Celebremos! 1000 emprendedores de Start-Up Chile

Celebremos! 1000 emprendedores de Start-Up Chile, a set on Flickr.

Visit our NEW Website

We invite you to visit our NEW Start-Up Chile website where you can find relevant information about the program. This is a beta version for now since the final version will be done as we upload more useful information that you may need.

We invite you to frequently visit our blog where you can find the latest news regarding the program and subscribe to it on the homepage so that don’t miss out on any relevant information as it will be sent directly to your inbox. If you are subscribed to this blog, we ask you to subscribe again to the new one please.

We hope you like it. Cheers!

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Event: Scouting Sub 35

First Tuesday and Fundación País Digital joined forces to create Scouting Sub 35. This initiative

visited 15 cities throughout Chile looking for Chilean entrepreneurs with innovative ideas to reward them with tools and contacts to enhance their business.

There is going to be a grand finale event where the 3 winners will be announced. The prize? A trip to South Korea to visit the main Research and Development centers! This event will be attended by all the nominated entrepreneurs of this initiative, therefore you will have an instance to network with the best local entrepreneurs during a cocktail.

You are all welcome to come. The event is on Thursday January 6, at 7:30 p.m. at the “Salón Consejo de SOFOFA” (Avd. Andrés Bello 2777, Las Condes, Santiago)

If you wish to attend please send an e-mail to Lith Pastén lith@firsttuesday.cl to confirm your assistance.

Happy holidays!

 

The Economist Blog: “Globally-oriented entrepreneurs will kick-start the next economic revolution”

Yesterday The Economist’s blog posted an article named “New Gold: Mining for Entrepreneurs” where Start-Up Chile was mentioned along with Barcelona Activa. The article highlights the fact that entrepreneurs are the main resource to gain innovation and social development.

We are proud and extremely happy for this mention in The Economist. We are just few steps away from changing history.

 

Start-Up Chile: The Best Public Sector Initiative

Yesterday we had a real reason to celebrate since Start-Up Chile received an award for the best public sector initiative of the year. The distinction was made by “Diario Financiero”, and the winner is elected by votes of its readers.  The award was received by Minister of Economy Juan Andrés Fontaineand executive vice president of CORFO, Hernán Cheyre.

On behalf of the Start-Up Chile Team we are proud and with more energy to make things happen here in Start-Up Chile, which by the way  is no longer an initiative, but a formal program of the Chilean Government.
We thank the readers of the “Diario Financiero”  for  the recognition and all entities that help make this possible every day with hard work.

Techcrunch: “Chile’s Grand Innovation Experiment”

We are pleased and proud to let you all know that Techcrunch published an article about Start-Up Chile. The article focuses on the fact that many countries have tried various models to become centers of innovation and in the opinion of Vivek Wadhwa Chile has managed to build an effective and efficient model for achieving this goal.

The Start-Up Chilean

Enrique Fernández could be called an anomaly within the group of Start-Up Chile participants as he is one of the few people from South America taking part in the program.  But, namely, he is the standout Chilean who has been granted the sizable subsidy to further develop his business, SupplierSync.  Though Start-Up Chile is an initiative that seeks to import exclusively foreign entrepreneurs to Chile, Enrique was granted approval into the program because he had been previously living in China, and then moved to Berlin, to complete an MBA at HTW University of Applied Sciences.  His ample foreign experience was complimented by the innovative and global aspects of SupplierSync and thus he was accepted into Start-Up Chile.

Enrique Fernández, SupplierSync

SupplierSync as he describes it, is a private social marketplace where suppliers and buyers meet to create trade opportunities through collaboration and was created in September of this year.  It is a “dating site for b2b companies” Enrique says (with a slight chuckle but in all seriousness), that was born out of his broad experience in sourcing activities seeing the need for buyers and vendors to have reliable partners.  Initially, his goal is to focus on the China-Chile market seeing has he already has an exportation company in China and, from there, transform it into a platform between China and South America and eventually to be used worldwide.

Originally, his idea was to work between the German and Chinese markets but then found that the Chilean market was a better fit, and as Enrique says, “it was the perfect starting point.”  On why he chose to return to Chile, he says that “it is the ideal launching platform and a smaller market than Germany but a perfect market for refining the business model and a future expansion,” immediately mentioning the importance of imports and exports in the Chilean market and that it is a “strategic point for South America.”  His plan for the next year is to become the number one online platform for trade opportunities for small and medium companies in South America and in, in three years, to be completely global.  To make headway towards these goals, he will travel to China in 2011 to take part in the China Import and Export Fair.

