Travel hacks: making the most of an overseas trip

Ed Hooper has racked up a bunch of passport stamps since raising an angel round for his startup 121cast from the Optus Innov8 fund in November last year. Since then, he’s been on a quest to establish a network of potential global partners and investors, and has a few travel tips to share.

“Travel and conferences are a great opportunity, but only if done well,” says Hooper. “Otherwise, you spend a lot of time and money on stuff that won’t help you or your startup.”

Structure your trip around a conference

Booking a conference at the start of a trip helps you connect with plenty of people in one place. Hooper has recently attended TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, LeWeb in Paris, and Echelon in Singapore. He says if you go with co-founders, force yourselves to split up and talk to different people.

“Some of the best people we’ve met have been at conferences when we’ve gone off by ourselves,” he says. “You just start talking to people because you have to.”

The opening line ‘So, what are you doing here?’ is always a good way to kick off a conversation. In fact, Hooper asked just that to a guy he saw standing by himself at LeWeb in 2010. Hooper found out his fellow delegate had developed Presdo, a technology being used at the conference.

They got talking and then arranged a meeting a few days later. Only then did Hooper find out that it was Eric Ly, an original co-founder of LinkedIn.

See if there are any grants that apply for you

There are a bunch of government grants available for Australian companies to attend overseas conferences and events. In some cases the Victorian Government offers grants of up to $5,000 for startups to exhibit or attend conferences.

The Federal Government also offers an Export Marketing Developments Grants scheme to support companies marketing products to an overseas market. It’s worth doing a bit of research as you could get some support to take your startup abroad.

Make sure it’s a good time to go

Make sure you pick a good time to visit. Hooper says heading to the U.S. in September was the perfect time to go. In July, many of the people you’ll want to meet with are on summer holidays — good luck meeting with a VC.

On a recent Singapore trip, Hooper says he hadn’t planned for a mid-week public holiday. It meant many people had taken an extra day off, and it was a bad week to meet people. Doing some quick research can avoid wasting time visiting while no-one’s around.

Reach out to locals well before landing

Hooper uses LinkedIn Premium as it allows you to send messages to anyone and get more detailed search results, but says the free version is just as useful. Narrow down a search to the particular city. You may find someone you know is connected to a local. Get an intro, and hopefully they are happy to meet.

“Reach out via LinkedIn and hit up all the investment firms and VCs. Set up all those meetings at the start.”

Cram those meetings

Try and fill your first few days in a place with meetings. This will mean you can get straight into the networking once you arrive. You may want to follow up with people for a second meeting, so organising as many as you can in the first few days is the best approach.

For each meeting, it’s worth asking if there’s anyone else you should meet. Often you’ll get introduced to other people, so leaving some free time at the tail end of your visit allows you to fit these impromptu meetings in.

“At the end of every meeting, ask if there’s anyone else you need to meet. They’ll usually say you need to meet this person or that person,” says Hooper.

Follow up

Hooper tells everyone he meets he’ll follow up once he’s back home — that usually means connecting on LinkedIn. However, 121cast also maintains several mailing lists: one for investors who want to follow the company’s progress, and another for potential partners. He normally sends emails out every few months. It’s a good way of sharing the 121cast journey with those who are interested.

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