

I am starting a company in Chile - wslh
http://amix.dk/blog/post/19617

======
smoody
_"each startup receives $40.000 USD subsidy (no equity). This is a huge deal
for me as you usually have to give a lot of equity in seed rounds for relative
small amounts of capital. With this program you don't give away any equity,
which should make most founders happy ;-)"_

it's not a bad deal but you're completely missing the point of taking money
from american or european 'bootstrap' companies: it's about the connections,
the press, bonding with a group of entrepreneurs who will eventually become
captains of industry, etc.

i would argue that companies that launch via YCombinator are also getting
their money for free because, on launch day, their valuations go up more than
the percentage paul et al. takes.

as for living in Chile for a while... i'm all for that!

~~~
alabut
" _it's not a bad deal but you're completely missing the point of taking money
from american or european 'bootstrap' companies_ "

Maybe. But they're not mutually exclusive and maybe the Chilean fund even
helps with the startup incubators, because you can apply to something like YC
or Techstars afterwards if you still have 100% equity to give away. Plus the
good programs have gotten so competitive that it's harder to get in with just
an idea, it's better to show traction and customer validation first.

As someone that interviewed for YC this week and didn't make it in, I can say
that going to the Chilean program appeals to me for exactly those reasons,
since I'd be able to reapply to YC after having worked on my project
(stacyplease.com) full-time rather than continuing to burn nights and
weekends.

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nraynaud
That sounds really interesting. I've lived in Argentina for 6 Months, next to
the Chilean border, and now I'm really wondering if I shouldn't move to Chile
instead of boring myself to death here in France.

Many of my Argentine friends in the IT field moved to Chile too. But almost
everything IT is connected copper mining there (at various degrees), and I'm
not sure it that interesting.

~~~
nico
Have you even come to Chile? You should either come or read more, because even
though the mining industry is huge, by no means everything IT is related to
mining. There's a very healthy and continuously growing
startup/entrepreneurship community, with big organizations pushing to help
them along, including the government, with programs like Startup Chile. BTW,
GoaP is coming to Chile next week:
<http://geeksonaplane.com/destinations/santiago/> (I'll be participating in
some of those activities).

~~~
nraynaud
I spent 2 week-end there (Valparaiso and Santiago), so I'm not really
informed. But all my friends who emigrated from Argentina to Chile (that's 5
people) are now working at service companies related to the mining industry.

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BrophyWorld
Start-Up Chile started 9 months ago and Junar is the only one of 23 companies
that has attracted investment, and it is an Argentine company. No entrepreneur
from the USA has been successful.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations try to solve
problems by identifying a specific point of intervention and applying their
efforts against a theory of change. Unfortunately, Start-Up Chile refuses to
identify a specific point of intervention, as Steve Blank advised after his
visit to Chile last December:

    
    
        My sense is that Chile has not yet “declared a major.” Saying that you support entrepreneurship and innovation is a start, but the sentence needs to be finished. Entrepreneurship and innovation in what field? …. alternative energy? materials science? food science? cellulose outputs? video games and film? South American web commerce hub? automated mining? UAV’s?
    

Start-Up Chile lacks focus and rejects Steve Blank:

    
    
        We accept projects from all business scopes ranging from biotech to energy to mobile and beyond. Throughout the 2010 pilot phase, there have been a number of Start-Up Chile participants who exemplify the diversity that the program strives to seek.
    

The second part of the Gates Foundation principle, applying efforts against a
theory of change, implies that the government should justify intervention into
a healthy free market by identifying the supposed “market failure”; in other
words, telling a story that describes a process in which the intervention will
be phased out and the free market revives. More:
<http://brophyworld.com/startup-companies-in-chile/>

~~~
plamb
Curious as to what you mean by successful. Are you saying the 22 other
startups declared failure/died? Are you talking about attracting investment in
Latin America? I'm guessing a lot of those companies came back to the US to
search here.

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nischalshetty
All the best. Wedoist looks useful. We too got selected. Hope to see you there
:) I considered plurk to be one of the coolest things around the time when I
started using it. For reasons unknown I stopped using it later. But lots of
respect to you, would be a pleasure to meet you and work in the same work
space as you!

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andreshb
That's great! I lived in Chile for six months in 2009 and loved it. Startup
community there is thriving too.

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ccarpenterg
Well I'm chilean and I don't want to be rude but if you've got those $40k USD
for Wedoist I think the government is dilapidating our money.

~~~
andrewcooke
I'm not Chilean, but I live here and I've discussed this with Chileans and
people abroad. First, the money is not that much (especially for people from
richer countries). Second, the idea is not that they are buying a company, but
that they are bootstrapping an attitude. And I think that is working. Look at
startechconf, dynlangchile, huevapi, first tuesday, etc etc...

PS Are you guys here? Drop me an email when you arrive if you need anything
(andrew@acooke.org) although I am not well-connected here it's always nice to
chat in English (I'm a programmer - work from home for an American
company...).

