Chilecon Valley Case Study 
CHILECON VALLEY CASE STUDY
What is the Chilecon valley phenomenon, what type of companies are involved, and why should we take it seriously?
In Chile, the start-up community has begun to boom. Indeed, the market conditions there are improving, while the rest of the world remains stagnant or on the decline. This, coupled with a very young population, has set up a prosperous climate for technology startups to spring up in the area, to such an extent that the region is nicknamed « The Chilecon Valley » after the Silicon Valley. Beyond technology, the two areas have an other link: while United States immigration policy makes it difficult for immigrant entrepreneurs to get visas to set up shop in the United States, Chile is welcoming them with open arms.
Indeed, the government wants to bring in foreign entrepreneurs to interact with the business community, that is why it set up a program called Startup Chile in 2010, which provides $40,000 USD for startups to move to Chile for six months to start their business. No equity is required. They also got a visa, office space, mentoring, help with networking and fundraising, and connections to potential clients. In return, the start-up founders have to promise to spend six months in the country working on their startup and engage with Chilean businesspeople.
Obviously Chile really wants to look attractive to foreign entrepreneurs (as underlines the article "Shut Down Cumplo" from the Economist). And despite the hardships and glitches of their policies, you can now find many of the biggest companies in Chile and most of them are specialized into high technology innovation and digital sales. But Chile has been mostly focused on dragging start-ups so they can grow in the territory: the government has invested over 28 million dollars into their "Startup Chile" project in order to select a few startups among many to make sure they have what it takes to develop their projects.
Hence, Chile has carefully developed a
What is the Chilecon valley phenomenon, what type of companies are involved, and why should we take it seriously?
In Chile, the start-up community has begun to boom. Indeed, the market conditions there are improving, while the rest of the world remains stagnant or on the decline. This, coupled with a very young population, has set up a prosperous climate for technology startups to spring up in the area, to such an extent that the region is nicknamed « The Chilecon Valley » after the Silicon Valley. Beyond technology, the two areas have an other link: while United States immigration policy makes it difficult for immigrant entrepreneurs to get visas to set up shop in the United States, Chile is welcoming them with open arms.
Indeed, the government wants to bring in foreign entrepreneurs to interact with the business community, that is why it set up a program called Startup Chile in 2010, which provides $40,000 USD for startups to move to Chile for six months to start their business. No equity is required. They also got a visa, office space, mentoring, help with networking and fundraising, and connections to potential clients. In return, the start-up founders have to promise to spend six months in the country working on their startup and engage with Chilean businesspeople.
Obviously Chile really wants to look attractive to foreign entrepreneurs (as underlines the article "Shut Down Cumplo" from the Economist). And despite the hardships and glitches of their policies, you can now find many of the biggest companies in Chile and most of them are specialized into high technology innovation and digital sales. But Chile has been mostly focused on dragging start-ups so they can grow in the territory: the government has invested over 28 million dollars into their "Startup Chile" project in order to select a few startups among many to make sure they have what it takes to develop their projects.
Hence, Chile has carefully developed a