Billions With Zero Knowledge - Austin Hill, Entrepreneur & Angel Investor

I’m really pleased to be speaking at Startup Empire on November 13th in Toronto.   I’m going to be running a hands on workshop for entrepreneurs entitled “Slow down &  Speed Up - Managing A Startup in Turbulent Times”.

In my workshop I’ll be sharing some strategies & tools for the following aspects of your business,

• Avoiding the wall - Raising Cash and Extending Runways in a Economic Downturn .
• Risk Reduction Roadmap Planning, linking financing, scenario planning & risk reduction. 
• Performing Honest Assessments of your Market, Team & Capabilities to Win.
• Who is investing now in Canada?

Jevon McDonald & David Crow have put together a great line up of speakers and sponsors.

The organizers have recently dropped the price to a very affordable price of $69 for the entire day conference.

At the same time I know many entrepreneurs who watching budgets & may not feel they can afford to attend (travel & conference fees) so we are announcing a quick contest for entrepreneurs interested in joining us at the conference.

FlowVentures, AngelSoft and Brudder Ventures StartupEmpire Contest

In the spirit of creating great opportunities for entrepreneurs I have partnered with my friend Raymond Luk from FlowVentures and the team from AngelSoft to sponsor 10 entrepreneurs to get the following packages.

• A free pass to StartupEmpire.
• A copy of Guy Kawasaki’s brand new book Reality Check which I recently read and is a great collection of essays & practical advice on many of the aspects of running a startup.
• A copy of Randy Komisar’s “The Monk and the Riddle” one of my favourite startup books which is a quick read about startups & finding meaning as an entrepreneur written during the last tech collapse.
• A $100 credit towards any travel costs you incur to attend (To help out of town attendees get to Toronto.  If you win & are in Toronto we’ll ask you to donate your travel subsidy to one of the other winners who are travelling farther)
• Angelsoft has donated a number of discounted and free applications to their OpenDeals program where you can submit your company to be viewed by over 10,000 angel groups.  These will be given to startups that apply and qualify as companies looking for funding ($100-$250 in value).

The contest is open to any entrepreneur, startup or aspiring entrepreneur who working building a technology startup.  

To enter the contest all you need to do is send an email to startupempire [@] brudderventures.com answering the following 3 questions.   Submissions must include your contact information, URL & Company contact details (if applicable) and should not exceed 1 page per answer.

1. If you are a startup tell us about your company, size, market, product and what stage you are at in your growth. (If you are not part of a formed startup but) If you are an entrepreneur, programmer or aspiring entrepreneur tell us about your background, your plans as an entrepreneur.  Tell us what you’ve done to advance your entrepreneurial aspirations.
2. Why do you want to attend Startup Empire - what do you want to accomplish there?
3. What are the 3 questions that you would want answered by any of the speakers @ StartupEmpire?

All entries should be received by this Saturday November 8th.

On Wed 5 Nov 2008.