[whenisayUH]

How is anyone being exploited? You have a choice to pitch or not. It's not blackmail. It may be foolish to pitch at these events, but as far as I know, nobody is being forced into pitching or being told "you can't research this event and our track record before signing up."

[duhoang]

It's like a scam...no one is forcing you to be a victim of a scam, you just don't know better. reply

[whenisayUH]

"You don't know better." If an entrepreneur is that helpless, paying-to-pitch is the least of their problems.

[evgen]

So it's better that you get your hand in their pocket before someone smarter comes along the relieve them of that burdensome wad of seed capital?

[rmc]

It's entirely possible to exploit people without holding a gun to their head (literally or figuratively).