

154 Startups Selected in Start-Up Chile’s 2nd Round of 2011 - cnu
http://www.startupchile.org/154-startups-selected-in-start-up-chiles-2nd-round-of-2011/

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suphappy
I am currently participating in Startup Chile and I am very happy to be here.

It is important to note, however, that there are some things that have
surprised many participants that I think should be made clearer.

This is not an accelerator program like Y Combinator or TechStars. There is
less structure and support, for example no "Demo Day" to work towards. You
also don't get a check made payable to your startup to relieve your short term
cashflow concerns and allow you to focus completely on your product.

Startup Chile is more like what I imagine taking a government job as an
"Entrepreneur in Residence" might be like. We earn points by actively working
to give back to the community, each team is expected to earn a minimum number
over the 6 months. In return we get fast tracked through the admin of moving
to a new country (getting visas and social security numbers) and are given
access to a $40K budget to reimburse most, but not all, of our expenses.

You should expect to spend a couple of days a month working through the
(bureaucratic) government reimbursement process and organizing / participating
in community activities.

A few notes on the reimbursement process:

1) You have to spend money on things before you can get it back, and have to
pay off any payments made by credit card before you get reimbursed.

2) You will probably need to put in around $10K so you have cashflow allowing
you to spend the $40K within the 6 months allowed.

3) There are lots of rules restricting what can and can't be reimbursed. You
need to make sure you understand all the terms and conditions before you spend
any cash.

4) There are limitations on some forms of spending, for example: a) You will
need to get 3 competing quotes before spending more than $5K. b) You will need
to ask permission in advance of booking travel / events and they won't be
reimbursed until after you have taken the trip / attended the event.

5) You will only ever get 90% of what you spend reimbursed. So $44k = $40k.

6) The complexity of the system means that there are inconsistencies between
startups on what gets reimbursed and what does not.

It saddens me to say this but you shouldn't expect to have your mind blown by
the quality of the startups here. There's lots of talking and not enough
shipping. Unless contacts in Latin America are critical to your business,
Startup Chile will not accelerate your startup any more than other forms of
cash.

tl;dr: Apply to Startup Chile for the experience of living in another country
amongst a community of ambitious people from around the world. Bring lots of
money with you.

~~~
iamelgringo
I've talked extensively to a number of people that run Startup Chile. They are
very interested in getting early startups that are too early to even go into
an incubator. That was a conscious choice. So, it stands to reason that you're
not going to be astounded by the quality of the startups.

Catalina, their director of HR/Culture is coming to Silicon Valley in two
weeks to learn more about what Silicon Valley is, and does. I'm going to try
and communicate what we think works at Hackers & Founders to help get startups
ready for incubation / launch. We're trying to get her talking to a number of
people that we think can be really helpful.

Anything that you think would really help down there? Ping me:
jonathan@hackersandfounders.com

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pg
Wow, 154 at once. That's impressive. I'm very interested to see how this turns
out. With these kind of numbers you really might end up generating a startup
hub. It's a comparatively cheap experiment, considering the upside if it
works.

~~~
jot
It'll likely be considerably more in future rounds. The goal is to fund 1000
over three years and we're almost a year in already.

Start-Up Chile is the closest I've seen to anyone trying to implement what you
described in: <http://paulgraham.com/maybe.html>

I was funded in the last round of ~80 startups. Experiencing it first hand I
think they're well on way to creating a startup hub. The only thing holding
them back is bureaucracy that comes with the government funding. This leaves
many teams spending too much time worrying about the process rather than their
startup.

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pchristensen
With 150 startups, this is much more interesting. For less than the tax
abatements to incentivize a single tire factory, they're getting hundreds of
active entrepreneurs in their country. Who knows if it will work or not (I'm
optimistic), but this is so hilariously cheap for a national program. I'm
pretty sure it will work out better than advertising in the WSJ for a month or
two.

~~~
Geekette
I think the program could result in a little collaboration between locals and
foreign startups short term, with the rub-off effect resulting in increased
entrepreneurial activity by locals mid to long term.

Real question is whether the govt stays the course and fosters the right
environment along the way, i.e. ensuring that the right
tax/legal/political/social incentives are there to encourage Chilean
entrepreneurs (the longterm target) to start and retain companies in Chile to
boost its economical growth.

~~~
nirvana
As evidence of the governments commitment in chile, consider this: They fund
Venture Capital programs as well. As I understand it they have an existing
program that provide funding to VCs as a forgivable loan. If the VC is
successful they payoff the loan with reasonable interest. If the VC folds, the
loan is forgiven.

I read they are also working on (or recently created) another program whereby
the government provides funding for Venture Capital but participates as a
financial partner in the returns, which, if successful, means the government
would be able to put the returns into future VC funds without any further cost
to the government.

I think the biggest problem is that the VCs don't have enough startups to
invest in.

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markbao
Huh. Chile is taking a $6 million ($40,000 × 154, assuming they all accept)
bet that one of them becomes successful in some way.

I think the chances are pretty good.

~~~
chrisduesing
Are they? They don't take equity. In fact I am not sure there is a direct
benefit to Chile at all. I assume it is a bet that some companies will stay,
locals will develop support infrastructure / services and ultimately create an
ecosystem that is Silicon Valley like.

~~~
OmarIsmail
Of course it's not like Chilean citizens won't see any of that money. The
startup founders need places to sleep, to eat, hang out while they're not
working, etc. I'd wager a substantial amount of that money will go right back
into the Chilean economy.

It's actually a fantastic kind of stimulus (though on a very small scale
obviously).

~~~
jmonegro
Also, I believe one of the requirements is that founders must hire locals. And
I imagine they have to pay the nations taxes as well?

