It’s official! We got in 🙂
Last Thursday, Mike and I were chilling in San Diego waiting for my flight home to DC. We’d applied to Startup Chile two months ago in early October. It was last minute – we scrambled to compile and submit our application with just a couple hours to go before deadline. But we got our application in, and at 11am on Thursday, they released the announcement.
Mike and I were sitting next to each other on our respective computers. We both raced through the link, Control+F’d to search “SimpleCrew”, and arrived on our name in practically the same instant.
We lost it. There was our name. We’re going to Chile.
Funny story about our celebratory champagne…
Our friend Tiste actually brought over a bottle champagne about two weeks before, to celebrate our first conversion from trial to paying customer (we have the 30-day free trial, so new accounts take 30 days before they convert to paying).
For some reason we didn’t end up drinking the bottle that night, and every night for two weeks we joked about popping the bottle. But every time, we decided we should wait for another something to celebrate.
Some time earlier last week we realized that the Startup Chile announcement was going to be made on Thursday. As hard as we tried to stay outcome independent, we couldn’t help but get excited and anxious about the possibility of moving to Chile to build and sell our product for the 6 month program.
So we waited on that bottle, and Thursday at 11am, our celebratory thirst was quenched with that bottle that had been teasing us for the two weeks prior. Delayed gratification at it’s sweetest.
Looking Forward.
Mike and I are blown away. We couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to experience a new culture, a new city, and for immersion in a new language. But most importantly – we’re excited to build.
Since we started SimpleCrew back in February, both Mike and I have had to manage contract work and other priorities separate from SimpleCrew. And we’ve been 3000 miles apart, working remotely from DC and San Diego, respectively. We’ve made terrific progress, but it’s always been with some amount of financial concern, and a nation’s worth of distance in between.
With the program and included grant, we’re excited about the opportunity to be able to focus and work together on building our product and company and taking it to the next level.
Many Thanks
Many thanks to those of you that have continued support and enthusiasm. Milestones like these are fun to celebrate, but wouldn’t be as enjoyable or possible without you lot. Thanks to our families, friends, mentors, and investor (lookin’ at you, John).
It’s an exciting future. We’re looking forward to new heights. Upward and to the right.
