangement, that is.. So is my belief than the one that get here a be ycombinator-alike will have a blast, because we don't have any significant player, like for example, a kind of google/famous startup where everyone wanna work. Not even the financial industry or any other that is the "obvious" place to get employment. So, among big companies, small groups of >5 developers are not uncommon. Others good things: - Medellin is considered the best city to live in the country. And that was true even in the times of the terrorist bombings! - Not to hot, not to cold. Great food. Not to big, all the modern stuff is here. Good public transportation. - Ultra-safe water supply. You can drink from the tap. People are nice in general, and with foreigners even more. Not many of use know english well (as you can infer from my writing!) but is not hard to find qualified translators (my brother not only do english, also Chinese, so I know this from first hand), and around the city is becoming more and more common to have signs in both spanish/english. So, I think the city is in the moment were the potential is there, and things are becoming more and more aligned, so is the moment to create things!
baristaGeek 12y ago
I am from Medellin and eventhough I am not living here anymore, I come every vacation period to visit my family. Things have definitely changed for good and the city is becoming an important economic hotspot for LatAm, a product of that is the enhancement of the tech scene off course. The government is financing entrepreneurial acts through non-profits, specially those that are tech-focused; the city has been a national art epicenter for a long time (which correlates strongly with entrepreneurial mindset) and the 2 public universities in the city are great. Internet penetration in the country is exponentially increasing (pretty much everyone in the major cities has a connection); pretigious accelerators such as Socialatom Ventures exist and the country has examples of tech companies that are targeting global markets such as Koombea in Barranquilla and Authy (YC S12) and Bunny Inc in Bogota. However, the deepest problem right now is our mentality. VC firms here are only interested in investing in copy cats, they just wanna play it safe and replicate what has worked in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv. In addition to that there's a really small amount of people interested in computer programming, or having the rule-breaking mentality that renowed personalities such as Paul Graham remark the importance of. Things have definitely improoved, but we are really far away of making everyone "move here".
- mamcx 12y ago
  Not much different to others parts of the world, methinks.
yc1010 12y ago
Maybe I am being over critical/skeptical but tech companies could be a great way to launder money for organized crime in that part of the world.
- mamcx 12y ago
  Nope! That is what I say with untapped potential. We are not even targets for them! Corruption is the most big problem, and yes, contracts with governments and big companies still rely too much in "I know you, you know me, where is my 'commission'?"; but, the developer is not a "high class" worker in the way is it in the Silicon valley. Programing is still see as "the thing that nerds do to make computers run", so we are not high on the list of things that make shady actors huge money. ---- A big problem is get quality investors. Not get money: I have several offers among this years, but from people with a lot of money but no understanding of tech, or the assumption that investment in a startup entitled them to become the boss and get 50% or more on it. Not many get in that bad terms, so that is another reason the "shady actors" are some few connected companies but not more. The rest of us are in the shadow, working hard and not getting in troubles.
  - yc1010 12y ago
    I wasnt talking about making money, but cleaning dirty money, different things.
digi_owl 12y ago
I guess i'll never wrap my head around the idea of working out of a coffee shop...

52 points by chrismealy 12y ago

I thought this was going to be an article about Washington, DC

I just came back from Medellin this week (Monday), and I wouldn't say that Medellin is a tech hub or will be one any time soon. I think the most important reason against it is the Internet. It's hard to find even the average U.S. city Internet speed here. Additionally, you won't be able to carry your laptop around the city because there is no concept of "hot spots" (The only "public" hot spot is the Juan Valdez Cafe, which is the Colombian equivalent of Starbucks). Another major reason is that nearly no one speaks English. If you want to get by, you MUST know how to speak Spanish. This is a huge hurdle, knowing that English is the de facto technology, hacker language.

