Start-Up Chile and NESsT

VOZ was recently accepted into a program sponsored by the Chilean Government called Start-Up Chile, which was created to attract foreign entrepreneurs. The pilot version of Start-Up Chile ran last year in 2010 with a small group of 30 teams, and now we are part of the second round consisting of just under 100 teams. Since the 6-month program officially started last week, we made it back up to Santiago to meet some of the other participating teams and go through orientation.

This round of Start-Up Chile includes a wide variety of projects, ranging from computer scientists trying to create online networking sites for younger students to bioengineers conducting health studies. That said, it was extremely interesting getting a chance to meet staff and other teams, hear about their hopes for the upcoming months, and listen to guest speakers brought in by the program.

One of the major reasons the Chilean Government created this program was to try and instill more of a "start-up culture" in Chile. According to some talks I have heard from program officials, the majority of successful Chilean students prefer working for well-established, larger corporations after graduation rather than trying to start their own company. The reasoning behind this is that failure is not very accepted in Chilean society; if someone fails at starting a business, for example, it tarnishes their reputation and makes finding future jobs difficult. This, in turn, causes people to fear the risks associated with trying to do something entrepreneurial. Now, the government is trying to change that thinking and stimulate the country's economy with new Chilean companies.

For more information visit: http://www.startupchile.org/

While in Santiago I was also able to attend a conference held by an organization called Non-profit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT). Held in a hotel at the heart of the city in La Plaza de Armas, the NESsT Conference featured a variety of guest speakers who shared their experiences as leaders of social enterprise efforts in South America. Projects ranged from efforts to help disabled individuals run their own catering business to helping communities continue their traditional bee-keeping practices to celebrating indigenous culture by running theater workshops with school children.

To read more about NESsT, visit http://www.nesst.org/

Pictures from the NESsT Conference