Start-Up Chile Research Articles

“The Basis of Aaaalll of Our Program!” The Start-Up Chile Playbook as Metagenre

“The Basis of Aaaalll of Our Program!” The Start-Up Chile Playbook as Metagenre

Editing the Pitch: Patterns of Editing Strategies of Written Pitches in a Chilean Accelerator Program

Background: After a six-month training program in the Chilean public accelerator Start-Up Chile, entrepreneurs are asked to update a short pitch they wrote in the submission stage to appear in the program's online portfolio. Literature review: We reviewed relevant literature related to the pitch as well as research aiming to track changes within pitches. Research questions: 1. Which are the editing strategies used to change their pitch? 2. Do these strategies conform to specific discursive patterns? Research methodology: To answer the research questions, we designed an exploratory qualitative study to describe in depth the editing strategies used by two generations of startups, corresponding to 148 pairs of written pitches. In order to contextualize the results, we conducted two interviews with the program managers and analyzed the accelerator's official Playbook and Technical and Administrative Requirements. Results: We identified 10 editing strategies. Of those editing strategies, “Deleting technical descriptions” is by far the most common procedure. The identified patterns can be classified into two groups, those simplifying, hedging, and focusing on certain elements of the first pitch, and those adding and specifying information of the first version. Conclusions: We conclude by discussing the strengths of this methodological approach for understanding such edits and for supporting successful edits in accelerator programs, as well as the potential for better understanding entrepreneur coachability.

Public Accelerators – Developing Resources in Nascent Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

This study elaborates the role of public accelerators as anchor tenants in the early evolution of entrepreneurial ecosystems from the perspective of entrepreneurial resources. This study selected Santiago de Chile as an empirical location since this ecosystem has rapidly developed in the last few years with strong involvement of a public accelerator called Start-Up Chile. What characterizes Start-Up Chile’s approach is its strategic aim to develop its local entrepreneurial ecosystem by attracting foreign entrepreneurs to utilize their resources. This study applies an inductive qualitative approach with a single case study with Start-Up Chile in the Santiago entrepreneurial ecosystem. It develops a conceptual model to demonstrate how a public accelerator develops nascent entrepreneurial ecosystem resources as an anchor tenant.

Regional entrepreneurial ecosystems in Chile: comparative lessons

PurposeThis paper aims to deal with different experts’ perceptions of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) from central to non-central regions to evaluate if there was any evolution (or involution), comparing the results with those of a previous similar study on Chile from 2013, and it follows to replicate and improve our knowledge of the entrepreneurial opportunities.Design/methodology/approachOne of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor surveys, the National Experts’ Survey, was applied to a sample ofN= 1,555 key informants in Chile at 11 regions. The author used non-parametric statistics to compare the differences between centrally and non-centrally located experts.FindingsThe results indicate an evolution of the Chilean entrepreneurial ecosystem in an effort to homologate the entrepreneurial opportunities at non-central regions since the last study published in 2013. The financial support and physical infrastructure conditions were perceived to be more favorable in central regions, whereas the general government policies and entrepreneurial education at primary and secondary levels were perceived to be more favorable in non-central regions.Originality/valueThis research aims to contribute to filling the gap from the regional EEs’ perspective in emerging economies by comparing the results of the study on Chile with data from the previous government (2007–2009) providing an updated study of it (2015–2018) using the entrepreneurial framework conditions. It is relevant because the government established the “StartUp Chile” program that positioned the country as an innovation hub in Latin America since 2010.

STARTUPS ACCELERATOR PROGRAMS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ACCELERATION MECHANISMS FROM START-UP BRAZIL AND START-UP CHILE PROGRAM

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar e comparar os mecanismos de aceleração de programas públicos para incentivar startups Start-Up Brazil e Start-Up Chile, colaborar para a sua evolução, e, na medida do possível, contribuir para os estudos de incentivo ao empreendedorismo em mercados emergentes. A estratégia de pesquisa empregada foi a comparação de dois estudos de caso. Os resultados mostraram que os mecanismos de aceleração adotadas pelos programas favorecem o desempenho das startups e que, em geral, os programas foram importantes nas trajetórias dessas empresas. Adicionalmente foram elencadas sugestões para a melhor atuação de cada mecanismo em cada programa.

