
Flip-side of Startup Chile - maxxttor
https://medium.com/@maxxttor/flip-side-of-startup-chile-d8154887de35
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alphydan
He's surprised that you actually have to do something in order to get free
money? And that tax payers require transparency about how it's spent?

I was part of Startup Chile and got into a VC run accelerator in the US, and
bureaucracy in the US was much worse (Lawyers and accountants required for
everything, incorporation as C-corp as a pre-condition, immigration
acrobatics, etc). He may change his opinion if he has to move to a US
accelerator with a $40k - $50k investment (just icing, as dashr rightly points
out).

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bramjans
Very much this.

I was also part of Startup Chile (8th gen) and the demands of the program were
very reasonable. Gaining the RVA points to foster the community was really a
small price to pay for basically "free money".

The transparency into spendings was very understandable and additionally
largely due to some pretty shameless abuses in previous generations.

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dashr
Dont depend on the grant money to run your business, treat it like icing on
the cake. the money is more of a reimbursement than upfront cash. Grow from
sales.

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rdl
I'm incredibly suspicious of any "government affiliated" startup programs. As
far as I can tell, they universally suck (Startup Chile is the least bad).

They have growing "compliance requirements" class over class, most of which
are irrelevant. While I appreciate that money is in short supply in an early
stage startup, founder time is, too -- so wasting time of founders is absurd.

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toomanybeersies
New Zealand has Callaghan Innovation, who are a relatively bureaucracy-free
grant provider. They're very fond of paying companies to take on interns for
projects, which is good for the company, and good for training up developers.

[0]
[https://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/](https://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/)

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progrocks9
I think one of the biggest problems is to find good local developers. I think
that the local market is very small and also not many locals are fluent in
english. Getonboard is a good place to start but maybe the startup program
should look at this training local students / devs for make them useful for
startup ecosystem.

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datawaslost
This guy doesn't seem to get what an 'accelerator' is besides a check. There
are some valid complaints about Chile's bureaucracy to be had, but he's not
making them..

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vincent_s
Thanks for the write-up. I guess bureaucracy is always the problem with public
funding.

What's your startup btw?

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smhg
The first paragraph mentions
[https://smartprogress.do/](https://smartprogress.do/). Or you mean something
else?

