As co-founder boy worked on-site today covering the 2012 Chile Private Equity and Venture Capital Forum hosted by Latin American Venture Capital Association and I was catching up on the tons of emails we have received over recent days from near and far, I couldn’t help but stop and take the time to thank our beloved Chileno entrepreneur and startup community.
The AndesBeat is getting a little stronger and spreading a little farther and a little faster, infinite thanks to you!! CHILE – Not only do you crush all the cultural myths when you support us, you also make us so happy and proud….you really do!!!
While you do not have the critical mass of perhaps a Mexico, Argentina or Brazil, you have to look at it this way, Chile is a like a ‘Lean Country‘, jejeje. You have more agility and flexibility and can adapt to change faster.
The actions you take, the thoughts and ideas you share, and the more you share your story and new updates, makes us feel that everyone is beginning to understand, it is not enough to bang the drum just one time.
In order to continuously attract foreign investment, foreign media and foreign talent to help internationalize the work of Chile, we (meaning media, investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, advocates and more) have to keep filling the global pipeline with all things new and hot in Chile.
The world wants to know it all, from the hottest new startups and successful exits, along with new programs, policies and partners who are making it a little more easier and a little more fun to do business in Chile.
Chile’s startup ecosystem and contribution to the global ecosystem spans far beyond the work and contributions of one ‘organization’ or one ‘investor’. The impact, results and attention we are seeing now started back in 1997 (if not before) when you launched your first entrepreneurship center at Adolfo Ibáñez University.
There are many organizations, programs and individuals doing tremendous things in and for this country. You have ASECH doing grassroots work in policy (livestreaming ‘You cannot, not be’ event now), First Tuesday Americas (wishing you success with your First Tuesday Temuco event 5 June 2012!!) doing outreach in other cities in Chile and now we have the Chilean media engaged and being flexible and proactive in helping us to share these stories among their respective networks.
Take care of your local entrepreneurs and they will take care of you.
– Evan Nisselson
Yesterday, many thanks to the Founder Institute (Chile) and First Tuesday Americas, we had the opportunity to meet with Evan Nisselson, a digital imaging junkie, 500 startups mentor and more importantly, a Founder Institute (Chile) mentor. We will be making a post on him soon, but the greatest takeaway from our time with him was that he validated we are moving in the right direction by making sure to always support our local entrepreneurs first.
It was the inspiration behind founding AndesBeat and continues to be our key driving force and motivation, everyday in every way. And we are seeing that more organizations out there working in the entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem, are starting to remember to do the same as they open up a bit more and cross promote each others work.
I can remember, less than 6 months ago when this was clearly not the case. Our companies and organizations were not built for us, but for those we serve. Without our ‘customers’ we cannot exist.
May 2012 (and the previous 5 months building up to it) have been magical and momentous for AndesBeat. Most recently we hosted our first event with Yale University’s ‘The Globalist’ and announced our partnership with leading global private equity firm, Riverwood Capital!
So as we move forward, once again, we personally wanted to take this time to thank EVERYONE in Chile’s entrepreneurship and startup community for their support, thoughtful words, re-distribution of our news and others …..and of course I have to give a little extra special thanks to my local Chileno entrepreneurs, startup founders and developers (Shoni loves you too darn much and you know this)!!!
And we want to encourage you to keep spreading the word of your good work in this good country, if not with us, with the Chilean media, international media and your respective networks.
Continued Success!
