First Meetup of the online video industry

It has been a while since we wanted to gather a good bunch of the online video industry to share ideas and projects over a beer. So we decided to launch the first meetup group for online video people, and since we have been working from Santiago for the last few weeks, we organized our first event here, in a cool bar in the bohemian Santiago area of Lastarria. 

We had Matías Casanova (@matu7) as a speaker. He is the founder and CEO of Raya, one of the most important digital agencies in the country. He shared with us his experience creating the online series Los Jetas, the first one to be profitable in Chile. Ramiro (@ramiro_t) also shared some interesting new tools to help minimizing stress with team and clients during the production process. After that, filmmakers, producers, agencies and photographers mingled together and exchange experiences and ideas, a nice turnout.

 It was a great opportunity to bring together people from the online video industry, and we are already organizing the second event, if you feel you belong to such a meetup, signup here. 


If you are going to San Francisco

We spent the last weeks of September at San Francisco, the first two days we were at the StartUpChile Demo Day and at the Investor Speed Dating that Endeavor had organized. Even though we had some meetings scheduled for the rest of our time at the valley, we ended up having a lot more meetings than we expected to have, and walking out with more than we ever thought.  
 
So here are some thoughts about the entrepreneurial scene at SF: 
 
People are open to talk, and getting meetings takes a lot less time than what we are used to. This is incredibly helpful, there is something in the culture that makes entrepreneurs and investors willing to meet, even if it is only for five minutes, they will give you the time.  
 
People are willing to share and connect. This is probably one of the most valuable aspects of a culture that grows around entrepreneurship: the fact that people want to help. They will listen to you and what you do, and in most cases they will get you in contact with people in their circles that relate to your business, that is fundamental because this new contacts will get you other new contacts, and so on.  
 
Things move fast! Because people are willing to meet and because they are willing to share and connect, everything will move fast in front of you, so you better be ready to move fast too. I don’t mean have a fast car, I mean take notes, do follow up,  connect on Linked In, share your own networks and be ready to manage your agenda like a puzzle on the go. 
 
Having said this, and if you are thinking on moving to the valley ASAP, here is another (obvious and not so obvious) thought: 
 
Every body wants to be in SF, its full with the investors you want to meet, the companies you want your company to work with, and the talents that you want to hire/talk to/ask for advise, but this also means high demand and therefore high prices for everything from leaving and working space to interns (if you need them). So, this is the writing I posted on my office wall: 
 
Go to San Francisco when:  
 
a) you are ready,  
b) your product is ready, 
c) you have money in the bank to eat, sleep, and have a desk, 
d) any combination of the above (inclusive or exclusive) that suits your risk taking personality.  

(SUPChile DemoDay)

(Japan Town)

(the best food at Zynga headquarters)

(HP headquarters)

(cool reading on the door at 500startups)

(the SF Giants! to be watched with a beer and chilly hotdogs)

(hiking nearby Lake Tahoe)

European Tour

We just finished an amazing European tour with MiBuzz, which was full of surprises, meeting new people, discovering new mind sets. We literally run from one meeting to another, with great bloggers, community managers, coworker space organizers, pitching to investors, presenting to tech events, learning from founders of amazing advertising agencies. 

We came back home with great plans of improvement for MiBuzz such as new functions to implement. 

The tour begun with Madrid. As Ramiro lived half of his life in Madrid, he had several contacts we wanted to meet. We then moved to Luxembourg where we attended the ICT Spring event, and were selected to present. 

We discover a lot of interesting projects and entrepreneurs from all over Europe, and discovered some of the fiscal advantages of Luxembourg :)

We then flew to London, see post below. As Roxane is from Belgium, we couldn’t miss a visit there, and discovering the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. We were invited to present to different events, such as ‘Entreprendre en Wallonie’

And off course to taste these delicious Belgian beers.

Cheers!

London Calling

MiBuzz.tv made its first visit to London! We went to the new Google Campus, an awesome coworking space in the middle of vibrating Shoreditch area which just opened  three months ago. We visited the Seedcamp incubator on the 4th floor, where we met with Philipp Moehring. We spent a few hours working in the Café, meeting great startuppers over a good cup of tea.

It was nice to discover the ecosystem over there, and to discover amazing projects such as the SayDuck. Apart from the rain, London seems like a place where we could stay! Especially after having their traditional killing English breakfast.

We were selected for the Contact Chile program!

Since March we are on residency at the StartUp Chile program, which has been an amazing opportunity to get in contact with entrepreneurs and mentors from all over (we got to talk presonally to people like Vivek Whadwa, Evan Nisselson and Joaquin Ayuso, who gave us fundamental feedback on MiBuzz.tv). But last week we received the news that we have been selected in the Contact Chile program, which is focused on helping startup go global and conquer the world.

This is an exciting news, it will be another great opportunity to make our product fit the needs of our users and get the word spread. More news to come!