Toronto is one of my favorite cities in North America, so when I heard about StartupEmpire, I was very tempted to go over there… I was one of the winners of the StartupEmpire contest by Flow Consulting, so that made it for me.

I left on Wednesday morning, so I’d have some time to walk around. It was rainy, but not too cold, so I was trying to find this warehouse that some artists created the “A City Renewal Project” that I read about on Jaunted… After a very long walk on Queen St. I found the place, but they were closed…

Anyay, the whole purpose of this trip was the StartupEmpire conference. I can’t emphasize how important networking is for all entrepreneurs and startups out there: you get valuable feedback, you get new ideas, you meet potential partners…

For those of you who are still not networking, I strongly recommend you to do so. Check out on Facebook, Meetup.com for local events (If you’re in Montreal, come the the MTL NewTech meetup that I’m organizing and check Montreal Tech Watch for other events.) If you’re planning to go somewhere on isolation to work on a project and not tell anybody about it, I don’t think this is a good idea… If you need a place to go, come to Montreal! (uh, Ben?)

So, about StartupEmpire: It was totally worthy. Great line up of speakers, with great tips and advices. Most of that stuff I knew already, but it’s always good validation. I also met some new people with whom I was able to talk about YowTRIP and hear what they thought about it…

And a lot of the questions they ask me shows me a little bit about what I need to improve on my pitch. For example, when I start talking about the notion of travel groups, I sometimes get the comment “I’m not sure about travelling with strangers.” To which I explain that the concept of travelling with people you don’t know isn’t new. People have been travelling in groups organized by travel operators for a long time. And people are also comfortable with meeting people online: dating, Facebook, Meetup, etc. So, I have to make sure I always make this connection on my pitch… and in the beginning, so they don’t get stuck in that thought… this is one example on how valuable it is to talk to people about your idea.

I used to be very careful about talking about my projects with people until I came to the realization that a lot of people are probably thinking about the same think or working on the same thing as you at any given moment. The best way to get ahead is to execute it as fast as you can and, yes, tell people about it, so you can get feedback, validation soon. Nobody is going to drop whatever they’re doing to steal you idea!

So, in that line, they changed the agenda a bit to allow anybody to pitch their idea/startup and get criticized about the pitch itself and the viability of your business by four Angels/VCs. So, I jumped in to give my pitch, pulled out my notes I always carry with me in my wallet.

Most of the comments were somewhat negative (to all of us who pitched it). I look at negative feedback as a good thing, sometimes I like negative feedback better than positive (not always, sometimes you do need some sort of validation). So here’s what I got from them:

• Small market. No go. I’m dedicated and I should spend my time on something else
• Crowed market, travel agencies are already doing that
• In this economy, travel isn’t a good industry to be in
• (and a positive one) Liked the idea and in this economy, that fact that we’ll be creating travel is a good value proposition.

Afterwards, I had a few people that came to talk to me and that they did like my idea, but I think some of them were trying to help me to not feel discouraged. But I don’t. I’ve talked to a lot of people, I’ve listened to a lot of stories and Angels and VCs… here’s my take about all that:

• Not all Angels and VCs really know about your industry, so you kind of have to filter out some of their comments. For example: the Travel Industry being a small market? Leisure travel is about $100 billion industry in the US alone, with a projected growth of 8% in this economy. And 60% of business travellers combine leisure travel in their business trips, so the market is huge.
• The other thing I always follow is what Christine Comaford-Lynch (one of Google’s Angel investors) once said “If you haven’t heard enough ‘NO’, you’re not talking to enough people.”
• Also, when Google came along, Yahoo was already well established and the search business was defined. When they were looking for funding, some people in the Valley were avoiding them, because they saw no future.
• Now, having said that, I do realize that 80-90% of the web startups will not go anywhere. So the odds are not on our side, but I look at this whole process as a learning opportunity (not a failure), and the connections/partnerships you make along the way might lead you to your next venture (again my point about networking - uh, Ben?)

A couple of last notes from StartupEmpire: David Cohen, from Colorado Startups and TechStars, came to talk about Boulder and TechStars. So I finally got to meet him. I’d seen him many times in Boulder at the NewTech meetups, TechStars Investor Day and Tech Cocktail, but I never had a chance to talk to him there. Boulder is such a great community. I enjoyed the six months I spent out there!

I also made some contacts with Sun Startup Essentials and Microsoft BizSpark about sponsoring the Montreal NewTech meetups!

So, overall a very good event and worth the investment!

Oh, and then before I got on the train this morning, I went by PlanetEye’s office to meet some of the guys there and talk about YowTRIP. I have been following what they’ve been doing for a while now.

And they liked my new travel computer too.