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Sounds like if you are poor startup it's free. (175 out of 225 were free). Seems fair and not a bait and switch. Calacanis states in the article: "At the LAUN

Sounds like if you are poor startup it's free. (175 out of 225 were free). Seems fair and not a bait and switch. Calacanis states in the article: "At the LAUNCH Festival this year we gave 11,000 of the 12,000 attendees FREE TICKETS. We also gave away 175 of the 225 demo pit tables for free. We sell some at cost as well ($1-3k). Our model is to charge the companies who have money, and give them some time on stage to be a judge or do a little content about their product."

jasonmcalacanis 12y ago
Correct. We will let folks buy trade show tables and exhibitor booths through the front door. I have no problem with a funded company that is selling to our audience to buy a table. I mean, if you're selling a SaaS product that has an average LTV of $5,000 it's probably good idea to spend 2-5x that on a sponsorship for our events (or someone else's) because, well, you'll make it back! The issue we are talking about here is people "applying" to be in a competition to "get exposure to angels," and then being "accepted" for a fee. That's just lame. I'm a lucky bastard in that I have the chip stack to take on the risk of a $1m+ budget event, get the support of the top sponsors in the industry and be able to give everyone free tickets and tables. Remember, Mike and I fought to kill the DEMO conference ($20k to present!) and then he sold to AOL and they decided to maximize profit. I decided to minimize profit -- in fact, my goal is to net out to ZERO each year and give back MORE AND MORE. Why? I believe the angel investor who gives away the most value gets into the best deals. The SCALE conference is going to be free for 2,500 of 3,000 seats. http://calacanis.com/2015/04/29/welcome-to-scale/ http://calacanis.com/2015/04/29/welcome-to-scale/