
Start-Up Chile - tswicegood
http://www.corfo.cl/startupchile/
======
nickpinkston
I studied in Chile, and it's a great country. The climate is similar to
California, the people are great and the cost of living is pretty low. You'll
need to know some Spanish to really get the most out of it, but most of the
wealthy speak okay English.

On the business side, if you look at Chile's consumer websites (used cars,
apartments, etc.) they're all pretty old-school 90's looking. There's
definitely room for local and South American innovation.

Likewise, local software education is a little old school overall. This means
that they need progressive devs and progressive devs can really benefit there.
I see this program as trying to use this synergy.

~~~
dimatura
What do you mean by old school?

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igorgue
<http://www.contactchile.cl/en/news-chile.php> :-)

~~~
dimatura
As in, the look and feel of the page isn't very Web 2.0? I agree, but I don't
think it has that much to do with the education itself, at least not the
programmer's education.

I was thinking something related to the fact that the best universities in
Chile don't have CS as a major - the most similar option is studying
engineering with a mention in informatics. And though there have been efforts
to shorten them, these majors are pretty long for American standards - at my
university engineering has been shortened from six years to five.

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deltapoint
This seems like a really cool opportunity for an entrepreneur who is looking
to be immersed in another culture.

Any HN readers thinking of applying?

~~~
rdl
I'd be interested in working from somewhere interesting (Germany, Chile, New
Zealand, etc.) for 6 months, but I'm not really that interested in being a
beta tester for a new government program. I also don't speak any Spanish.

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MSWizard
More interesting information about Chile:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1565375>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1570167>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1604896>

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bugsy
Even more so than the program itself which provides nominal funding is the
message this sends. Here is a country that welcomes entrepreneurs and will go
out of their way to make their country a good place to do business. Their
goals are also reasonable - they expect the company to do $100,000US in sales
once running. They are not expecting $20 million US out of the gate like the
fanciful schemes of other similar programs where those in power are
subsequently disappointed and embark on a program of confiscation.

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Spreadsheet
Chile seems like a really nice place in terms of geography. They have deserts,
mountains, glaciers, and a Mediterranean climate zone.

~~~
patrickaljord
And huge earthquakes.

Edit: for those downvoting
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Chile_earthquake>

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dimatura
Well, the trend has been for a large quake to hit every 10-15 years, so now is
the best time to come.

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al_
Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question but : are smartphones (
iPhone/Blackberry/Android...) popular in Chile ? It could be useful to know
for entrepreneurs targeting mobile products.

~~~
eccp
Chilean here. Smartphones are very popular already. Blackberries used to be
popular only among executives, and the first iPhones where very expensive, but
they're way more common nowadays. I don't have numbers, but I'd say that in
Chile the Blackberries and iPhones have the most of the market, in that order.

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wallflower
The program seems to be underway:

[http://startupchile.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/california-
star...](http://startupchile.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/california-startup-
weekend-valley-visits/)

"The next day we had a typical asado with other Chileans living in the Bay
Area, and meanwhile acquainted them with the first of the program’s selected
entrepreneurs: Israeli-born Stanford MBA Amit Aharoni, and Stanford Computer
Scientist Nicolas Meunier from France."

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ataggart
Are HN entrepreneurs really so willing to mooch off of the unwilling capital
of the Chilean taxpayers?

~~~
daleharvey
in exactly the same way yc companies "mooch off" ycombinator, of course they
are.

what is the basis of the "unwilling", has there been a backlash to this
program?

~~~
flatline
The original comment was snarky but it does raise a point. It sounds like
they're specifically targeting foreigners (English language, don't have to be
a Chilean native), so they must be betting that the increased exposure and
business opportunities from this will offset the potential for money to flow
out of country. Unfortunately, South American history favors outflow more than
increased opportunity. Then again, the startup world will undoubtedly be
better for this sort of thing than investment by large multinationals and
political cronies.

~~~
ataggart
It was not my intention to be snarky. I was genuinely surprised at the placid
response. My sense has been that entrepreneurs take pride in creating
something of value, finding others that are willing to invest their own
capital to bring the idea to full fruition. That notion seemed at odds with
the sort of unalloyed rent seeking described on the linked site.

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twidlit
Does anybody else get ASP errors when trying to apply?

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mhp
Weird... and here I thought Start-Up Chile was what Paul served at the
Ycombinator get togethers...

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gubatron
anybody knows if they have property taxes down there?

~~~
tedkimble
On my way back from Santiago two months ago, I sat by an American who operated
a group home / missionary.

He claimed he pays approximately $300 USD per year on a ~$600,000 property.

But I believe their VAT is fairly high (for US standards)

~~~
algorias
19%, actually

