Angel Investing in Santiago Valley

Santiago Valley is a play on words meaning Chilean Silicon Valley, it's the title of a magazine article-turned-blog post by Chilean Internet heartthrob Leo Prieto that I first read in a Sanhattan dentist's office, because at that point the dentist hadn't yet attached flat-screen HDTVs to the waiting room walls and operating room ceilings, although by now they should be up.

Leo reminds us once again that he was "there", getting more hits for his Mac site in its first year than Yahoo in its first, and because he's an industry leader we should believe him when he says that "there" is once again "here". So after wading through tired metaphors about the Wild Wests and Gold Rushes, one does see a tidy little list of buzz, all these Web startups proving that Chile is in its own special way somewhat where it's at.

One that stuck out was Needish.com because some totally gringa chick works there and commented on Chileno once. Also Meeting.cl because I interviewed Cristian Sepulveda, one of the founders, for an unrelated story. They wrastled down nice little grant from the Chilean government's Economic Development Agency (CORFO.cl). Because Chile is a Free Market invisible hand no handouts from uncle Samuel miracle.

Well, how about that. How does private investing work in Chile? Well, I found an interesting study on Angel Investors in Chile which I might read some day. Although - Spoiler Alert - I did scroll down to catch the conclusion:

Compared to other Latin American countries, local investors are perceived well by society and the legal and economic context is more friendly to angel investing. Thus Chile may not have yet the conditions to have a driving angel investing market as in the US, but local conditions seem to be much better than in the average Latin American country.

BTW: I have no idea when it was published.

Of course, Cristian is like always in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area complaining, rightly so, about BART prices, and that's where investors think outside the box or throw plates of spaghetti at the wall and hope the one noodle that sticks is the next Google. I did find a really cool-seeming new site that might make it easier to network with potential Angel Investors from anywhere. It's a resource for startup companies seeking Venture Capital, and also anyone who likes to throw money at startups, it's a resource for them as well. Leo's latest blog post is all about how hard it is to start up in Chile, and blames it on entrenched pessimism which is true but it's a tricky argument because without turning this into a materialistic pinko screed I'd like to suggest that people tend to be a whole lot more optimistic when there's more money lying around, so give Chile an Angel Investor or two! Or even its own version of a website that helps lubricate
Funding inside the country. See?