I think that's pretty dismissive of people with experience. Learning the latest stacks isn't particularly hard, and it's really not that valuable (especially if

I think that's pretty dismissive of people with experience. Learning the latest stacks isn't particularly hard, and it's really not that valuable (especially if it's in webdev) It depends on what you are doing, tech is hard to learn when its in a difficult discipline that takes time to do well. It also depends if you need a lead, or not. If you need someone to sling javascript, maybe you get away with someone younger. If you need a lead to help you build a database kernel, or build a globally distributed system that needs strict SLAs and extreme performance, you are probably going to need someone with experience. Putting someone with 2 years of experience into that role is asking for a disaster. Most startups aren't doing anything super difficult from a technical point of view, and don't necessarily need their systems to last, so hiring younger people, paying them less, giving them equity that isn't worth anything and burning them out is a winning strategy.