[ritchiea]

I think both you and the OP are missing the context of the $1500. I suppose it's "non-negligible" as he said, but it's barely enough to cover 2 founders flying from New York, plus a hotel and rental car. In Thailand $1500 may cover the cost of 10 months rent, but in SF or New York, it's closer to the cost of one month's rent. It's not an insignificant amount of money over the 300 teams they invite for interviews per batch, but it's certainly the cost of doing business.

[aniketpant]

I can understand when you say that $1500 x 300+ is a great amount they are investing at the cost of running their firm. While this is very important, we should not overlook the way the entire process is conducted (at least this is what I gather from the OP's post and personally believe too).