The "how will you make money" question got "banned" about a year ago (from my understanding) because it was getting asked of every company (which is fair) and g

The "how will you make money" question got "banned" about a year ago (from my understanding) because it was getting asked of every company (which is fair) and given the amount of time presenters have, the on-stage answers were always really vague (ads!) or the revenue model should have been obvious (sales/commission). I don't think it's fair of The Economist to say that those questions are looked down on, it's just that given how little time is given for each company there are often a number of more interesting questions that could be asked and were getting pushed out. Plus, it had kind of become like a FIRST POST! type reaction that someone just had to ask. I've always found that if you are really interested in the specifics of the company (especially their business model) it's better to ask them afterwards since you can actually have a real dialog with them. Also, the during the presentation questions always seem better when it's actually about the demo since they can often show it right there on stage.