~~~
nico
I'm chilean, and I very much agree with you. I'm not sure about the strength
or real impact in the long run, since this depends on the government and
government changes every 4 years. In any case, I think it's a great initiative
and would never say they are wasting our money.

PS: I'm the founder of a chilean startup, I have a few contacts here and
there, and would love to keep connecting with other hackers and startup
enthusiasts. My contact info is in my profile.

------
rycs
I'm chilean, working from home for american clients, I have never been really
interested in the local startup scene because, well, there was nothing of that
a few years ago really, but things are changing and I'm glad we now have this
initiatives and we're slowly starting to attract talent! we got the
infrastructure but what we really need is to attract foreign talent /
entrepreneurs, and to _keep_ good local talent. I wish you the best!

~~~
andrewcooke
does HN do meetups? there seem to be a few people here from santiago - we
could meet for a meal or drink some time? posting to here because you don't
have any contact info in your profile :o)

~~~
rycs
hey Andrew, I'm not aware of specific HN meetups in the area but I'll be glad
to join you for a meal or drink, I have updated my contact info and going to
reach you over email, I'm not in Santiago because I love Viña del Mar ;) but
we are just a bus ride away and I do have go hit Santiago in 2 weeks anyway :)

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vlokshin
Why the US hasn't done this on a 1000x bankroll (1.2 Bill) is absolutely
beyond me....

~~~
jdminhbg
The US doesn't need to monetarily attract new startups, it just needs to get
the visa/immigration nightmare the hell out of the way.

~~~
vlokshin
I completely agree on your point regarding the visa/immigration BS. Some of
the best talent I work with is from south america or eastern Europe. They are
ALL in this boat, and it's heartbreaking to see (and makes me feel like I have
something I shouldn't, when a lot of these people are just more talented than
I).

The US does need to monetarily attract new start-ups.

Our brightest minds are still going to the IB/PE firms of NYC and sucking
money out of a zero-sum system instead of creating something worthwhile. Give
them incentive to create (in terms of personal cash reward) in the same way
the banks do, and you have something.

~~~
davidw
Spending a few billions on startups (who would spend it?) would not alter the
long term balance between startups and wall street.

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zemariamm
Hey Amir! Congrats :D I too was selected (heading in June like you) -> search
for ez4u (portugal) in the pdf file :D we should keep in touch: twitter:
@zemariamm, email zemariamm at gmail dot com

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nikcub
Congratulations and good luck

Just one point of feedback - can you add an about page to the site with
company info, bios etc? I looked for it and couldn't find it

~~~
amix
Like noted in the blog post Wedoist has been something I have worked on in my
spare time... Hence the lack of company info, bios etc. :)

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mahyarm
I looked into Chile, but it's a surprisingly high tax place. It seems higher
than even Canada in all measures.

~~~
andrewcooke
for real? i pay 10% of what i receive (income) each month and get a chunk back
at the end of the year. there's also a sales tax. and that's it.

~~~
mahyarm
So if you made $200k annually you would still pay the same %10? (I'm trying to
find out the practical upper limits.). I based the higher taxation on the %20
payroll tax, but if the limit are low then it doesn't do much it seems. Also
when I read the somewhat confusing tax document, there are pretty nasty taxes
for foreign income and such, which would seem to apply for expats.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_around_the_world>
[http://www.sii.cl/aprenda_sobre_impuestos/estudios/sistemren...](http://www.sii.cl/aprenda_sobre_impuestos/estudios/sistemrenta_ingles.htm)

~~~
andrewcooke
as far as i can tell the numbers in wikipedia are completely off: the "10%
pension" is (1) still your money (it's a personal fund, not a social security
system); (2) capped at $300 a month; and (3) completely _optional_ if you're
self-employed; i pay less than $100 for _optional_ health insurance monthly
(no idea where 7% comes from).

also, your link to sii doesn't work, but my understanding is that if you are
paid from abroad and it's wired to you each month, and you convert it to pesos
locally, it's just income and charged at the same rate as any other income.

in general the tax system is very transparent and open - it's easy to be self
employed and you just pay 10% monthly as i described. at the end of the year
chilean banks declare your interest etc etc, you get a web page that lists
everything that you click "ok" on, and then you get a refund.

i have no idea about $200,000 a year salaries. i am just describing normal
life working for an american company as a contractor (ie self employed from
the chilean pov). frankly, if you earn that much, or you're looking for some
kind of tax haven, pay someone for some advice instead of reciting stuff from
wikipedia that you don't have the context to understand.

~~~
andrewcooke
[both pension and health fund are private, in case that wasn't clear]

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pclark
What are living costs like in Chile?

~~~
andrewcooke
There's a post on Quora by someone who shall remain anonymous that goes into
this in some detail: [https://www.quora.com/Hows-life-in-Santiago-
Chile/answers/80...](https://www.quora.com/Hows-life-in-Santiago-
Chile/answers/80206)

~~~
ccarpenterg
I'm chilean but I'm also an anglo-celt so I can say that's a very accurate
description of how is life in Santiago of Chile. I encourage you to read it.

------
Apocryphon
How does Brazil compare to Chile for startup environment?

