Ask HN: How to evangelize your startup idea amidst overwhelming negativity

I read a lot on HN that talking to lots of people about your startup idea is great for a lot of reasons (making connections, learning from folks who understand the market better, finding people with similar interests etc.). I agree with this. However, what do you do when a vast majority of the people you talk to offer nothing but negative comments?

Some background: * I do not believe my startup idea is terrible, but just for argument sake I would like to hear your thoughts with the assumption that the idea isn't terrible.

* I dont talk to just anyone, I mostly speak to community organizers (meetups etc), mentors at incubators/accelerators, and a few high net worth folks.

* I find maybe 70% of the time the subject doesn't fully understand the pitch before dishing out the negativity - I accept some fault here, grooming the pitch is a constant learning experience but maybe I expected that if you don't understand something you ask more questions as opposed to making negative comments.

* For those who care, examples of negative comments: "you're too late to market", "company xyz already does this", "nobody is going to pay for this", the list goes on.

* I am a software developer based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (if you don't know where that is, Shopify is our golden child)

* I have had lots of prior failed attempts, most of which never made it to market. I have never sold any. (This is the main reason why I try to talk to lots of people so I learn more)

To be clear none of the negative stuff deters me, and there is always something to learn, but I sometimes wonder: why bother pushing hard to talk to folks in search of insight when it seems like a largely discouraging experience? And what is the alternative if any?

I look forward to hearing your responses HN Community!