sammydee
New Contributor
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2013
- Messages
- 17
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Hey Guys,
A quick intro from me.
My name's Sam Philip, and I live in Santiago, Chile. I graduated with a Physics degree from the UK when I was 21, and promptly left for Australia. I lived there for a year on a working holiday visa, worked a bunch of odd jobs and saved enough money to travel South America for 8 months. Then I went back to England to find my parents had rented out the house and I had no money, no income and nowhere to live. So I took a shot in the dark and moved to Chile just over a year ago.
When I arrived, I worked as a customer support rep for a very popular free market blogger based here, hated it and quit, then worked as a bartender for four months which was fun and taught me a lot of Spanish. Then I taught English for a bit but I knew that was a dead end, so I quit that too.
I'm now 24 years old and currently work for a tech startup here in Santiago that produces an enterprise-level mobile learning platform, I've been working closely with the founder since last April. The Startup was funded by Startup Chile although that money has long been spent and the development costs have been grudgingly dredged from the founders pocket.
I'm driven to post this because my work is starting to become a drag. My pay has always been appallingly low (about $700 per month) and the hours long but I put up with it because I (perhaps mistakenly) thought I was learning something and building something for myself.
However, the founder has just told me that he only intends to give me a 3% stake in the company that will mature over the next five years (!!). Considering we don't even have any real customers yet, and my very low pay, this is starting to look like a garbage option.
I now speak fluent Spanish, and I've been out on multiple sales visits to present the product in that language, but frankly the technology simply isn't ready yet and no amount of sales pazazz can make up for that. I'm not even sure how much longer it will take before it will be ready. The process is slowed because the founder isn't willing to put any more personal cash in to pay the developers and I certainly don't have any cash to fund it.
Frankly I'm frustrated, I was making more money than this when I sold model airplane parts from my bedroom when I was 16 years old.
Chile is a very different business environment from most western countries. But I'm convinced there is abundant opportunity here for anybody that can speak the language well.
I have a couple of side projects on the go but nothing I've made any real money from. I've been thinking about a premium relocation service for expats wishing to move here (see a fledgling site at http://ultimateguidetochile.com) and I've been offering some basic web design services, but frankly I'm lost. I don't know whether to stick it out at my current job and wait for the development to catch up so I can make some money selling this thing, or to look for another job at another startup. I don't have any other way to supplement my income right now so I don't have a lot of freedom in this regard.
I'm extremely frustrated because I KNOW I should be better than this! I'm smart and capable enough to graduate in Physics yet all I have to show for it three years later are more casual shit jobs than I can count and $500 in the bank.
I'm very driven to make something work. I've read TMF twice already, I understand all the theory behind fastlane businesses and I'm in a country wide open to business opportunity. There shouldn't any reason for me not to succeed...
So I'm looking forward to gleaning some guidance and direction from this wonderful online resource.
Thanks for reading!
Sam
A quick intro from me.
My name's Sam Philip, and I live in Santiago, Chile. I graduated with a Physics degree from the UK when I was 21, and promptly left for Australia. I lived there for a year on a working holiday visa, worked a bunch of odd jobs and saved enough money to travel South America for 8 months. Then I went back to England to find my parents had rented out the house and I had no money, no income and nowhere to live. So I took a shot in the dark and moved to Chile just over a year ago.
When I arrived, I worked as a customer support rep for a very popular free market blogger based here, hated it and quit, then worked as a bartender for four months which was fun and taught me a lot of Spanish. Then I taught English for a bit but I knew that was a dead end, so I quit that too.
I'm now 24 years old and currently work for a tech startup here in Santiago that produces an enterprise-level mobile learning platform, I've been working closely with the founder since last April. The Startup was funded by Startup Chile although that money has long been spent and the development costs have been grudgingly dredged from the founders pocket.
I'm driven to post this because my work is starting to become a drag. My pay has always been appallingly low (about $700 per month) and the hours long but I put up with it because I (perhaps mistakenly) thought I was learning something and building something for myself.
However, the founder has just told me that he only intends to give me a 3% stake in the company that will mature over the next five years (!!). Considering we don't even have any real customers yet, and my very low pay, this is starting to look like a garbage option.
I now speak fluent Spanish, and I've been out on multiple sales visits to present the product in that language, but frankly the technology simply isn't ready yet and no amount of sales pazazz can make up for that. I'm not even sure how much longer it will take before it will be ready. The process is slowed because the founder isn't willing to put any more personal cash in to pay the developers and I certainly don't have any cash to fund it.
Frankly I'm frustrated, I was making more money than this when I sold model airplane parts from my bedroom when I was 16 years old.
Chile is a very different business environment from most western countries. But I'm convinced there is abundant opportunity here for anybody that can speak the language well.
I have a couple of side projects on the go but nothing I've made any real money from. I've been thinking about a premium relocation service for expats wishing to move here (see a fledgling site at http://ultimateguidetochile.com) and I've been offering some basic web design services, but frankly I'm lost. I don't know whether to stick it out at my current job and wait for the development to catch up so I can make some money selling this thing, or to look for another job at another startup. I don't have any other way to supplement my income right now so I don't have a lot of freedom in this regard.
I'm extremely frustrated because I KNOW I should be better than this! I'm smart and capable enough to graduate in Physics yet all I have to show for it three years later are more casual shit jobs than I can count and $500 in the bank.
I'm very driven to make something work. I've read TMF twice already, I understand all the theory behind fastlane businesses and I'm in a country wide open to business opportunity. There shouldn't any reason for me not to succeed...
So I'm looking forward to gleaning some guidance and direction from this wonderful online resource.
Thanks for reading!
Sam
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