When asked how it feels to be the only Chilean in the Start-Up Chile group, he states: “I don’t feel like a Chilean.  I feel like one member of an international group and like someone who is trying to change the entrepreneurial mindset in Chile.”  Though he has been back in Chile for only a couple of weeks, he notes the importance of the program saying that it is a “very important process in Chile now” and that he is looking forward to imparting his foreign-acquired knowledge to his local peers.  Finally, he add that it is “a great challenge because I want to be at the top with the other guys.”

Harvard Business Hosts Start-Up Chile

Last week, Steve from CruiseWise visited his Alma Mater, Harvard Business School, to give a presentation about Start-Up Chile to eager students interested in following the footsteps of CruiseWise and the other 24 teams here in Chile.  There were nearly 30 alumni present from various student-run organizations such as the Energy & Environment Club, the Social Entrepreneurship Club, the Entrepreneurship Club, the TechMedia Club, the Latin America Club, and the Latino Student Club.

While giving a short presentation about the details of the program, Steve, joined by Diego May, CEO of Junar (the second team to arrive to Chile), expounded upon the unique experience of bootstrapping a business in Chile and how their company’s have drastically advanced during their short time with Start-Up Chile.  The pair was also joined by Nicolas Ibanez and Joseph Nejman from Tomorrow Ventures, helping to field some of the inquiries.

They were answering questions for nearly an hour after their presentation, most boiling down to the following inquiries:

“Do you need to be Chilean to be part of the program?”

“Do you need to focus on the Chilean market?”

“Why is the Chilean government doing this?”

“What strings are attached to the funding?”

“What have been the best parts of the program?”

To follow up a bit, we’d like to offer the responses corresponding to those questions.  Firstly, you do not have to be Chilean to participate.  In fact, you cannot participate if you are a resident of Chile and, currently, the 25 teams in Chile represent 14 different nationalities.  We enthusiastically encourage diversity.  Second, the idea of Start-Up Chile is to attract globally thinking business to Chile– it is fundamental that those who apply to the program be oriented towards the global market, focusing on expansion, not isolation.

Next, the Chilean Government has created Start-Up Chile in hopes of converting Chile into the innovation hub of Latin America, also with the desire to inspire local entrepreneurs to conceive their businesses, again, by thinking globally.  Participating in the program does not incur any strings attached.  Equity is not asked for, which has turned out to be one of the more attractive aspects of Start-Up Chile.   One of the few obligations is the the participating teams interact with the local entrepreneurship and innovative ecosystem by attending events, holding workshops, etc.  Finally, the best parts of the program are numerous– the inspiring synergies between participating teams and the local community, the jobs that are created, the advancements that are made, and the essential tools that are provided to the team in order to ensure their success.  CruiseWise put it best when they said: “Chile is taking this program very seriously. In two weeks we were able to create a network here which has already proven itself. The caliber of the people who are opening doors for us cannot be matched in our own home countries.”

To be sure not to miss these kinds of events that will be taking place around the world, please subscribe to our Twitter account and, of course, if there are any other questions, please feel free to send them to stgo@startupchile.org.

Globalization and Entrepreneurship: Vivek Wadhwa in Chile

Vivek Wadhwa, a renowned expert on entrepreneurship, will be visiting Chile next week to meet with innovation officials and during that time, he will be giving a public discourse called “Opportunities for Entrepreneurs in the Rapidly Globalizing World”.  The event will take place on Tuesday, December 14th  in the Plaza San Francisco Hotel at 4:00 p.m and all are welcome to attend.  All speeches will be made in English.

Wadhwa is a respected writer for TechCrunch and BusinessWeek and is an avid supporter of Start-Up Chile having written an article about the program that led many high-powered entrepreneurs to apply.  Currently, he is a member of Start-Up Chile’s Advisory Board while also working at Harvard and Duke Universities.

To participate in this unique event, you must  previously sign up by sending an email to gjacuna@innovacion.cl.  Also, if you are unable to attend this speech, Start-Up Chile will be hosting Mr. Wadhwa at a meetup event on Monday, December 13th at 6:00pm that is similarly open to the public.

Start-Up Chile 2010

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