[kevinelliott]

The simple fact that if your startup has minimal capital (if any at all) and no revenue should indicate that spending a small fortune (potentially $2,500-10,000) to travel to a week long party (that's what SXSW is anyway) will only put you further into the debt hole that you need to make up for later. Who cares if you make $5,000 later on, because you're effectively still negative.

Some of these ego-whores are at every meetup, conference, mixer, breakfast, etc. Imagine how much of the startup's capital they are effectively wasting. All in the favor of "networking" --- 90% of which never pans out because most people at these events are all talk.

Sure, the events are fun, but they're not as productive as hunkering down and writing some code, reaching out to a potential customer, showing off a demo, or reviewing some feedback.

[ryguytilidie]

But I thought the reason you become a founder is week-long parties? :(

[thisischris]

SXSW should never cost you that much, ever.

Flying from any hub will be <$200 round trip. Book in advance and you can find cheap rooms (or share a room with other starving founders) and you can do it for <$80/night.

Food is free. There are enough companies sponsoring events with food that you should never, ever have to purchase food- unless you're having a lunch meeting with a potential partner, client, investor, etc.

Booze are free. If you're paying for drinks anywhere- you're wrong.

The people I've met at SXSW have opened doors, landed contracts, moved investment talks forward, and have generally helped more than I could have ever imagined.