Startup Chile Week 1

It's been one week since I arrived in Santiago, Chile to participate in Startup Chile as cofounder of Datamaglia. Startup Chile was created four years ago as an economic stimulus experiment to boost entrepreneurism in Chile. The program provides a ~$33,000 grant and a one year temporary resident visa to startups to come work in Chile for six months. In exchange, we promise to participate in the community and help grow Chile's startup community. The program is just beginning for me and I'll be sharing some of my experiences here.

Intro Days#

The first week consisted of getting to know everyone in my cohort (85 startups), and learning more about the program. Startup Chile has no doubt had an impact on the startup community in Chile. Since funding its first batch four years ago more than 1000 startups have gone through the program (with participants from 75 countries), and more than 10 Chilean investment funds have been created. Examples of successful startups from previous Startup Chile rounds include WeHostel, BabyTuto, and URX (now in YCombinator).

For those interested in keeping up with news from Startup Chile check out the SUP News YouTube channel (with English subtitles).

The Chilean Finance Minister, Luis Felipe Céspedes, visits Startup Chile Intro Days to encourage us to help spread entrepreneurship to Chile's regions.

Pitches

Each team in the cohort gave a 3 minute pitch to introduce their business and what they are working on. A full list of the startups in my cohort is available here. Most of the startups are focused on software (web and mobile apps), but also several in the biotech space and a few hardware startups.

Coworking

The main Startup Chile coworking space has room for 100 teams, fast internet and a beautiful glass ceiling / LCD screen covering the main room. It is located in Providencia, not far from Plaza Italia.

We also have access to the administrative offices in Centro Santiago.

The administrative office for Startup Chile.

TODOs#

Goals for next week and moving forward.

• Find an apartment. We have temporary accommodations for the next few weeks, but need to find a larger space once my cofounder (George) and his girlfriend arrive.
• Get to work! I'm glad to have most of the initial intro days / paperwork completed and now have time to focus on what I came to Santiago to do: grow Datamaglia!

For anyone interested in following my Santiago adventures more closely I'll be posting pictures to my new Instagram account and on Twitter @lyonwj.