Hard work paid off for two Salisbury students-- their going international!
Salisbury University alumnus Ryan Chacon and business partner, Ben Bunk, have been awarded
a $40,000 equity free grant by the Chilean Government to participate in Start-Up Chile and build
their programming platform.
Start-Up Chile, a Chilean-based business accelerator program, selects applicants from all over
the world to relocate to Chile for 6 months to focus on their company. Chacon and Bunk's
application was selected along with 100 others out of over 1,400 applications.
The two are currently working on a social-commerce platform called Stupil, which is a real-time,
in-stream e-commerce tool that will be used across multiple social media platforms. The idea is
to enable anyone to be able to buy/sell and donate instantly in-stream without any hassle.
Chacon and Bunk believe that bringing the buying and selling processes together enables
consumers to conduct transactions from where they spend most of their time online, as opposed
to forcing consumers to have to click away from sites they are on in order to buy or donate.
Chacon feels that the landscape of the internet is changing and everyone is flocking to social
networks, blogs and video sites; the last thing a person wants to do is be forced to leave the site
they enjoy being on in order to donate to a cause or buy something of interest.
“Have you ever seen an ad within a social network or while you are watching a video and it says
"buy now" or something along those lines?” Chacon said. “What happens when you click it?-you are dragged away from the site you were viewing the ad on and sent through a journey
around the internet in order to go through a lengthy buying process on the sellers site. This is
traditional e-commerce in its finest form, and situations like this have led us to create Stupil.”
Their motto “buy now” does not mean 'leave now.” This is referring to "buy now" or "donate
now" links inside of ads or videos that redirect you to another site in order to make a transaction.
They are working to connect the entire commerce process, making the whole thing simpler.
In order to enter in Start-Up Chile, Chacon and Bunk had to pass through an examination process
conducted by international industry experts and entrepreneurs focusing on global mindsets and
worldwide potential. Start-Up Chile seeks to attract early-stage high potential entrepreneurs to
bootstrap their startups using Chile as a platform.
During Chacon and Bunk's time in the program, they will be measured by their participation in
local events, presentations in workshops on their particular expertise, and on raising local or
international capital.
Their company is setting out to change the way commerce is done online by removing any
unnecessary steps in the online transaction process. Unlike other online companies, Stupil gets
straight to the point.
Chacon said their company members enjoy fixing problems and making processes and products
easier for everyone who uses them. Stupil uses videos and video players to allow consumers to
make quick, immediate transactions.
“Think about watching a movie trailer and being able to purchase tickets right inside of the video
player after you watch the trailer and not having to go to another site such as Fandango to buy
them,” Chacon said. “Or you watch an ad about the victims of Hurricane Sandy and want to
donate, going all over the internet to find where and how to donate is a pain and a big time
waster, just think how easy it would be if you could donate $5 directly inside of the video player
wherever you are watching the video.”
Chacon earned his B.S. in finance and information systems from the Franklin P. Perdue School
of Business in 2009 and his M.B.A. in 2010 at Salisbury University. He was also awarded The
Bernstein Achievement Award for Excellence with teammates Hunter McIntyre and Charles
Gray.
The team wrote a business plan for Knollege, an educational social networking site. A top prize
of $5,000 dollars came along with the top prize.
The team traveled to Santiago, Chile in February of 2013 to begin their six month start-up
accelerator program. They are continuing to build their video player prototype while mapping
out their business strategy.
“So far the experience has been incredible,” Chacon said. “The weather, the people, the food,
everything is great. Now we have 6 months to execute like crazy and come out of this program
with a viable company.”