I had the privalege of attending my first startup Conference in New York with my business partner Dhiraj Thareja. It was hosted by Business Insider, and it was actually wonderful.

We went with the intent to hear some power players in the industry. Not only did we have the chance to hear from them, but we heard some great stories about how they started, what they did differently the second time around, and how marketing can play both a good and bad role in the startup PR.

They even had a competition were 8 startups, pitched their ideas to a panel of 8 VC’s. Great stuff. Got to hear first had, the caliber of questions being thrown back to the entrepreneur, and the confident & not so confident answers being pitched back. Good material, and insight to know moving foward. An actual great company that pitched was Aftersteps. An online Online end-of-life planning platform for users to create their plan, store it, and transfer it to their beneficiaries. Great concept, and something I can agree is a great help, after losing a loved one.

The highlight of course was being able to talk to Amish Jani of First Mark Capital for 15-20 mintues, and pick his brain about our products. He was a pleasure to talk to, and seemed like such a great guy. Looking forward to many more discussions with him, as we push our companies to the next level.

Im definitely going to be attending a few more of these events! Great networking, great talks, and great insight.