

26 Start-Up Chile startups that have launched - jot
http://shippedfromchile.com/

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jot
If you think you can do better than this lot, check out the next round of
funding, details launched today:
<http://www.startupchile.org/about/apply/yourdecision>

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IanOzsvald
Our round (Round 2) and @jot's (Round 1) each had 100+ companies, I believe
another 100 arrive this/next week with Round 3 and we'll expect a similar nbr
for Round 4. In Round 2 & 3 there were 600 applicants with properly-completed
forms, if you're interested in the odds :-)

Personally I'll say that being here is very nice, it is great to avoid having
to take on client consulting work to pay the mortgage. Things could be better
(reimbursements, mentoring, access to more money) but things are a _lot_
better for me than if I'd stayed back in the UK. I'm going to meet 1,000 pro-
active folk out here in the following 5 months, I'd not find that many in the
UK via my old networks.

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rohansingh
While this is cool, all of these that I clicked on weren't really "launched"
so much as they have a splash page. I'd be interested in seeing what actually
launches down the road.

~~~
IanOzsvald
I agree that many people here haven't launched in a public way. We (
<http://strongsteam.com/> ) have some closed alpha users and add more every
few weeks, we'll be months before hitting beta. There _are_ however a nice set
(10%?) who have launched and may not be in @jot's page, some are physical
products (e.g. photo booths for bars, waste water boilers->clean water, human
waste sanitisers) which don't appear on the list. There's quite a mixed set
out here which makes for very across-the-board conversation.

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jot
A few more have come out of the woodwork so we're now up to 30. That's 10% of
the 300 that were funded last year.

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alexro
To the program participants: are these 40000 USD meaningful for doing a
startup there? Is it like living on noodles or better/worse?

~~~
IanOzsvald
I'll echo @jot, we're another UK team (Round 2, been here 8 weeks). The
pricing is similar to Brighton back home (smaller than London on the south
coast), we get a 2 bed _very_ nice apartment for £850UKP equivalent (though we
pay a £100 excess each for that, no pool here sadly either), our bills for
cooker-gas/electric/internet are another £100/mo on top. We could have chosen
more central, smaller and cheaper but we chose a nice/larger place. The Metro
is roughly £1 per journey (bus/metro/both). Cell SIM is £20/month for HSDPA
with a reasonable data limit. Food is similar to back home (lunch costs £10,
evening meal £10-£30, supermarkets the same as home).

Basically we get to live in a city for the cost of a small UK city which, for
us, is quite a nice deal. Nobody else has complained about the amount of money
(which comes for 0% equity), the problems are more around the govt.
bureaucracy and the refund process which saps time. We jut got almost 100% of
our requests first month reimbursements back at a time-cost of 1.5 days.

At the end of the day we've got $20k USD to invest in people and $20k to live
off here. Fine for MVP->launch (we're 3 weeks from alpha launch with
<http://strongsteam.com/> ).

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corford
Hi Ian - quick question that you might be able to answer (since you're
currently out there!): do you happen to know what the policy is if a founder
wants to take his non-business partner with him (i.e. long term gf or wife)?
Is it something generally discouraged or is it fine if one covers the costs
out of ones own pocket? Do you know of any team founders/members currently
down there that have done this? Thanks!

I had a skim through the FAQs on the startup chile site but couldn't find a
direct answer.

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jot
It's fine (or at least has been to date). I know wives, girlfriends, husbands
and boyfriends that have all been supported with identical 12 month work visas
to founders but their costs are not covered so it'll be out of your own
pocket.

If you're a sole founder I recommend putting them on your application form as
you'll be able to reimburse more for accommodation, salary, flights and visas
which are probably your main costs.

~~~
corford
Thanks!

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ccarnino
We as Challengein.com and Fanchimp.com, Startup-Chile round 1, have launched
two products in those 6 months.

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amareshray
Quick question - does startup chile accept companies with only a single
founder?

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cnu
They don't have any official policy regarding number of founders. I think
wedoist is one such startup which has a single founder.

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herval
actually it's up to 3 (or at least it was)

