Search Results for: chile

Ep 21 Rocio Fonseca, Empowering Female Entrepreneurs and Startups in Latin America

Category : Chile, Crossing Borders Podcast
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rocio fonseca - empowering female entrepreneurs

No matter where you live in the world, it can be difficult for female entrepreneurs to succeed, but in Latin America it’s especially true. In this episode of Crossing Borders, I speak with Rocio Fonseca, Executive Director of Start-Up Chile.

We talk extensively about her first startup, what it was like starting a tech business in Chile in the early 2000s, why she moved to the US to study at MIT and work in Silicon Valley, why she came back to Chile to join Start-Up Chile, and the variety of programs within Start-Up Chile, including S-Factory, which focused exclusively on helping female entrepreneurs.

We wrap up the conversation talking about where she sees Start-Up Chile heading in the next 5 to 10 years.

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Ep 20 Thomas Allier, The Startup Growth Curve of a Latin American Travel Search Company

Category : Colombia, Crossing Borders Podcast
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Every startup has a growth curve. It looks different for each company depending on many factors, and my guest on this episode says founders need to push their company through its growth curve as fast as possible.

Thomas Allier left his home in Paris, France to found a startup in Colombia. It’s not the normal path of a Latin American company but his decision paid off. His company – Viajala – is now the largest discount flights search engine in Latin America. You’ll enjoy this conversation.

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Pura Vida: Pros and Cons of Doing Business in Costa Rica

Category : Costa Rica, Latin America Startups and Investing
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Costa Rica, literally “Rich Coast” in Spanish, is a fitting name for a country with diverse geography which ranges from tropical rainforests to vast oceanscapes. Five million people call Costa Rica home, and the official language is Spanish. Costa Rica’s GDP is US$74.9 billion with 72% attributed to imports and exports like coffee, sugar, and fruit. The average wage for Costa Ricans is about CRC654,059 (Costa Rican Colón) or US$1,150 per month.

Costa Rica is a prime location for entrepreneurs because of its proximity to the United States and because of its many free trade agreements. Its largest foreign investments come from the United States, which led to a 2016 marked a trade surplus of US$1.6 billion between Costa Rica and the US.

In the past few years, large tech companies like Amazon have invested in the Costa Rican market. One of the strong qualities of Costa Ricans, locally known as “Ticos,” is their literacy rate of 97.8%, The country has placed education as a top priority, and English is common among the young population. (more…)

Doing Business in Uruguay

Category : Latin America Startups and Investing, Uruguay
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doing business in uruguay

Note: This post is a collaboration between Nadim Curi, the Uruguayan cofounder of CityCop and me. Thanks to Nadim for taking the time to help out with this post!

The small country of Uruguay, wedged between its two much larger neighbors, Argentina and Brazil, is home to 3.4 million people and has been on the forefront of many innovative reforms. Uruguay ranks first in Latin America for democracy, peace, lack of corruption, e-government, and press freedoms.

Despite it’s small size, Uruguay has a unique culture and interesting achievements that have inspired Uruguayans to believe that anything’s possible. This attitude may be best epitomized by its national soccer team, which has won two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and 15 Copa Americas (more than any other South American country).

Besides football, Uruguay has a great quality of life and was ranked first in Latin America in democracy, peace, lack of corruption, press freedom, size of the middle class and prosperity. (more…)