If I have a question about licensing software to the travel industry, should I talk to a Clarity expert in licensing, or in travel?

You can use LinkedIn ads to focus on your specific target audience based on things like: industry, job title and function. Facebook also has specific categories regarding job types, I'm not sure if "hotel managers" is on the list. Best of luck! Let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

That's a much more complicated question than it appears to be, as there are multiple sources which will get you some of the inventory, but nothing which will get you all of the inventory. If you look at an OTA, they are pulling from typical sources like SABRE or Amadeus, but also from what is in effect their own inventory, where hotels are either going in via an extranet or there's some kind of direct-connect to the system the hotel is operating on (which could be one of many, including none at all). In fact, some of the OTA's make that proprietary inventory available too, via an API and on a commissionable sales basis. There's just no one-size-fits-all access point - especially when you consider that worldwide the hotel business is actually very un-aggregated with something like 80% of all hotel room capacity operated independently (that is to say, not branded or part of a chain like Starwood, Accor, IHG etc.). It's a big part of why OTA's have invested so heavily in technology to manage and distribute this type of inventory. It's not easily done as the technology used in the hospitality industry is often not great and it's unconsolidated to there's value and negotiating strength to be brought from consolidating it.

I'm not an immigration attorney, but I have made trips to Canada to find clients, and this is my understanding of the laws. If you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you do not need a visa to come to the United States as long as you will not actually be working and receiving payment from U.S. businesses or employers while in the U.S. For example, you can visit the U.S. to attend trade shows, meetings, conferences, etc. without a visa. Here's a publication from the U.S. State Department that may help: http://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/BusinessVisa%20Purpose%20Listings%20March%202014%20flier.pdf

SaaS is the way everyone seems to be going these days, as it is a huge revenue producer for software vendors. Why make $50 once when you can instead milk someone for $10/month for life? As a holder of multiple desktop licenses for products like Quickbooks, Photoshop, etc I can say that I HATE when I am forced to go to a subscription-based model unless it comes with some very good perks. Quickbooks is using pretty brutal tactics to get everyone to switch, including disabling real-time sync with bank accounts, etc. For this reason I will probably switch to a different software vendor in the very near future. If you do decide to go to an SaaS model, make sure that you give the users a very good reason to switch and ideally give them a choice, don't force it on them. Free upgrades are petty much a given, or else what are they paying for?

This is always a question of who wants whom more. I've seen deals where the percentage was in single digits. The thing is, I've seen both deals where a LICENSEE ended up with a single digit percentage and deals where a LICENSOR ended up with a single digit percentage. It all comes down to your ability to convince the other side that you are bringing in so much to the table that the other side should get a smaller piece of the pie. Essentially, this depends on these factors: - whether you are well-known in the industry; - whether the other side is well-known in the industry; - the level of uniqueness of your product (if you've developed another minor variation of a product that already exists on the market, chances are the distributor will want a larger piece of the pie); - your level of desperation (it's one thing when you partner up with someone else who will commercialize your product simply because you can make more money by investing your time building new stuff; it's another thing when you have no realistic way to commercialize the product yourself, and if you don't find someone who can do it for you quickly, you'll starve...) MOST IMPORTANTLY, no matter what number you agree to, make sure you read the contract extremely carefully. Contracts can create rights and contracts can destroy rights. Contracts are more powerful than any rights vested in you by IP laws. So, the bottom line is: - Know EXACTLY what you are trying to get out of your contract; - Get your contract reviewed by an experienced lawyer, but make sure you tell the lawyer what it is you're trying to get out of the contract. Lawyers are not going to create "the right deal" for you. We're not going to tell you whether you should be getting 9% or 90% of the revenue. We're going to make sure that you understand whether the contract you are about to sign reflects what you think the terms of the contract are. You're welcome to schedule a call if you would like to discuss this in more detail. Cheers, Andrei