Start-Up Chile: política pública de emprendimiento e innovación para un mundo global

Being an entrepreneur in Latin America has been a complex problem, not because of the absence of people who develop new business, but because of a kind of generalized distrust that suggests that projects can be only materialized in their contexts of origin, that is, in the countries themselves. Thus, the absence of growth of entrepreneurship and innovation projects is not only due to external factors, such as the possibility of financing and expansion, but also to other factors that seem to be characteristics of Latin American people, such as the relationship with failure. To this extent, this article aims at presenting the public policy of Start-Up Chile that demonstrates that innovation and the global deployment of an idea developed in a specific context could be possible. In short, this text intend to arouse the entrepreneurs of the local stagnation in which they are immersed.

The Effects of Business Accelerators on Venture Performance: Evidence from Start-Up Chile

Do business accelerators affect new venture performance? We investigate this question in the context of Start-Up Chile, an ecosystem accelerator. We focus on two treatment conditions typically found in business accelerators: basic services of funding and coworking space, and additional entrepreneurship schooling. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show that schooling bundled with basic services can significantly increase new venture performance. In contrast, we find no evidence that basic services affect performance on their own. Our results are most relevant for ecosystem accelerators that attract young and early-stage businesses and suggest that entrepreneurial capital matters in new ventures.

The Effects of Business Accelerators on Venture Performance: Evidence from Start-Up Chile

Do business accelerators affect new venture performance? If so, how? We investigate these questions in the context of Start-Up Chile, an ecosystem accelerator. We focus on two treatment conditions typically found in business accelerators: basic services (cash and co-working space) and additional entrepreneurship schooling. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show that schooling bundled with basic services can significantly increase new venture performance. Instead, we find no support for causal effects of basic services by their own. Our results are consistent with analogous interventions in subsistence microenterprises, and are most relevant for ecosystem accelerators attracting young and early stage businesses.

Funding challenges of Latin American women start-up founders in the technology industry

PurposeWomen in entrepreneurship can have a significant impact on economic and social development globally and particularly in developing countries. But the challenges entrepreneurial women face are unique and multiple, pressing the need for research and policies to maximize impact. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges women start-up founders face to secure funding in the technology industry. The tech industry was selected because it is a non-traditional industry for women with high potential for role models to bridge an existing gap in information on women start-up founders to secure capital financing to attain business sustainability. It covers venture capital investors’ role, Latin American cultural reasons, and gender.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on an inductive, qualitative approach and in-depth interviews with 20 women entrepreneurs and start-up founders from Latin American countries who received support from the Chilean Government sponsored accelerator “Start-Up Chile.”FindingsThe analysis uncovered ten aspects that impact entrepreneurial women founders’ access to capital in three categories: capital needs, networks, and individual characteristics.Originality/valueThis study identifies factors that affect women entrepreneurs in raising capital and in facing the following challenges: first, working in a non-traditional field for women as it is the technology industry, and second assuming a leadership role as start-up founders. The results offer recommendation with potential to drive public policies in Latin America, which may be scalable to other developing and also to developed countries where market systems prevail. The findings show that women entrepreneurs, but also men, seeking start-up financing and alternatives are a viable source of employment and economic sustainability to mitigate the effects of increasing levels of unemployment worldwide.

Does Feedback to Business-Plans Impact New Ventures? Evidence from a Field Experiment

Feedback about business plans is thought to potentially improve ventures’ decisions and outcomes. Nonetheless, there is no direct experimental evidence supporting that assumption. We show a randomized controlled trial that tests the effect of giving written feedback to entrepreneurs’ business plans on the subsequent survival of their venture. Out of 88 high-stakes entrepreneurs, half randomly received written feedback and half did not. Later on both groups participated in the incubator program Startup Chile and received $40,000. After four years treated entrepreneurs were 50% more likely to list their ventures in key websites like AngelList, a proxy for having lasted longer.

