Could those be related? If somebody's used to making X, they really might not be very happy making less than 75% of X. I've seen plenty of people who thought

Could those be related? If somebody's used to making X, they really might not be very happy making less than 75% of X. I've seen plenty of people who thought they would be, then within six months they'd gone to join a friend or start their own company. That can really sting when it's someone you'd hoped to have in a key role leading a team or technology, maybe turning around a bad situation, and you had gone through a longer hiring cycle to match. It's not like losing a "just grab the next one" kid fresh out of college. It can be fatal for a startup. I'm sure a lot of hiring managers who have been burned that way a couple of times get pretty wary of taking people at their word about willingness to take a pay cut. I'm sure many overcompensate and lose out on some great hires, but I'm not sure I can really blame them. "Once bitten twice shy" is a pretty natural human kind of thing.