As a startup founder, paying $18.5K to launch may not be unethical, but it really sucks. That cost just doesn't really take into account the fact that tech startups are so incredibly low cost to create now.
In YC, we created companies for < $15k, with plenty of money to spare. There is no way we would ever spend that much money on a launch.
Though I think in the long run, Arrington/TC has not a whole lot to worry about. It's a pretty obvious value prop -- the smart startups will end up going to the one that matters that is free for startups, and the ones who get rejected will end up at DEMO.
DEMO is subject to the same competitive pressures as startups. Innovate or die.
In our building there's a "modelling agency." Young girls are always going in their with their mothers, and usually coming out a few thousand dollars poorer for their "courses" and their "portfolio." From time to time I hear them talking about "the business" while they chain-smoke outside. I am always reminded of Sean Young's incredible line from Bladerunner: I'm not in the business, Mr. Deckard, I am the business.
If you are paying to demo, if you pay fees to people to find you money, if you pay fees to your investors... you are not in the business, you are the business.
In YC, we created companies for < $15k, with plenty of money to spare. There is no way we would ever spend that much money on a launch.
Though I think in the long run, Arrington/TC has not a whole lot to worry about. It's a pretty obvious value prop -- the smart startups will end up going to the one that matters that is free for startups, and the ones who get rejected will end up at DEMO.
DEMO is subject to the same competitive pressures as startups. Innovate or die.