mhoad 12y ago
I was loosely playing around with the idea of checking the place out at some point over the next 12-24 months so this kind of advice is much appreciated.
mamcx 12y ago
> Additionally, you won't be able to carry your laptop around the city because there is no concept of "hot spots" I live here. And my brother travel all around the city, so if in USA you can get wifi free everywhere then this is true, otherwise we don't see that get internet acces is difficult at all..
- ivanca 12y ago
  "Hot spot" is not data plan, is using real WiFi to get work done specially in coffee shops. But not even "Juan Valdez" here in Colombia has power sockets available for customers to use; while most of them in USA (at least in California) are filled with them. I lived in the US for some months, and then I tried to keep working on coffee shops when I came back here, but in Bogota is just not possible. The most similar thing is working from libraries, but you can't eat nor drink on those so it's very inconvenient.
- brerlapn 12y ago
  Free wifi is likely less available there than we are used to in the US. I went to Europe last year for vacation and it was hard to find free wifi, too. I almost got stranded in Denmark one day because my credit card didn't work in Europe (no smartchip), and I had counted on using wifi to contact the person I was staying with. Every place in the US that I use for free wifi was charging for it in Europe, and even then it was harder to find paid wifi hotspots than back here in the US. In the US, you can get free wifi at any Starbucks, McDonald's, public library, most coffee shops, a lot of restaurants--we have come to expect it to be in a lot of places. When traveling, only hotels that are aimed at business travelers charge for wifi in the room (because business travelers aren't paying for any of it and thus don't care about the added cost for wifi)--the cheaper hotels offer it for free. When the OP complained about not having hot spots in Medellin, that's the expectation he's got--and he'd probably make the same complaint about Sweden, Denmark, or Switzerland (I know I did). EDIT: On review, basically what Ivanca said.
  - _delirium 12y ago
    It should definitely not be hard to find wifi in Denmark. The biggest coffee chain (Baresso) has wifi at all locations that isn't even passworded, and most smaller cafes have a hotspot with a password (in Copenhagen at least, working in coffee shops on laptops is very common). There is also wifi at public libraries, on the buses, on the commuter rail, in malls, at museums, etc. And in Sweden, every 7-11 has wifi, which means that hotspots are almost literally everywhere. I doubt you could walk more than a few blocks in Copenhagen or Stockholm without hitting free wireless.
    - brerlapn 12y ago
      Ah, well I wasn't trying to throw any stones at Denmark or Sweden. My point, probably phrased with too many words, was just that nobody would go to Denmark expecting chickens in the street or no civilization, but wifi just wasn't as available as I'm used to in the US there, either. (It was free at 7-11 in Denmark, too, although only for 10 minutes--that was still long enough to save me from spending a long afternoon at the train station in Aarhus.)
jeromegv 12y ago
I spent 3 weeks there and there was multiple areas with free wifi in the Poblado and the malls, I don't think it's any less prevalent than in the US or Canada. I was definitely carrying my laptop around for that. But I would say the issue with carrying your laptop is more around security. The city is much better than before, like those stories tell you, but I still don't feel secure like I would in North America so for me I felt a bit worried carrying my laptop around.
smoe 12y ago
I've spent the last 4 months working from Medellin and 10 months in total from various places in Colombia. It's not a tech hotspot as the article might suggest with cafes full of people sipping latte and working on the next big thing, but nonetheless an amazing city to live and work in. Personally, I'd prefer Medellin and Bogota over many "western" cities, but it really comes down to what you're expecting and requiring. Getting Wifi is not that big a problem in my experience, power sockets are though. But i prefer to work outside in the backyard of the hostel, so that wasn't a problem for me. Most of the people in tech or arts I met spoke english quite well. But if you really want to enjoy a country, you have to be willing to learn the language. And spanish is among the easier ones in my opinion.
objclxt 12y ago
> you won't be able to carry your laptop around the city because there is no concept of "hot spots" As a white European, I wouldn't carry my laptop around many parts of Medellin full stop! I ended up going to Medellin for a bit to oversee some outsourcing back in 2012. We outsourced because one of the co-founders of the company had moved their and set up his own offshore team. To their credit: * The team in Medellin were smart and capable * The quality of the product was no worse than any other offshore work we'd done elsewhere (conversely, it was no better either) * I never felt particularly unsafe, although you needed to take standard precautions I agree with you that nobody speaks English, and my Spanish is appalling. I found that quite hard. That said, all of the team I was working with had excellent English skills: from what I can tell, most engineers did. The biggest problem I had was around the availability of current technology. I would imagine this has changed a lot since I was there in 2012, but smartphones were not hugely prevalent, and as you mention, internet speeds were somewhat slow. For me, it wasn't a real success, but only because the experience and the final product was no better than outsourcing elsewhere. I loved working with the team (I imagine they'll probably come here and read this, so hi guys!), and I was somewhat sad it wasn't as a resounding success as I'd have hoped. Like you, I definitely wouldn't have called Medellin a tech hub, although I would hope it's come a long way even in the two years since I was last there.
_broody 12y ago
Your argument is basically "It's not exactly like California". In general, in Latin America, internet access is slower but like all sevices, a lot cheaper than the US, and phone carriers still can afford to offer unlimited 3G plans so people use that instead of wifi. Spanish as a native language isn't a disadvantage -basically every single developer or indeed any techie in the world knows english anyways.
GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn for a native English speaker.

