Did I miss something? What happened to my post?

H.

However, my perspective may be a bit different from many of you as I have spent most of my adult life and career in San Francisco.

So my advice is that you find a couple of sponsors that will cover the revenue shortfall that allowing startups to pitch for free would cause. Ironically, you will likely generate more revenue from the sponsorships not to mention the attendance fees.

Quit charging startups.

Alexander Muse

I appreciate your candor. I do caution you about making blanket statements. Entrepreneurs are not a one-size-fits-all group.

The DallasBlue Venture Pitch is designed for new founders and those just starting their funding search. It is not oriented to sophisticated and experienced entrepreneurs.

Our Entrepreneurs group runs the DallasBlue Venture Pitch (http://DallasPitch.com). It offers monthly programs that support and educate founders. We bring in successful entrepreneurs to talk about their experience. Our recent educational seminars have covered area incubators and accelerators, legal issues, and startup marketing. We were pleased to recently offer the only Dallas appearance of the Department of Homeland Security’s top business exec, who was looking for new technologies and products.

The Entrepreneurs group has top-notch directors. Neil VanHooydonk is Chairman and was the founding Executive Director of NTEC. Lore Levin is Director of Mentor Programs. She is an angel investor, assists Laurence at The Investin Forum, and mentors at STARTech.

For a modest fee our Venture Pitch doesn’t just put entrepreneurs in front of investors. It also provides support and promotional services. The Presenters package includes a consulting session with an investor and mentor to tune their presentation and personal notes from our investor panel after their presentation. For many entrepreneurs our Pitch is their first real experience in a high-end presentation format with a stage, large audience, critical audience feedback, mic and 20 foot display screen. Presenters are exposed not just to Pitch event attendees. They also are spotlighted in front of our entire Entrepreneurs group with over 1,000 members to find mentors, staff, and business partners, and our greater DallasBlue community with 10,000 total members.

Our program isn’t right for everyone. But it’s a great value and experience for many entrepreneurs, especially compared to spending $2,500 at the InvestIn Forum, $5,000 with other angel and VC groups, or even $18,500 at DEMO as you noted, and getting nothing in return.

Regards,

Marc Freedman
Founder, The DallasBlue Business Network
http://DallasBlue.com

Reputable conference companies don’t charge presenters. Period. It’s my understanding that you, indeed, do have to pay to present at Mr. Brigg’s event. But you might want to check with him, as he may have changed his model on this. You have to pay the Southwest Venture Forum, too.

I will call Mr. Briggs right now and see!

You say “never” - does this include paying to pitch angel groups? I know several that have a fee ~$250 to set a gating factor for applications….

Matt @8^1

Here’s a great little article on the how resourceful entrepreneurs can be:

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/05/opc-other-peopl.html

Using freely available medium to get their word out… and the free publicity that resulted.

-Jim

- DallasBlue is a broad business networking organization, not specifically a ’start-up’ organization.
- they were networking events attended by people looking for jobs or looking to make a sale (lawyers, accountants, consultants, etc). Nothing wrong with that, but not a place for entrepreneurs to find capital.
- I paid an admission that include lunch or cocktails.
- at one event several budding entrepreneurs made their pitch (for which they paid) and got little more a practice run for their presentation (I know one of them).

DallasBlue serves a purpose, but start-up funding is not one of them.

- Marc DeWalle