~~~
nischalshetty
Hiring locals is not a requirement. In fact, they hardly have any requirement
apart from the fact that you need to spend 6 months in Chile.

~~~
hugh3
That's a great move by the administrators of the scheme. Not because hiring
locals is a problem (though it very well may be depending on what skillset you
need and the language barrier) but because the bother of administrating such a
scheme is a huge bother for the startups. They are right to put as few
barriers in the way as possible.

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ayanb
Here is the breakup of nationalities, thirty-three in all:

Argentina: 5, Australia: 1, Belgium: 2, Bolivia: 1, Brazil: 5, Canada: 11,
Chile: 27, China: 1, Columbia: 1, Czech Republic: 1, Equador: 2, Estonia: 1,
Finland: 1, France: 3, Germany: 3, India: 5, Ireland: 1, Israel: 1, Malaysia:
1, Mexico: 2, Netherlands: 1, New Zealand: 1, Poland: 1, Romania: 1,
Singapore: 3, Spain: 1, Sri Lanka: 1, Switzerland: 1, UK: 9, USA: 54, Uruguay:
2, Others: 1

Interesting to note, there are no companies from the African subcontinent.

~~~
phreeza
nitpick: Africa is a continent, not a subcontinent

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oguz
Congrats the ones who've done it for round two.

As being from round one and already have been living in Santiago - Chile
almost three months, I'll be more than happy to help/assist newly selected
startups on settling down here. For those who consider applying to upcoming
rounds are also welcomed.

<http://www.startupchile.org/supprojects/limk/>

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ericHosick
I know someone who got selected and frequents HN (as I am sure there are a lot
of people on HN who have friends who were selected). Congrats to the 154.

And to you, XXXXXXX. You will know who you are when you read this. The next
step in your dream is now a reality!

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andrewcross
My company (GooseChase Adventures) was selected for this round and we are
pretty stoked, but the 6 month commitment is a concern for me on a sales
front. Any companies that have already participated have any experiences about
selling to North America from Chile? Fortunately it's the same timezone, but
it is a long trip if I need to hop on a plane for a meeting.

If anyone has any questions on the application process or wants to discuss
this offline, feel free to drop me a line: andrew@goosecha.se.

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davidw
Damn, I'd had some hopes about going there, although it certainly would not
have been easy with two kids in tow. I guess something like LiberWriter is not
so exciting because it doesn't aspire to be the next big thing, but the fact
that it already makes money seemed relevant. Oh well, que sera, sera (which is
actually not used in Spanish, because the song title is based on the Italian
che sara`, sara`).

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volandovengo
We applied and were selected (artsumo.com) for an adventure, an equity free
40k investment, an international network and the empenadas!

~~~
hugh3
I'd be very interested in reading regular, photograph-rich updates on how it's
going. Either from you, or from any other of the startups.

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abhimir
Almost 35% of the startups are from US. I wonder why they chose Chile, instead
of applying in the numerous US based incubators.

~~~
rfrey
The reasons we applied (yeah, we're going :) ):

1\. Awesome life story and experience

2\. International rolodex

3\. Focus on MVP outside the temptation to chase publicity

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outside1234
Questions for anyone that has done this:

1) Can you find good local talent on at least software but hopefully hardware
as well (I have a consumer electronics idea)? (I speak Spanish at the
intermediate level if that changes anything)

2) Are you required to live in Santiago either practically or by rules? Or
could you live in Valpariso or Vina del Mar?

~~~
droithomme
2) On the site they make clear you can live anywhere in the country you wish.
In other articles about this it's mentioned that most live in Santiago, but I
do recall reading that some companies are in Valpariso and Vina del Mar:

[http://www.startupchile.org/ocean-side-pitching-in-vina-
del-...](http://www.startupchile.org/ocean-side-pitching-in-vina-del-mar-
valparaiso/)

1) That article also notes that companies are recruiting from DUOC University
and Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria.

See also <http://www.startupchile.org/regiones/valparaiso/>

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hermanjunge
Kudos to the selected start-ups! :D

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j45
Startups on a beach... I like.

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mahyarm
Santiago is inland. Valpariso is a 2.5 hour drive away.

~~~
jot
It's only 1.5 hours on the bus. There's a small collective of us Start-Up
Chile teams living and working in Viña del Mar next door to Valparaiso.

~~~
volandovengo
jot - approximately how many are working from Viña del Mar?

~~~
jot
I think we're up to around 7 teams. More are considering the move and there is
a community of about 30 that attend regular meetups.

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danso
"SOLR Netherlands"

Can a startup succeed with a name that's most likely already swiped on every
major social network platform, besides being a very well-known search
platform?

~~~
nischalshetty
Yes, if they have a good product.

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kamakazizuru
woot!

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nirvana
I'd be really interested to hear from current or past Startup Chile
participants as to the quality and style of the companies applying. Is it a
really high bar like YC, or is it more along the lines of "if you're working
on a credible startup, you're in" kind of thing?

Also, love to see any videos people made for their applications, or any
feedback about the application process that they learned after being accepted.

Looking at the stats for the previous round, it was really interesting. IIRC,
around 300 applied, ~150 or so of which were ruled out because they didn't
qualify or didn't complete the application correctly, and 100 were chosen, or
about %66 of the ones who weren't ruled out. This time around, twice as many
applied but only %50 more were chosen.

One concern: I avoided the single founder issue by having two co-founders, but
both of my co-founders are great partners, though not nearly as experienced
with startups as I am.

~~~
trevelyan
When we applied for the beta round, the stated goals were having 10% of the
companies raise a significant round of further funding or reach 100,000 USD
annual revenues. As I understand it, the program blew past this criteria.

