Totally agree. I just question whether the channels for follow-on at the post-incubator stage are growing in proportion to the number of incubators popping up.
This is (IMHO) how you should go about doing it yourself:
1) First of all find out who your looking to speak to. Airlines are huge. Who in the airlines owns the process/es that your solution addresses? Who in the organization would benefit on a day to day level from your solution?
- If you can't find this info from secondary research your going to have to try to speak to someone in the industry who can help you figure this out.
2) Contacting People
- Try your best to get an introduction from someone (Anyone - friend of a friend, in-law's cousin, alumni, whatever) in your network to someone in the airline. They don't have to be the right contact to begin with. Sometimes they're just contacts to get more contacts.
- I agree with what others have said about big companies being harder to break into. People at smaller companies often know counterparts in larger companies. So this can be a good first step.
- Cold calling probably has the lowest success rate (you will have to make a ton of calls to even speak to someone useful)
- Random LinkedIn messages are better, but will go mostly unanswered.
- Join their forums, groups, sign up for their blogs.
I could go on, but I have an incubator interview myself tomorrow I have to prep for.