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
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.
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...
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.