Cumplo takes on the Chilean banking System

Editor’s note: Introducing our writer-abroad Justin Koufopoulos. Justin is living in the UK conducting research in psychology that he plans to spin off in his first company.

He has a passion for government policy, and believes that entrepreneurs can solve the world’s most challenging problems!

Justin visited us in Chile for over a month, and while he was here he got to sit down with Jean Boudeguer from Cumplo

Nicolas Shea and Jean Boudeguer never expected to receive a formal complaint from the Superintendencia de Bancos e Instituciones Financieras or Superintendancy of Banks and Financial Institutions (SBIF) requiring that their new company, Cumplo, a peer-to-peer lending service, cease its activities immediately. Continue reading

Sharing Services & Collaborative Consumption Meetup

Editor’s Note: This guest post is courtesy of Anna Korolyuk – PhD student in physics,  who became enchanted by entrepreneurship and now is enjoying her work in Kassi, sharing service for local communities.

Date: Monday, 2nd April, 19:00
Place: Casa Lastarria (map)
RVSP here

Have you ever heard about Collaborative Consumption or the Sharing Economy? No?
Ok, have you ever borrowed a power drill from a friend or asked neighbor to water your flowers, when you were on a holiday?
Congratulations, that’s it!

Sharing is one the oldest way of social interactions. Clearly, it was invented before the money. And now it’s rising again. Thanks to the Internet, now we can find a couch at someone’s house on the other continent, borrow a car without even knowing the name of the owner or borrow money from someone, you could never meet in real life. Access to resources is becoming more important than the ownership, and online reputation makes it possible to trust strangers in a way that has not been possible before.

Some of the most known sharing services include peer-to-peer marketplaces (Tradepal), social lending (Zopa), peer-to-peer travel (CouchSurfing, Airbnb and Onefinestay), experiences (GuideHop), event ticket sharing (unseat.me) and car sharing (Zipcar and RelayRides).

During the meet up, we will try to bring together sharing services, which now work in Chile, and people who are interested in the topic. Continue reading