Power and Money

Talent, time, and infrastructure are all extremely expensive. Latin American countries, such as Argentina, are experiencing a rapid growth in the number of technology start ups. Although, much like start ups in Silicon Valley, these companies require investment and lots of it; this vital aspect is only beginning to grow in Argentina. It begs to question as to why investors are still pouring money into the technology hot spots in the United States, and not putting more funds into the large pool of talent in Latin America.


In the 15th and 16th century Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, bringing back to Europe the narrative that described his discovery. Columbus and many conquistadors often described Latin America in an inferior, negative light. Luis Fernando Restrepo tells us in his essay The cultures of colonialism,  "Europeans produced an ambivalent image of the Americas as an erotic paradise and a dangerous landscape". We can only speculate as to weather these same feelings are still present in the minds of "western" investors; if so, they may be hesitant to bring large investments into countries such as Argentina.Narrowing the gap between the start up culture of Argentina and that of Silicon Valley is important; it is even vital to a growing world that depends so greatly on electronic products.


We see a large number of talented software developers in Latin America, but well paid developers are required to encourage time and dedication to a product. Alex Williams of TechCrunch reports that "Entrepreneurs [in Latin America] say that they pay engineers $1,500 to $2,500 per month. That's compared to the $6,000 and up startups pay engineers in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco". While I do love to write code, as a software developer, I would find it extremely difficult to provide my expertise to a company which does not value me; in this case, in the form of a salary. This all wraps back to investments, technology start ups, often enough, do not make any money at their initial conception; they require some form of capital to build an infrastructure and recruit talented developers.