Yeah. I wonder if this sounds somewhat correct: 1) Big companies already decided what your job position is worth, and don't have time to negotiate. They have

Yeah. I wonder if this sounds somewhat correct: 1) Big companies already decided what your job position is worth, and don't have time to negotiate. They have 75,000 other employees, growing that to 75,001 is not worth special-casing you. 2) Small companies have not realized how expensive custom software is yet, and are low-balling you out of general ignorance. Or, when they're aware of the true price, they decide they don't need custom software anymore. (Which I think, in many cases, is the right decision.)