by Heather Frutig
This turned out to be one of my favorite sessions of the trip. I think this was for two reasons. I happened to sit at a table with a dynamic bunch so the conversation was rich and robust and it was fascinating to learn how unexpectedly similar Santiago’s and Cleveland’s startup scenes are.
I sat at a table with a representative from CORFO, the program by the Chilean government to spark economic development, a representative from the INACAP incubator and two separate Chilean entrepreneurs, in addition to three other Case students. With that breadth of knowledge about the Santiago startup culture and challenges and with three bilingual folks, we were able to dig reasonably deep. And quite quickly a map of Santiago’s startup network began to emerge and it is quite similar to the one we see in Cleveland with a few more challenges.
Tech entrepreneurship is a reasonably new phenomenon in Chile. As it is in Cleveland. The Chilean government has established several programs under the umbrella of CORFO to support and foster innovation including a fund. This is similar to the state of Ohio and the Third Frontier Fund. Santiago does not have a robust angel investor culture much like we don’t have in Cleveland. This is where the similarities begin to breakdown, though. Where Santiago still doesn’t have a good culture of mentorship and networking, Cleveland is more developed in that realm with many of the area colleges and smaller incubators ready and willing to be very helpful.
My biggest takeaway, was this belief by my Chilean tablemates that because we live in the US, money has to be easily accessible to any entrepreneur. And while that might be true on the coasts, it isn’t the case in the middle where Cleveland is.
I was really impressed by the excitement and enthusiasm that I saw around entrepreneurship, though. Everyone at my table was energetic and hopeful and it seems as though the country is on the right track of beginning to attract and foster innovation. It’s a journey that will take time but I have high hopes. For both Santiago and Cleveland!
I sat at a table with a representative from CORFO, the program by the Chilean government to spark economic development, a representative from the INACAP incubator and two separate Chilean entrepreneurs, in addition to three other Case students. With that breadth of knowledge about the Santiago startup culture and challenges and with three bilingual folks, we were able to dig reasonably deep. And quite quickly a map of Santiago’s startup network began to emerge and it is quite similar to the one we see in Cleveland with a few more challenges.
Tech entrepreneurship is a reasonably new phenomenon in Chile. As it is in Cleveland. The Chilean government has established several programs under the umbrella of CORFO to support and foster innovation including a fund. This is similar to the state of Ohio and the Third Frontier Fund. Santiago does not have a robust angel investor culture much like we don’t have in Cleveland. This is where the similarities begin to breakdown, though. Where Santiago still doesn’t have a good culture of mentorship and networking, Cleveland is more developed in that realm with many of the area colleges and smaller incubators ready and willing to be very helpful.
My biggest takeaway, was this belief by my Chilean tablemates that because we live in the US, money has to be easily accessible to any entrepreneur. And while that might be true on the coasts, it isn’t the case in the middle where Cleveland is.
I was really impressed by the excitement and enthusiasm that I saw around entrepreneurship, though. Everyone at my table was energetic and hopeful and it seems as though the country is on the right track of beginning to attract and foster innovation. It’s a journey that will take time but I have high hopes. For both Santiago and Cleveland!