The goal has always been that you compensate a person for their time. Time can always be equivalent to money. It doesn't make any sense to bring someone in, have them bust their tail to create or work on bettering something and yet they don't get paid. If you are good at something it shouldn't come free. To me that exposes the culture and ethics of a company. Not only how they treat employees but also its interns. The goal of a founder/entrepreneur is the sense that we get to create our own great businesses and or products and create opportunities for others. Interns today, bring in not only fresh ideas that support the founders but also they also many times your greatest ambassadors. What message are we sending when we don't pay them and force them to find another job outside of this internship so they can support themselves and the companies they works for free? It would be the same as Being the entrepreneur that works hard to create a product that is suppose to sell but everyone takes from you for free yet you are spending the money to create. You'll go out of business because you're just burning cash. It's the same philosophy in having working interns. In short, Pay Them!