Month: May 2014

Andes Property: Furnished Apartment Rentals in Santiago Chile

When I first got to Chile in 2010 as part of the pilot round of Startup Chile, my first task was to find an apartment. We rented a hostel for the first week, and set out to rent an apartment.

It was a daunting task. I spoke a bit of spanish, but my business partner Jesse didn’t really speak much at all. We started looking for shared apartments, furnished apartment rentals and unfurnished units in Providencia, Las Condes and Bellas Artes, but quickly were stymied. We didn’t really know where to search, our spanish wasn’t up to snuff and even when we did find a decent property, many landlords either didn’t want to rent to foreigners or jacked up the rent 2-3x when they heard my broken spanish.

After looking for a few days, we thought we’d found the apartment we wanted right near Metro Pedro de Valdivia. The photos were amazing (like our three bedroom in Las Condes pictured below). It had a pool. Two bedrooms. A balcony facing the Andes. I called and asked for the price and a time to go see it. When we got there and walked in, I knew we’d been taken for a ride. It was a one bedroom studio that was no way close to what we’d seen online.

three bedroom apartment las condes
One of our 3br apartments in Las Condes.

When another apartment quoted me $1500 a month, I asked my Chilean friend Cristobal to call and try to rent it. He got quoted $700. They’d tried to gringo tax us! Other apartments just flat out told us they wouldn’t rent to us unless we could show a year of income in Chile, or have a Chilean cosigner.

We ended up using an agency that worked out ok, but we ended up paying high broker fees and having to put four months down. Other friends weren’t so lucky and ended up getting taken advantage of by brokers.

one bedroom apartment bellas artes
1 bedroom apartment in Bellas Artes

Many of our friends ended up paying way over market value or having to pay their entire lease up front. And forget about getting your security deposit back at the end of your lease! Most of our friends ended up losing nearly all of their deposit and had no recourse. It turns out that for most Chileans the idea of a security deposit is really a “I use your money as an extra month’s rent” deposit!

In 2012 when I first got back to Chile, I decided to start to solve the problem. Two of my ex startup chile friends and I decided to create Andes Property, a company dedicated to helping foreigners find apartments to rent with a US level of customer service, fully bilingual service and without the typical Chilean paperwork and demands.

We started by buying our own apartments in Bellas Artes and then have taken over management of Chilean owned apartments that allow us to rent to foreigners using our standards. If you’re looking for an apartment, shoot us a message. We’d be happy to help you out. Click on the logo below for more info.

andes property apartments in santiago chile

Introducing Magma Partners: My New Seed Stage Fund in Chile

magma partnersI’m excited to announce a new project I’ve been working on for the past six months: Magma Partners, a new seed fund in Santiago, Chile that invests in startups and high potential small businesses. Along with two Chilean partners, Francisco Sáenz and Diego Philippi, we’ll invest $25,000-$75,000 in 8-10 high potential entrepreneurs each year for the next three years. Some press: Andes Beat (en), Fayerwayer, Diario Financiero, Pulso Social, Pulso Social (en).

magma1
Me, Francisco Sáenz, Diego Philippi

Our goal is to then provide follow on investments in the successful companies. We held our launch event last night where we announced the fund and our first two investments and it was a great time.

I’m excited to announce  our first investment, Propiedad Fácil, a property portal and real estate service provider in Chile. I think Magma Partners represents an opportunity to help keep the Chilean entrepreneurial ecosystem’s momentum going since the Startup Chile burst onto the scene in 2010.

Ever since trying to raise money for Entrustet in Chile in 2011, I’ve seen an opportunity for a Chilean early stage seed fund that operates using best practices from the United States. Chile is a very conservative country, so most investors still treat startup investing as if they were investing in a bakery or a bank and try to get as much equity as possible in the first capital raise, killing startups in the process.

I strongly believe that a higher percentage Chilean entrepreneurs fail than they should because the nascent Chilean entrepreneurship ecosystem lacks high quality mentorship, people willing to connect startups to existing businesses and access to capital using US industry standard terms. The best Chilean entrepreneurs get their start and quickly move abroad to find funding.

Our fund aims to fill the niche of high potential entrepreneurs who are starting their business in Chile with the goal of expanding across Latin America. We promise to be transparent, use US industry standard terms, give real mentorship and help you connect with potential clients and investors in Chile, Latin American and abroad.

But we’re aiming much higher. One of the things that I like about Chile is that it’s small. With about 17m people, you can have a nationwide impact fairly easily. Our plan is to not only help the entrepreneurs we invest in, but also to be a real help to those who we can’t invest in. I believe that if we execute our plan, we may be able to change the culture in Chile.

We’ve partnered with the Kauffman Mindset program to give mentorship to both companies that we invest in and Chileans who are interested in starting a business.

If you’re an entrepreneur with a business based in Chile who’s looking for funding, please check out our site, fill out our application form and a partner will get back to you within 48 hours with a “no, it doesn’t meet our criteria and here’s why” or a “yes, we’re interested, lets set up a meeting!”

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