
How Medellín reinvented itself as a tech hub - chrismealy
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/02/lets_all_move_to_medellin_how_a_once_terrifying_drug_city_reinvented_itself_as_a_tech_hub/
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chulk90
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.

~~~
mamcx
> 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..

~~~
brerlapn
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
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
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.)

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baristaGeek
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
Not much different to others parts of the world, methinks.

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mamcx
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!

~~~
emeraldnext
Coming from a first world country, I've never registered clean water as a
significant contributor to quality of life.

Thank you for the interesting perspective, I wish you good luck with your
short term endeavours.

~~~
graeme
Safe tap water is far from universal. I was just in rio and most households
use filters as the public supply is not safe.

~~~
foobarian
Even in the US, such as in my town in Massachusetts, tap water--though safe to
drink due to chlorination--is quite disgusting due to high levels of minerals
from well water. First world problems right?

~~~
rwallace
Well, that's subjective. When I was in Canada, the local water supply
contained a lot of minerals. Some of the locals disliked the taste for that
reason, but I positively enjoyed it. Certainly not in the same category as
microbial contamination.

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

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yc1010
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
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
I wasnt talking about making money, but cleaning dirty money, different
things.

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

