Flip-side of Startup Chile

He's surprised that you actually have to do something in order to get free money? And that tax payers require transparency about how it's spent?

I was part of Startup Chile and got into a VC run accelerator in the US, and bureaucracy in the US was much worse (Lawyers and accountants required for everything, incorporation as C-corp as a pre-condition, immigration acrobatics, etc). He may change his opinion if he has to move to a US accelerator with a $40k - $50k investment (just icing, as dashr rightly points out).

Dont depend on the grant money to run your business, treat it like icing on the cake. the money is more of a reimbursement than upfront cash. Grow from sales.

I'm incredibly suspicious of any "government affiliated" startup programs. As far as I can tell, they universally suck (Startup Chile is the least bad).

They have growing "compliance requirements" class over class, most of which are irrelevant. While I appreciate that money is in short supply in an early stage startup, founder time is, too -- so wasting time of founders is absurd.

I think one of the biggest problems is to find good local developers. I think that the local market is very small and also not many locals are fluent in english. Getonboard is a good place to start but maybe the startup program should look at this training local students / devs for make them useful for startup ecosystem.

This guy doesn't seem to get what an 'accelerator' is besides a check. There are some valid complaints about Chile's bureaucracy to be had, but he's not making them..

Thanks for the write-up. I guess bureaucracy is always the problem with public funding.

What's your startup btw?