Business Accelerators: Evidence from Start-Up Chile

Do business accelerators add value? If so, how? We investigate these questions by focusing on Start-Up Chile, a government-backed ecosystem accelerator. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show that entrepreneurship-schooling services of accelerators can significantly increase new venture performance by improving the entrepreneurial capital of participants. We speculate about the existence of four performance-enhancing mechanisms: greater social clout, the provision of an accountability structure that induces entrepreneurs to articulate and reflect about specific strategic tasks, an increase in self-efficacy, and know-how about building a start-up. We find no support for causal effects of basic services of cash and co-working space.

Boulevard of Broken Behaviors: Socio-Psychological Mechanisms of Entrepreneurship Policies

By simultaneously standing on the entrepreneurship, institutions and social influences literatures, this paper explores the use of socio-psychological mechanisms to stimulate entrepreneurial ecosystems. While past research has studied the effects of institutions that use normative, cognitive, regulative and economic mechanisms, this paper assesses the causal relationship between an exogenous treatment that leverages social influences, and subsequent changes in entrepreneurial behaviors. We do this by conducting an in-depth examination of Start-Up Chile, a recent and unorthodox policy that forces a social interaction between domestic and foreign entrepreneurs. We provide evidence about the behavioral differences between two social groups from distinct geographical regions, as well as the assimilation of useful entrepreneurial behaviors as a consequence of the exogenously induced social interaction between these groups. Moreover, we find that entrepreneurial self-efficacy acts as an inverse amplifier in the assimilation of the studied behaviors. Our results shed light on an unexplored landscape in the design of entrepreneurship policies. By challenging current wisdom about the use of conventional mechanisms of influence, we uncover the effectiveness of socio-psychological mechanisms to cause change where the former may fail to do so.

Ayudarum: an Austrian crowdsourcing company in the Startup Chile accelerator program

The founders of Ayudarum, an Austrian crowdsourcing company that is focused on connecting students with potential employers, joined the Chilean Startup accelerator ‘Startup Chile’ to help their young company expand outside its European roots. Startup Chile had provided Ayudarum with a mentor to help them understand how to grow Ayudarum’s number of users. Ayudarum’s initial business model, which had functioned well in Europe, involved partnering with universities. Universities made the Ayudarum site available to students who, in turn, logged in with their student email account. Once there was a large base of students onboard, firms were contacted to advertise jobs on the site. Now that the founders were trying to tap into the South American market, they discovered that students did not use their university email addresses and that there were distinct cultural differences in the way students worked, found jobs, and were paid. This difference may mean that Ayudarum would need to rethink the way its business model, how different markets should be targeted, and how the most value could be derived from its membership at Startup Chile.

Building International Social Capital at the Startup Chile Accelerator

Startup Chile (SUP), a business accelerator launched with much international fanfare by the Chilean government in 2010, is seen as a key reason that Santiago is now ranked among the world’s top startup cities. One of SUP’s primary goals is to link Chile’s innovation ecosystem to the world and to influence the culture of local business through contact with world-class international entrepreneurs. In this paper, we use one lens to examine its success at achieving these aims. For this preliminary work, we conducted field interviews with SUP entrepreneurs and staff. Specifically we conducted one or more interviews with thirteen SUP firms from across the 2010-2013 generations. We introduce our framework for analysis, which we label “the Cherimoya graph.” Our focus in data collection is on three link categories: 1) connections between foreign and Chilean entrepreneurs (where both were accepted to SUP); 2) connections between SUP entrepreneurs and the broader Chilean ecosystem (and by implication the transfer of social ties to the larger Chilean business community); and 3) connections between Chilean entrepreneurs within SUP and foreigners outside of SUP. We found that SUP has created numerous structures to foster networks and that some are succeeding. However, network creation was uneven and most noticeably, the Chilean and foreign SUP entrepreneurs did not forge as many links as expected. Additional research with additional interviews and social network analysis methods will follow shortly.