mamcx 12y ago

I live here. Medellin have a lot of "sleep" talent, but not significant investment or "cool" job opportunities. The government have a "face" for be a tech hub, but fall very short. And despite the good intentions of some people I have know, barely pay attention to the community neither apply real steps to push harder. For example, I win one of the contest for tech startups among more than 1000 (or 2000? I don't remember) and the prize was US 2.000 aprox (with absurd restrictions: I only can use it for buy presentation cards, brochures and similars! And I get the full restriction only after the win!), with TONS OF USELESS "support" (ie: A lot of the money supposedly for impulse the startup machinery is for the consultants that provide "support" and "assistance"). For example, all the programs I have tried demand half-time for be in the "consultan support thing-y". For 6 MONTHS or more. All for the promise to travel to silicon valley, and meet some investors. So, is like when the vice-president of the SENA (the main tech-jobs-formation institution in the country) say to us (aka: a dozen of the "most promising founders back them) "We have US 5 millons to support yours" and NONE of us get more than a place to code and that was all. That is the bad. Sorry for the rant (I have tried for more than 4 years several things before quit) --- The GOOD: Medellin have become a very good place for turist and we have a lot of visits for all over the world, with the obvious USA/Australia/Europeans plus Chinese and others. The internet and related stuff is good. Not asian-amazing but for my understanding, far better than in USA. A LOT of internet penetration, more than in other latin-america countries. A lot of untaped potential. However, is hard to build a startup: The idea of not get money for months is something very few can do it (And I mean: can. Is not about want or desire). I'm lucky doing alone, but honestly I'm too relaxed than most ;), however, convince others to join me (and others startups) is very hard. Except if you promise a classic job arrangement, that is.. So is my belief than the one that get here a be ycombinator-alike will have a blast, because we don't have any significant player, like for example, a kind of google/famous startup where everyone wanna work. Not even the financial industry or any other that is the "obvious" place to get employment. So, among big companies, small groups of >5 developers are not uncommon. Others good things: - Medellin is considered the best city to live in the country. And that was true even in the times of the terrorist bombings! - Not to hot, not to cold. Great food. Not to big, all the modern stuff is here. Good public transportation. - Ultra-safe water supply. You can drink from the tap. People are nice in general, and with foreigners even more. Not many of use know english well (as you can infer from my writing!) but is not hard to find qualified translators (my brother not only do english, also Chinese, so I know this from first hand), and around the city is becoming more and more common to have signs in both spanish/english. So, I think the city is in the moment were the potential is there, and things are becoming more and more aligned, so is the moment to create things!

baristaGeek 12y ago

I am from Medellin and eventhough I am not living here anymore, I come every vacation period to visit my family. Things have definitely changed for good and the city is becoming an important economic hotspot for LatAm, a product of that is the enhancement of the tech scene off course. The government is financing entrepreneurial acts through non-profits, specially those that are tech-focused; the city has been a national art epicenter for a long time (which correlates strongly with entrepreneurial mindset) and the 2 public universities in the city are great. Internet penetration in the country is exponentially increasing (pretty much everyone in the major cities has a connection); pretigious accelerators such as Socialatom Ventures exist and the country has examples of tech companies that are targeting global markets such as Koombea in Barranquilla and Authy (YC S12) and Bunny Inc in Bogota. However, the deepest problem right now is our mentality. VC firms here are only interested in investing in copy cats, they just wanna play it safe and replicate what has worked in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv. In addition to that there's a really small amount of people interested in computer programming, or having the rule-breaking mentality that renowed personalities such as Paul Graham remark the importance of. Things have definitely improoved, but we are really far away of making everyone "move here".

mamcx 12y ago
Not much different to others parts of the world, methinks.

yc1010 12y ago

Maybe I am being over critical/skeptical but tech companies could be a great way to launder money for organized crime in that part of the world.

mamcx 12y ago
Nope! That is what I say with untapped potential. We are not even targets for them! Corruption is the most big problem, and yes, contracts with governments and big companies still rely too much in "I know you, you know me, where is my 'commission'?"; but, the developer is not a "high class" worker in the way is it in the Silicon valley. Programing is still see as "the thing that nerds do to make computers run", so we are not high on the list of things that make shady actors huge money. ---- A big problem is get quality investors. Not get money: I have several offers among this years, but from people with a lot of money but no understanding of tech, or the assumption that investment in a startup entitled them to become the boss and get 50% or more on it. Not many get in that bad terms, so that is another reason the "shady actors" are some few connected companies but not more. The rest of us are in the shadow, working hard and not getting in troubles.
- yc1010 12y ago
  I wasnt talking about making money, but cleaning dirty money, different things.

digi_owl 12y ago

I guess i'll never wrap my head around the idea of working out of a coffee shop...