20 million pesos and half a year in Chile: how SmartProgress won a grant at the other end of the world
This is a post about one of the most important and enjoyable news of our project: on Saturday, December 6, SmartProgress was among the winners of the Startup Chile program . This means a grant of 20 million Chilean pesos ($ 33,000), which we will need to “work out” after spending 6 months in Chile, participating in IT events and telling local startups about our project as master classes. However, for us it is also a bonus.
Our first video submission
We first spoke about Chile last spring, when our programmer, Nikita OneArt , sent the following message:
Of course, we are interested. And becoming interested - found information about the state program Startup Chile. This is a project to support startups from all over the world who receive grants from the Chilean government, and in exchange for this they live for six months and share their experience with the local IT environment. Thus, Chile strives to become the main technological hub of South America and create its own Silicon Valley.
')
By the 11th round of the program, which started in early June, we prepared a video clip. It had to be removed by myself, and my English is very bad, so we decided to split the text into several parts, and cut video fragments with each of the participants in different countries: Montenegro, Thailand, Russia. Video first attempt - above.
On August 30, we received a waiver, which is what is called “cut off” - we were sure that we had good chances for success. Fortunately, on September 9, we received a second letter from the organizers, in which they wrote the reasons for the refusal, for which they are very grateful: the market strategy and competitive advantage are not clear. This information gave us hope for a second chance, because now we knew what the judges did not like. Rounds are held twice a year, and at this point the filing of applications for the 12th round opened.
In the new application I described in detail our market strategy and competitive advantages. Looking at the pitches of the winners, I saw that they were showing their project in them. Therefore, we also added a demonstration of the project in the video:
This time we were calmer in our expectations, and even forgot a little about the project. Therefore, the answer that came three days ago, on Saturday, came as a surprise. The content was even more surprising: we passed into the 12th round of the Startup Chile program! It was nice, very nice ... yes, I was just happy! “This is definitely not a mistake?” - with this thought I climbed onto the program site, and saw the name of our project among hundreds of selected projects from 25 countries from around the world:
- and I was happy again!
Our round starts on February 23. We will go to Chile three together, and we plan to use this opportunity and the money of the Chilean government to launch a mobile application, expand the team, enter the Spanish-speaking market and pay for the next period of a corporate account on Habré and Hiktimes :)
And finally, if you want to try your luck in the 13th round, we want to say that the acceptance of applications begins on January 13, 2015 - you can read useful info here and, of course, on the program website - and wish good luck!
SmartProgress - achieving goals
Our first video submission
We first spoke about Chile last spring, when our programmer, Nikita OneArt , sent the following message:
Freelance as a basis for obtaining a residence permit for a year, and immediately extending to permanent residence, and subsequently citizenship.
A passport (permanent residence including) gives visa-free entry to Schengen and plans to visa-free entry to the United States.
Paperwork in the company is in the range of $ 2000. No additional costs, property purchases, etc.
Plus in this country, there are beach resorts and ski resorts and big cities.
Guess the country?
Of course, we are interested. And becoming interested - found information about the state program Startup Chile. This is a project to support startups from all over the world who receive grants from the Chilean government, and in exchange for this they live for six months and share their experience with the local IT environment. Thus, Chile strives to become the main technological hub of South America and create its own Silicon Valley.
')
By the 11th round of the program, which started in early June, we prepared a video clip. It had to be removed by myself, and my English is very bad, so we decided to split the text into several parts, and cut video fragments with each of the participants in different countries: Montenegro, Thailand, Russia. Video first attempt - above.
On August 30, we received a waiver, which is what is called “cut off” - we were sure that we had good chances for success. Fortunately, on September 9, we received a second letter from the organizers, in which they wrote the reasons for the refusal, for which they are very grateful: the market strategy and competitive advantage are not clear. This information gave us hope for a second chance, because now we knew what the judges did not like. Rounds are held twice a year, and at this point the filing of applications for the 12th round opened.
In the new application I described in detail our market strategy and competitive advantages. Looking at the pitches of the winners, I saw that they were showing their project in them. Therefore, we also added a demonstration of the project in the video:
This time we were calmer in our expectations, and even forgot a little about the project. Therefore, the answer that came three days ago, on Saturday, came as a surprise. The content was even more surprising: we passed into the 12th round of the Startup Chile program! It was nice, very nice ... yes, I was just happy! “This is definitely not a mistake?” - with this thought I climbed onto the program site, and saw the name of our project among hundreds of selected projects from 25 countries from around the world:
Service for the task and achievement of goals SmartProgress helps to formulate tasks and allows you to blog their implementation. The project brings together people with similar goals for the sake of sharing experiences and mutual assistance.
- and I was happy again!
Our round starts on February 23. We will go to Chile three together, and we plan to use this opportunity and the money of the Chilean government to launch a mobile application, expand the team, enter the Spanish-speaking market and pay for the next period of a corporate account on Habré and Hiktimes :)
And finally, if you want to try your luck in the 13th round, we want to say that the acceptance of applications begins on January 13, 2015 - you can read useful info here and, of course, on the program website - and wish good luck!
SmartProgress - achieving goals
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/245451/
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