Lina Egutkina Awesome performance last night! It was fun!

Larry Chiang #hiLarryAss "pedigree of music performers" Yes, their academic pedigree would qualify them to be VCs, bankers, VCs I said VCs twice because there's a lot of time in their work week for them to practice :-)

Zal Bilimoria @Rajil, @MattBowman and @UniqueVisitor (Jeff) -- really appreciate your advice and fast response. Definitely will at least come for the after-party.

Jeff Pester @Matt Thanks for the detail re investor representation. Still holding out hope that a tiered pricing structure may be considered for future events :)

Matt Bowman @Jeff Thanks for info re: the Showcase. You're right that its format is more similar to Splash than the $2-$3K events (TC Disrupt, AlwaysOn, etc).

One of the value props of Splash is its concentration of investors. Longer events spread out the investors and influencers across 2 days--In none of the panels will you find them all together, as in these shorter ones.

Splash's content and attendee list are pretty hard to beat for a one-night event. Zappos' Tony Hsieh and serial entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal have both sold multiple companies for 100s of millions--which means their secrets to success go beyond mere luck. As for networking, investors will be coming from August Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, BlueRun Ventures, Charles River Ventures, CMEA Ventures, Foundation Capital, Founders Fund, Hummer Winblad, JAFCO Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund. Norwest, Opus Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, Soft Tech VC, SV Angels and more. The venue is also awesome, and the bands are top-notch.

Hopefully entrepreneurs don't have to choose between good affordable events; if they do, I'd encourage them to study the content and networking opportunities available at the various options, and make an informed decision.

Jeff Pester @Matt I think the appropriate comparable is The Founder Showcase being held on the 18th. Pitches + talks from the CEO of Evernote and Biz Dev guy from Facebook. Price for founders/entrepreneurs: $50. http://foundershowcase.com/. All due respect, but VatorSplash isn't comparable to an all-day or multi-day "major tech event priced at $2 - $3K". What $2k - $3K event did you have in mind as a comparable?

Full disclosure, I attended the last VatorSplash event and thought it was fun, entertaining and TOTALLY worthwhile at the price I paid (the early-bird price I paid of around $50 or so was both fair and reasonable). After all, this is primarily a pitch event that includes a couple keynotes. This isn't a day long conference with multiple educational themes/tracks. And that's ok. But $150 to attend an evening pitch event is simply too much for most entrepreneurs. I would suggest a tiered pricing structure which is becoming very common - let VCs and service providers pay a higher rate in order that entrepreneurs can attend at a price more aligned with their ability to pay.

I hope VatorSplash is a huge success for everyone involved - I really do. I'm just saying that as an entrepreneur I'll save the c-note and head over to the Founder Showcase.

Matt Bowman Zal, Take a look at other major tech events--typical price is $2k-$3k. The ticket here is less than 1/10th the cost of those, but the level of our speakers and attendees is just as high, if not higher. We pack everyone in in one evening, so you're sure that everyone on the program is there when you are. Plus, no one can top the pedigree of our musical performers.

We've deliberately kept the price way below market value b/c we want it to be accessible for early-stage guys.

Rajil Kapoor the afterparty (9pm onwards) is only $10 to attend if you can't make the VatorSplash event. Good networking there too (and a live band!)

Zal Bilimoria I would love to attend, but even with the discount for Plancast users, it comes to $112.50. As a startup guy who's just getting going, I can't really justify that. I see so many of these types of events that are simply not accessible to cash-conscious organizations. What's a guy to do?

Tim Chang performing 80's covers & more w/ Raj Kapoor (Mayfield), Ethan Beard (Facebook), Phil Kaplan (Blippy), and Prashant Fuloria @ the Vator Splash afterparty @ Cafe Du Nord

Matt Bowman Hey Plancasters,
We've reserved 15 discount tickets for Plancast users. Enter the code "splashplancast" on the event page to grab one:

http://vatorsplashmay.eventbrite.com/

Best / Matt