The other problem is that with so many startups nowadays, none of them offer a compelling enough vision or mission that would entice someone away from the Googl

The other problem is that with so many startups nowadays, none of them offer a compelling enough vision or mission that would entice someone away from the Google/Facebook/Microsoft's of the world. A lot of them are either still working on their product-market fit in a niche field or they are hire front-end devs for some CRUD analytics tools. I'd much rather go work at a non-profit, NGO, or government-based organization where there's a better mission statement or something you're doing for moral reasons. If you're a startup who can't hire but you're still doing whiteboarding problems to screen candidates, you're doing the equivalent of using vanity metrics.