Rollercoaster ride of our Startup life and Startup Chile
Scene 1:
Location: Bangalore, Day: 30th August, Time: Around 5.00 pm
Hemanshu and I finish an investor meeting at a plush skyscraper in Bangalore, we were bombarded with the same buzzwords in here, “Traction”, “Market adoption”, “Scaling”, “FDA approvals”, “Regulatory processes”, “Clinical trials” and same questions and remarks such as, “You guys have a great team but we want to see traction”, “We would love to co-invest”, “Who/What is your biggest threat”, “There is no market for your product in India”, “How would you make money” and finally, “Come back when you have some traction and in the meantime, we are tracking you”.
I could see clear despair on Hemanshu’s face and I was trying to hide mine but I was unsuccessful. My cab was waiting below the investor’s office when Hemanshu said,
“This is just the beginning, our journey has begun, enjoy your Kindle and have a safe journey”. He waved, smiled and left while I threw my guitar processor and laptop bag on the back seat of the cab and submerged myself into Van Halen’s “Right Now”. Reached the airport, started reading, Fountainhead on my new Kindle. (Yep, I din’t want to show the world that I haven’t read “Fountainhead” yet, so that was my ulterior motive for buying a Kindle but now everybody would know)
Scene 2:
Location: Mumbai, Day 31st August, Time: Around 1.30 am
I was already missing Bangalore weather and the support which the Bangalore Startup community had given us. I was now sitting alone in my bedroom and trying to read some research papers on Diabetes. Enthusiasm level was into negative. Eyelids were shutting, internet connection was flickering too. I was going through the notes which I had taken down during investor meetings. I had started writing emails to doctors to initiate talks and to demo Diabeto. Twitter Video for Startup Chile had started. The founder of Startup Chile was giving a great inspirational talk about the entire program, an Argentinian investor was speaking about her early stage investor fund which she had launched and in another 15–20 minutes, they were going to announce the results. Suddenly, I could feel the chill, sleep + mild depression had transformed into anxiety. Finally, the time had come, the founder started announcing the results in the batch of 30 startups at a time. Diabeto wasn’t in the first 30, second batch starts, Diabeto’s name wasn’t announced in this batch too. Suddenly, my internet faced some hiccups and I missed the next 5 seconds, I could feel the lump in my throat, this was getting too tense a situation. The 15 startups were announced, Diabeto wasn’t there and then I hear,
Diabeto from India
I couldn’t believe what I just heard, suddenly, enthusiasm levels were infinitely up! Picked up my phone and called up Hemanshu, he din’t pick up, it was 2.30 am, second time he picks up and I just say, “We are in” He couldnt believe and later he couldn’t sleep the entire night, nor could I…
Start-Up Chile is a program created by the Chilean Government, executed by Corfo via InnovaChile, that seeks to attract early stage, high-potential entrepreneurs to bootstrap their startups in Chile, using it as a platform to go global. The end goal of the accelerator program is to convert Chile into the definitive innovation and entrepreneurial hub of Latin America; this is a mission shared by the Government of Chile and is a primary focus of the Ministry of Economy. Each batch has 100 startups from around the world who get 1 year work VISA and a equity free $40,000 seed investment.
All of the Start-Up Chile entrepreneurs are measured during their time in the program by various indicators including participation in local events, presenting workshops on their particular expertise, raising local or international capital, and contracting talent.
Indian startups at Startup Chile
Ecoswarm: It is an online platform that is dedicated to sustainable development. EcoSwarm makes it easy for the user to keep up with his/her green interests. It helps one discover the latest in green technologies, business practices, lifestyle choices, products, services, and jobs — filtered and sorted based on what matters to the concerned person.
Picovico: It is a video creation tool that makes it easy and fun for everyone to create and share videos using their own pictures, words and music.
Treadalong: A stealth mode travel startup that goes by the tagline- share.discover.treadalong.
Diabeto wishes all the startups an eventful and awesome journey at Startup Chile
