Babelverse Story: Our South American Experience and Start-Up Chile

Very shortly after our experiment for Japan, we got some big news from the opposite side of the globe. We had been selected by Start-Up Chile to be among the first group of participants.

It’s a program created by the Chilean government, to attract early stage, high-potential entrepreneurs to bootstrap their startups in Chile, using it as a platform to go global. The goal being to transform the country to be more entrepreneurial and risk-taking and finally become the definitive innovation hub of Latin America. In exchange for our presence there and involvement with local universities, conferences and more, they provided a 1 year visa and relocation help, office space and financial support.

Team @babelverse has now moved to Santiago as a participant in @StartupChile - expect to see a lot more from us in coming weeks & months!

It was a unique opportunity, so early July, we packed what we could in a couple of bags and flew from Athens, Greece to Santiago de Chile!

There’s so much to tell about our awesome time there, that we’ll have to save it for another post. In the meantime, below are a few photos and tweets…

Along the way, we received press coverage and increased our members from all over the continent, for example here on WebPrendedor or here on FayerWayer, and even ended up being named #2 start-up in Latin America in the PulsoStartup ranking!

The awesome offices provided by Start-Up Chile and Movistar/Telefonica

Great discussion yesterday with Prof @Wadhwa and now with former Intel CEO Craig Barrett. You'd think I am in Silicon Valley, but its Chile!
Was interesting to hear Craig Barrett mention how Moore's law become a self-fulfilling prophecy at Intel. Used it as guideline for research.
DePe talk on entrepreneurship (@ Campus San Joaquín - Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile w/ 2 others) http://t.co/Rp8NCIms

Language barriers are a real issue. Here is a traditional interpretation booth being setup for our talk in a university in Antofagasta, Atacama, Northern Chile.

These unprepared talks are becoming a habit! RT @babelverse Just gave a unexpected 5mn presentation at#startechconf - very good reception
Internet Exploder comes back to haunt me sometimes, at least now its confined to a tab on a Mac's browser! http://t.co/UsLk27rC

The beautiful Atacama desert.

Do you know any code hackers/ninjas/monkeys/squirrels (or you're one yourself) in Chile? come to our 48h hackathon! http://t.co/7vshcneG
Babelverse team will be sharing some of our many crazy stories at this 1st event by RealStarters http://t.co/PoMHkgwY

Overcoming obstacles, with our fellow entrepreneurs.

Doing another 24 hour marathon to get a cool service into the hands of as many people as possible. Exciting :) http://t.co/mVj2Dpxl