Venture Capital Industry in Chile

Venture capital has been growing rapidly in developing countries since 1990, but little research has been done so far on the venture capital industry in developing countries, especially Chile. Chile is an attractive starting point to study the venture capital industry keeping in mind the program Start-Up Chile as started by the Government of Chile that seeks to convert Chile as the innovation and entrepreneurial hub of Latin America. Detailed research on venture capital industry in Chile will be of great interests to Investors and policy makers in Chile as well as other developing countries especially in Africa and Latin America. Major findings of this research are summarized as follows: 1) Factors affecting the development of current venture capital industry 2) Measures that can stimulate venture capital industry positively

An Early Assessment of Start-Up Chile (Innovations Case Commentary: Start-Up Chile)

remarkable buzz. Young entrepreneurs in Santiago—a city that until recently was not considered a major entrepreneurship hub, often recognize the program’s name. Start-Up Chile has become the central convening force for a national entrepreneurial movement: although its collaborative office space is in the nation’s capital, its ripple effects are felt throughout the country, where entrepreneurs and local leaders have begun organizing meet-up events and conferences to promote discussions around innovation. The program has received even more attention internationally: plaudits have come from sources as wide-ranging as technology bloggers, start-up hacker societies, the Kauffman Foundation, and The Economist. In Chile, excitement around the program may stem mainly from the community and university events, new opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs, and the program’s inspiring messaging, which conveys a vision for the country’s cultural transformation. The excitement abroad comes from less Chile-centric aspects of the program. For earlystage, location-independent foreign entrepreneurs—thus far, applying from over 70 countries globally—Start-Up Chile seems to be a proposition that cannot lose. Selected applicants receive an almost instantly deployed one-year working visa without having to work for another company, US$40,000 without having to give up an equity stake in their company, and a welcoming community of fellow founders from all around the world—and many more benefits. For proponents of entrepreneurship and innovation in the academic and foundation worlds, Start-Up Chile offers not only a new model to boost regional entrepreneurship but also the potential for a global movement of interconnected start-up networks. For Chileans, foreign applicant entrepreneurs, and hopeful influencers of policy alike, the project’s early successes seem to predict future ones. However, it is important to discern Ted Gonder

Prosperity through Connectedness (Innovations Case Narrative: Start-Up Chile)

tions. Chileans have had to develop innovative ways to reach out to the world. This mindset provides the backdrop to the creation of Start-Up Chile. By bringing entrepreneurs to Chile from all over the world, Start-Up Chile not only makes Chile better connected to the rest of the world, it also contributes to a cultural change that creates more openness toward entrepreneurship. Start-Up Chile is a program created by the Chilean government. It depends on the Ministry of Economy and is executed by the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO), the leading organization for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. The premise of Start-Up Chile is simple: Chileans should invest in talented people no matter where they come from. The program should look at their projects and capabilities first, passports second. So far, Start-Up Chile’s results have exceeded expectations. In less than two years the program has received over 2,000 applications; of these, over 300 projects have been selected; of the selected projects, approximately 100 have already graduated to be part of the program’s Alumni Network. While Start-Up Chile’s objectives are long term, the impact that it currently is generating in the local ecosystem is evident. As of April 2012 there were 220 foreign start-ups operating in Chile, 60 percent of which are developing their prototypes and 34 percent of which already have some market traction (users or sales). These 220 startups have raised almost $10 million in equity investments, primarily from the United States. Tech meetups that once attracted only 20 or 30 people per week now attract more than 100—foreign and local entrepreneurs who gather to share knowledge and ideas in their areas of expertise. Ex-participants of StartUp Chile have also created the Association of Entrepreneurs of Chile (ASECH), of which many Chilean entrepreneurs are members.