

Start-Up Chile: $40k to Live There and Start a Company - dsplittgerber
http://ben.casnocha.com/2010/08/start-up-chile-40k-to-live-there-and-start-a-company.html

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ccarpenterg
I'm a chilean entrepreneur and I'm looking for a cofounder. I'm solving graph
and scheduling problems for some transport industry. BFS, DFS, Dijkstra,
timetables, etc.

We could take advantage of this initiative and get those $40k.

I just updated my profile. ($2k a month is enough to not starve).

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TheEzEzz
Enough not to starve?! I'm living in Santa Barbara, California, which is very
expensive by the average American standard, and two people can get by here
fairly comfortably with $2K.

What's the price of living like in Santiago? More importantly, if the real
perk is money and lower cost of living... I could just move to Kansas and rent
a room for $200 a month.

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ccarpenterg
The real perk are those $40k. I'm living with $350 a month (cost living + food
+ rent). I'm including the living costs, rent, food, servers, travels,
services, etc. in those $2k.

But you can make it with $350 anyway. I agree with Ben that isolation is the
biggest downside of Chile and the lack of this kind of entrepreneurship (I
mean Hacker News and Y Combinator style), but if you just need to focus on
your first prototype I think it's a good deal.

EDIT: But if you are in the stage of looking for investment (Angel, VC, Y
Combinator) and getting some press coverage it would be like a suicide.

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sounddust
Just curious, could you tell us what the following would cost in Santiago?

    
    
      - A 50 sq m apartment in a central location on the 2nd or higher floor 
         (including electricity/water/garbage service)
      - An unlimited 1-month transportation pass
      - Groceries for 5 days for one person, assuming you're making breakfast/lunch/dinner
      - One beer in a bar. 
      - A pair of Levi's 501 jeans
      - A taxi across town
      - Dinner in a decent restaurant
      - 1 month of high-speed internet access

~~~
ccarpenterg
Average costs:

\- Apartment: $320 - $420

\- Transportation cost: $100 - $180 (30 days)

\- Grocery: $20 - $45

\- Very good beer: $3,60

\- Jeans: $50 - $75

\- Taxi: $10

\- Dinner: $20

\- Internet access: $80 (Cable, Telephone, Internet)

~~~
tedkimble
What "very good" beers do you like in Chile?

I was there recently and found the beers rather disappointing. The wine,
however, was superb!

~~~
ccarpenterg
Kunstmann (Torobayo) and Austral (Yagan).

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lazyjeff
Did anyone notice that 1) they are reimbursing you 90% of your startup budget
rather than giving $40k cash money, and 2) you have to put in the other 10%
which is 4k.

I don't know if you can just budget $44k as salary but I highly doubt it.

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fierarul
It's a contest basically, not a state-wide support program:

>The pilot program will select 25 entrepreneurs and offer them a 1-yr resident
visa, a USD 40k grant to cover expenses for six months and local network and
support.

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MSWizard
New post on Techcrunch about Chile "Chop-Shop Workers and Bootstrappers: Chile
Really Wants You"

[http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/21/chop-shop-workers-and-
boots...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/21/chop-shop-workers-and-
bootstrappers-chile-really-wants-you/)

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heyadayo
I didn't see the time frame for the program -- did anyone catch this?

