I think that is different. A booth at a conference is marketing. It isn't fund raising. Getting in front pf a bunch of people interested in tech startups is about getting initial users and initial branding.

I thought lots of people who don't have booths pay for a ticket with the express purpose of networking. I didn't think you could get in without paying $1.5-$3k for a ticket? Maybe I'm wrong but that was the impression I had.

If you're one of the '50' you don't pay, and that's the pitching part of the conference, so it isn't hypocritical.

We were offered a free demopit ticket as the '51st' company as well.

How is paying to go to a conference where you can network (or present, if you are lucky) with the whos-who of tech, versus for the opportunity to pitch to 1 single angel group/firm ? Not even remotely connected - absurd to even think so.

On top of that the amounts of money seem to differ by at least an order of magnitude.

Yes It seems so hypocritical that he's waging a war against people doing something very similar to what he does. I wonder if it makes him so angry because he recognises on a subconscious level that he's doing something quite similar.