Why Angels Should Charge Startups To Pitch Their Ideas | Hacker News Reader

Why Angels Should Charge Startups To Pitch Their Ideas

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1 pointkevinholesh3 comments

If you have $15,000,000 in the bank, you earn $3,300 in interest every single day at a modest 8% interest.

A modest 8% interest rate on bank deposits? I want an account with his bank.

If spam is such a concern - and given that points two and three are basically rehashes of the idea of paygates being spam filters - wouldn't asking for an abstract of the business plan upon submission be even more effective than having that pay gate in the first place?

The reasoning for the article's specious. Money doesn't determine the worth of an idea - and by setting up a money barrier, angel investors are locking out potentially game-changing proposals made by those that would've probably hammered out a barebones version of the product or service with the money they're otherwise tossing at angel investors. Or those that /have/ invested their own money, nearly all of it even, but don't have any left to make expensive gambles like pitching to angel investors.

As for angel investors charging "not doing this for the money?" Disingenuous. Just because you have a few million doesn't mean you won't turn your nose up at the idea of an easy thirty, forty thousand once in a while.

If an entrepreneur isn’t willing to fork over $10K to pitch their revolutionary business idea, I would start to doubt how truly revolutionary their idea is.

Is this guy an angel??? If he is, I doubt he's going to see (m)any good ideas. As for the rest of his arguments, they are all as much crap as this one.

EDIT: Point by Point rebuttal:

1. You'll be surprised how many guys with good ideas lack either the willingness or the ability to pony up $10K for 15 minutes of an angel's time.

2. You won't really be seeing the cream of the crop. They would have already denounced you as worthless and moved on. You'll only be seeing those who don't mind ponying up the dough.

3. Okay, now this one is really stupid. If you can't tell the difference between a guy who's looking to make a quick buck on someone else' money and a guy who genuinely has a good startup idea, then you have no business being an angel.

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