[jasonmcalacanis]

That is absurd... I've been doing conference since 1996 when I was publishing Silicon Alley Reporter are there are three reasons:

1. I enjoy hosting debates and dialogues with really smart people. I mean, I come in to HN and get my ass kicked by 4/5 posts just to engage the debate.. it's what I do.

2. They make money. Lots of money if you do them right.

3. Open Angel Forum is designed to a) kick the sh@#$%t out of these bastards, b) get me into amazing angel investing deals (i'm doing 10 deals a year.. in fact, I'm almost at 10 deals in 2010 and we're not even half way there... so I might do 15 deals in 2010). c) make modest profit.

Aaron is on a massive jihad against me... which is great. It's only motivated the Mahalo team to get better and better... his attacks on Mahalo got the team focused. At the end of the day the changes he demand we make--and we made--rose revenue 50% while reducing traffic by 15%. That's a deal I would make any day. I'm going to do an epic presentation on Aaron's free advice in another six months. it's going to be sick.