Walking into the room I decided to sit down next to two Chileans, Mario and Carlos, both aspiring entrepreneurs of the second-tech world. Not only did these two gentlemen explain the hardships entrepreneurs face in Chile, they explained why. We created a list of all problems they face when it comes to getting a company started - the list was overwhelming. To condense the discussion it came down to a few key items: lack of access to information, lack of possible funding outside of banks, lack of knowledge about starting your own business, and disconnect between consumers of different ages. I felt terrible because I asked them if they had heard of Crumplo, another Chilean start-up that offers another platform to obtain small loans from outside third parties. They were extremely grateful that I brought it up, but were upset that me, the girl from the states, knew about it before they did. Lack of information or just confusion over where to find the right information is one of the major flaws in the Chilean entrepreneurship project.
After discussion of all the problems, we changed the conversation to the solutions. This was extremely difficult for them to conceptually think about because solutions are not as straight forward. We were able to come up with a few however: start the conversation about entrepreneurship in high school, not a lot of Chileans go to University, make it easier to find information about alternative funding (via social media, advertising), teach English, Hindi, and Chinese, and expand the funding options outside of Santiago. A comment that really stuck to me during this event was that "Santiago is NOT Chile." What Mario meant by that was everyone assumes that everything happening in Chile is happening in Santiago, when in reality, there is so much going on outside of the city that people don't feel is as important.
This event, more than all the rest, really helped me wrap my head around the Chilean spirit and their ideologies. It's one thing to learn about it in presentations and see successful Chilean companies, but it a whole other thing to talk to Chilean's struggling to get their business off the ground. I connected with Mario, soon to connect with Carlos on LinkedIn, with the hopes to keep the connection alive.