Enough not to starve?! I'm living in Santa Barbara, California, which is very expensive by the average American standard, and two people can get by here fairly comfortably with $2K.

What's the price of living like in Santiago? More importantly, if the real perk is money and lower cost of living... I could just move to Kansas and rent a room for $200 a month.

The real perk are those $40k. I'm living with $350 a month (cost living + food + rent). I'm including the living costs, rent, food, servers, travels, services, etc. in those $2k.

But you can make it with $350 anyway. I agree with Ben that isolation is the biggest downside of Chile and the lack of this kind of entrepreneurship (I mean Hacker News and Y Combinator style), but if you just need to focus on your first prototype I think it's a good deal.

EDIT: But if you are in the stage of looking for investment (Angel, VC, Y Combinator) and getting some press coverage it would be like a suicide.

Just curious, could you tell us what the following would cost in Santiago?

  - A 50 sq m apartment in a central location on the 2nd or higher floor 
     (including electricity/water/garbage service)
  - An unlimited 1-month transportation pass
  - Groceries for 5 days for one person, assuming you're making breakfast/lunch/dinner
  - One beer in a bar. 
  - A pair of Levi's 501 jeans
  - A taxi across town
  - Dinner in a decent restaurant
  - 1 month of high-speed internet access

Average costs:

- Apartment: $320 - $420

- Transportation cost: $100 - $180 (30 days)

- Grocery: $20 - $45

- Very good beer: $3,60

- Jeans: $50 - $75

- Taxi: $10

- Dinner: $20

- Internet access: $80 (Cable, Telephone, Internet)

What "very good" beers do you like in Chile?

I was there recently and found the beers rather disappointing. The wine, however, was superb!

Kunstmann (Torobayo) and Austral (Yagan).

It would seem like the big perk here would be the 40k.

I really like the idea of going to Chile to get that support to build a prototype etc, and if I had some friends who were similarly motivated I would definitely consider applying.

I would rather take the 40k to be in Chile than say, Kansas, because Chile would offer another set of novel learning experiences as well - which would be part of the reason for going.

Novel, yes. Good for a startup? Probably not.

Being in a foreign country is taxing even when it's rewarding. I get much less work done here in Brazil than when I'm back in the States.

The 40k is definitely a nice perk though.

I think that exposure to new cultures and places can be stimulating and lead to creative new ideas and strategies. Perhaps less so if the company in question is just laser-focused on a consumer web product for the USA, but, in general...

Good idea! Why should foreigners be the only ones to mooch off the Chilean taxpayers?