Our round (Round 2) and @jot's (Round 1) each had 100+ companies, I believe another 100 arrive this/next week with Round 3 and we'll expect a similar nbr for Round 4. In Round 2 & 3 there were 600 applicants with properly-completed forms, if you're interested in the odds :-)
Personally I'll say that being here is very nice, it is great to avoid having to take on client consulting work to pay the mortgage. Things could be better (reimbursements, mentoring, access to more money) but things are a lot better for me than if I'd stayed back in the UK. I'm going to meet 1,000 pro-active folk out here in the following 5 months, I'd not find that many in the UK via my old networks.
While this is cool, all of these that I clicked on weren't really "launched" so much as they have a splash page. I'd be interested in seeing what actually launches down the road.
I agree that many people here haven't launched in a public way. We ( http://strongsteam.com/ ) have some closed alpha users and add more every few weeks, we'll be months before hitting beta. There are however a nice set (10%?) who have launched and may not be in @jot's page, some are physical products (e.g. photo booths for bars, waste water boilers->clean water, human waste sanitisers) which don't appear on the list. There's quite a mixed set out here which makes for very across-the-board conversation.
decurate.com. If you're a 2 person team with development skills, the $40k will easily cover living expenses and product launch. You're capped at a salary of $750 each + $1200 for rent total (these were the limits for two members when we were there). We developed the site in 10 weeks and had a significant amount of money to invest in customer acquisition.
I'll echo @jot, we're another UK team (Round 2, been here 8 weeks). The pricing is similar to Brighton back home (smaller than London on the south coast), we get a 2 bed very nice apartment for £850UKP equivalent (though we pay a £100 excess each for that, no pool here sadly either), our bills for cooker-gas/electric/internet are another £100/mo on top. We could have chosen more central, smaller and cheaper but we chose a nice/larger place. The Metro is roughly £1 per journey (bus/metro/both). Cell SIM is £20/month for HSDPA with a reasonable data limit. Food is similar to back home (lunch costs £10, evening meal £10-£30, supermarkets the same as home).
Basically we get to live in a city for the cost of a small UK city which, for us, is quite a nice deal. Nobody else has complained about the amount of money (which comes for 0% equity), the problems are more around the govt. bureaucracy and the refund process which saps time. We jut got almost 100% of our requests first month reimbursements back at a time-cost of 1.5 days.
At the end of the day we've got $20k USD to invest in people and $20k to live off here. Fine for MVP->launch (we're 3 weeks from alpha launch with http://strongsteam.com/ ).
Hi Ian - quick question that you might be able to answer (since you're currently out there!): do you happen to know what the policy is if a founder wants to take his non-business partner with him (i.e. long term gf or wife)? Is it something generally discouraged or is it fine if one covers the costs out of ones own pocket? Do you know of any team founders/members currently down there that have done this? Thanks!
I had a skim through the FAQs on the startup chile site but couldn't find a direct answer.
It's fine (or at least has been to date). I know wives, girlfriends, husbands and boyfriends that have all been supported with identical 12 month work visas to founders but their costs are not covered so it'll be out of your own pocket.
If you're a sole founder I recommend putting them on your application form as you'll be able to reimburse more for accommodation, salary, flights and visas which are probably your main costs.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 68.2 ms ] threadPersonally I'll say that being here is very nice, it is great to avoid having to take on client consulting work to pay the mortgage. Things could be better (reimbursements, mentoring, access to more money) but things are a lot better for me than if I'd stayed back in the UK. I'm going to meet 1,000 pro-active folk out here in the following 5 months, I'd not find that many in the UK via my old networks.
Food costs are similar to Europe / US. If you do eat cheaply you'll have more personal cash to spend on other things / save to stretch out your stay.
Basically we get to live in a city for the cost of a small UK city which, for us, is quite a nice deal. Nobody else has complained about the amount of money (which comes for 0% equity), the problems are more around the govt. bureaucracy and the refund process which saps time. We jut got almost 100% of our requests first month reimbursements back at a time-cost of 1.5 days.
At the end of the day we've got $20k USD to invest in people and $20k to live off here. Fine for MVP->launch (we're 3 weeks from alpha launch with http://strongsteam.com/ ).
I had a skim through the FAQs on the startup chile site but couldn't find a direct answer.
If you're a sole founder I recommend putting them on your application form as you'll be able to reimburse more for accommodation, salary, flights and visas which are probably your main costs.