Introducing Exosphere: The New Entrepreneurial Community in Santiago

I’m excited to finally share Exosphere, a project I’ve been working on for the past few months. Located in the beautifully restored Palacio Concha, Exosphere is a community for entrepreneurs and creatives who want to take control of their lives and support themselves via their own projects. Whether you already have a business and want to use coworking, or just have an idea and need mentors or someone to share your day to day struggles, Exosphere is the place for you.

Exosphere is special because it’s not just another coworking space, although you can use it that way. It’s special because of Exosphere founder Skinner Layne’s overarching vision. He wants to change education, entrepreneurship and at the base of it all, empower people achieve their dreams and break free from having to work for a big company their entire lives.

His vision is the following: most people have the potential ability to create their own business, but most lack the tools and the entrepreneurial push to actually get started and then have success. He believes that you can teach entrepreneurship. That people will have success if they have real community around them. People to share ideas. People to share failures. To keep them motivated. To share contacts. To find business partners. And foster success.

I know it sounds like a massive goal, but I believe Skinner and his growing team can do it. I first met Skinner in 2010 when I first got to Santiago.  Skinner sent my business partner Jesse an email seeing if we wanted to meet another gringo who’d moved to Chile and we quickly became good friends, helping each other out with business challenges. When I first met Skinner, he was working on a ton of projects in parallel. About a year ago when he first got the idea for exosphere, I saw a change. He dropped all of his other projects. Our weekly meeting turned into brainstorming sessions about education, entrepreneurship, the future of work and empowering individuals. That’s when I knew he was onto something big. When he invited me to be on their board, I knew I had to do it.

Skinner’s persuaded his cofounders Antonio Manno and Amit Sonawane to come to Chile and a flood of foreign entrepreneurial talent has followed. The first entrepreneurs and mentors are already starting to work out of Exosphere. It’s opening as a coworking space this Friday. Foreigners are moving from multiple countries around the world just to be a part of Exosphere. Mentorship, community and entrepreneurial education will start next month.

Skinner, Antonio, Amit and the rest of Exosphere are trying to change the world. One life at a time. It’s going to be fun to watch them try. You can follow their progress on their Exosphere Blog, Facebook and read some of Skinner’s essays on his personal blog.

If you’d like more information, please contact me. And if you’d like to go to the party, post a comment at the end of this blog.