Chile Forum

Welcome to the Start-Up Chile thread.........Weon!

I notice their website links to meetup.com to find out about the meeting tomorrow night, and that apparently the meeting is full,

anyway,

Its at California Cantina, 2nd Floor, 6.30pm, wouldn't be hard to gatecrash, i think i will be swinging by the check it out!!!

If anyone else is interested in gatecrashing with me and having a beer! drop me a PM

If someone makes it to the meeting, please take and post minutes
I'd gatecrash myself but I got to catch a plane at 10pm Friday.

murf wrote:If someone makes it to the meeting, please take and post minutes
I'd gatecrash myself but I got to catch a plane at 10pm Friday.

tomorrow, the 20th, is thursday night .....

zer0nz wrote:

murf wrote:If someone makes it to the meeting, please take and post minutes
I'd gatecrash myself but I got to catch a plane at 10pm Friday.

tomorrow, the 20th, is thursday night .....

Err!!!!
You are correct.
I land in Chicago at ~ 10 am Friday 21st

zer0nz, did you go to the meeting?
How was it?

Hightower wrote:zer0nz, did you go to the meeting?
How was it?

My flight from osorno was delayed, so i didnt make it there!!! I joined the group on meetup.com so next time ill try and make it!,

I think alot of the people who are going to the meeting looking for networking and jobs if you look at their profiles on meetup.com, if you were serious about the money you would just contact the organisers directly!

anyway may be good for networking, in this moment here, nothing im working on complies with the scheme!

I attended the meeting. Dave of PopupChinese.com gave an interesting presentation and many people asked questions.

I was disappointed that the government used the meeting to discourage alcohol consumption. They asked the owner not to serve alcohol on the second floor where the meeting was held. I don't think it's appropriate for the government to discourage or encourage alcohol consumption, so I started a new meetup for Santiago Infotech Start-Ups that meets Tuesday nights. You can join at <LINK REMOVED>.

I also wrote a blog post on the subject:
<LINK REMOVED>

New user, no links.

As for startup chile, they can send me a check for $40,000 to the address below and I will guarantee my little IT startup will bring millions of dollars in investment to chile immediately (no need to wait).

I have an idea, how about some frigen easy to use bank accounts for foreigners?

I have watched millions (likly in the 100's of millions) of dollars in investment money pass over chile because they will not open accounts for foreigners or related mickey mouse banking problems. An investor that can not open a checking account for few thousand dollars or has to jump through a pile of wire paperwork to simply buy a house or car, is sure as hell not going risk millions on a crusty old banking system. I am talking about guys that really do not need any help buying pizza, and are owners of proven companies all over the world. Guys that will employ hundreds of people if not thousands, not two or three, right out of the box.

Not impressed.

Several of my core guiding principles of biz in chile seem to be violated or not addressed by the hoopla over this program:

1. Don't make the customer (investor) beg you to take their money (violated by nearly every company, gov office, and bank in chile). If some one wants to give you money, don't argue with them or otherwise get in the way.

2. Sometimes free money is not so free. $40,000 does not buy crap in chile or anywhere else when it comes to starting a biz (especially if it comes with $40,000 more in paperwork attached to it). I have covered that before in other threads. I will just add, what are you doing next year for pizza?

3.Show me the money!!!!!

I might add holding a meeting of IT guys with no beer is a bad, bad sign that they have no idea about who they are dealing with.

I started an IT company years ago (and sold it) in another country, with really nothing but a cooler full of beer and managed to recruit all kinds of seriously over qualified people (e.g. X- IBM server engineers, programmers, translators, writers) that worked for months for little more than their beer tab. We had a whole sale contract with beer distributor since we drank more beer than most local stores would ever sell. As long as cooler stayed full, they were happy.

If chile just advertised free beer for all IT workers, silcone valley would be a ghost town overnight.

admin wrote:If chile just advertised free beer for all IT workers, silcone valley would be a ghost town overnight.

Back in the mid-nineties there used to be unlimited wine, beer and coke with your lunch at the University cantine in Padua (Italy), for me coming from Scandinavia it was jaw-dropping.
Here in Santiago the law forbids the sale of alcohol on campus, so I can't get a glass of wine with my meal, while all around us on the lawns, the students are picnicking with lots of booze. How unfair!

I think Start-Up Chile is a good thing. It might not be the best, but at least they are giving people free money to help start a business, among other things. I meet a couple in Santiago the other week who are recipients of the award. They are very happy to receive the money to jump start their business here in Santiago. They said not only did they receive money, but also support and advice.

Give me $40,000! It's more than what I got to start a business. Every little bit helps!