How a government led incubator is attracting and building the next high tech community of start-ups in South America.
Call it the Chilecon Valley or call it crazy. In 2010, the Chilean government launched Start-Up Chile’s revolutionary pilot program in the hopes of positioning Chile as the innovation and entrepreneurship hub of Latin America.
To tackle this enormous task, the Chilean government created an incubator that offers entrepreneurs $40,000, office space and local support in exchange for moving to Chile for six months to build their company. This is one of the few programs in the world that offers bootstrapping entrepreneurs financial support without taking equity.
At its inception, this unique government program had been lauded internationally in publications such asForbes, The Economist, INC. magazine, and EXAME, but how is it doing today? And, most importantly, is it working?
Three years and 584 entrepreneurs later, the program seems to have reached its adolescence — and not without its fair share of growing pains. After all, the program is a start-up itself. “We are a start-up for start-ups,” as executive director, Horacio Melo explained. “We have to pivot and grow just like the start-ups in our program because we are a start-up too.”
As Start-Up Chile begins it’s seventh class this summer… (READ MORE)
By: Vanessa Van Edwards
Published at: HuffingtonPost.com
