Taylor Abulaban
The presentations and meetings with people at Inacap were some of the most enjoyable and impactful learning experiences for me during our trip to Chile. It was clear that they were very happy to have us, and that we were delighted to be there. The goal of the experience was to learn about entrepreneurship in general and also develop an understanding of entrepreneurship/business in Chile. We accomplished this by splitting into groups consisting of both CWRU and Inacap students. In our group, we worked with Carlos Hernandez and Mario Gutierrez. They both spoke English quite well, which made communicating rather easy. We started with an exercise, breaking down the concepts and methods of entrepreneurship and startup organizations in Chile. After that, we discussed Carlos and Mario's personal experience with entrepreneurship.
There were a number of themes that were brought up regarding starting a business in Chile. One of the main challenges is access to information. It is quite difficult for entrepreneurs in Chile to seek guidance and find the necessary people to learn from or potentially do business with. Similarly, it is very challenging to gain access to funding. This is often based on a traditional and conservative culture of investors; often investors have a narrow mindset and are unwilling to take risks, only investing in more established organizations. Our group concluded that, one of the reasons, the network of entrepreneurs in Chile is limited is because students don't learn about entrepreneurship unless they are seeking certain college degrees, and we agreed that it would benefit the country to include these lessons in high school in order to motivate and teach the majority of young Chileans.
Carlos and Mario are working to start their own business in the second hand market of user electronics. Their goal is to start in Santiago and move to other parts of Chile, primarily the south. Much of the Chilean population cannot afford new electronic products, so Carlos and Mario found this to be a key opportunity. Some of the greatest challenges for them have been access to information and obtaining funding to develop their business. Speaking with them was a great learning experience about both business in Chile and Chilean culture. We have exchanged emails, added each other on LinkedIn, and look forward to keeping in touch!
The presentations and meetings with people at Inacap were some of the most enjoyable and impactful learning experiences for me during our trip to Chile. It was clear that they were very happy to have us, and that we were delighted to be there. The goal of the experience was to learn about entrepreneurship in general and also develop an understanding of entrepreneurship/business in Chile. We accomplished this by splitting into groups consisting of both CWRU and Inacap students. In our group, we worked with Carlos Hernandez and Mario Gutierrez. They both spoke English quite well, which made communicating rather easy. We started with an exercise, breaking down the concepts and methods of entrepreneurship and startup organizations in Chile. After that, we discussed Carlos and Mario's personal experience with entrepreneurship.
There were a number of themes that were brought up regarding starting a business in Chile. One of the main challenges is access to information. It is quite difficult for entrepreneurs in Chile to seek guidance and find the necessary people to learn from or potentially do business with. Similarly, it is very challenging to gain access to funding. This is often based on a traditional and conservative culture of investors; often investors have a narrow mindset and are unwilling to take risks, only investing in more established organizations. Our group concluded that, one of the reasons, the network of entrepreneurs in Chile is limited is because students don't learn about entrepreneurship unless they are seeking certain college degrees, and we agreed that it would benefit the country to include these lessons in high school in order to motivate and teach the majority of young Chileans.
Carlos and Mario are working to start their own business in the second hand market of user electronics. Their goal is to start in Santiago and move to other parts of Chile, primarily the south. Much of the Chilean population cannot afford new electronic products, so Carlos and Mario found this to be a key opportunity. Some of the greatest challenges for them have been access to information and obtaining funding to develop their business. Speaking with them was a great learning experience about both business in Chile and Chilean culture. We have exchanged emails, added each other on LinkedIn, and look forward to keeping in touch!