As others have stated, the shortage is in the number of quality developers that are willing to work for under market rate. I had several startups in SF offer m

As others have stated, the shortage is in the number of quality developers that are willing to work for under market rate. I had several startups in SF offer me 60-80k, and I laughed my way out of each of those interviews. I get that startups have to stay lean and not overspend, but development talent is one place you absolutely don't want to cut corners. I think that's the real sticking point - quality developers are going where they'll get paid what they're worth, and in most cases that's not startups on shoestring budgets that could go under at any minute. It helps to keep in mind that quality developers are often older, with families, who want to find somewhere they can be well-compensated for putting in a solid day's work before going home in time for dinner. This doesn't seem to jive with what a lot of startups expect of their employees. By the way, I don't mean to put all startups under this generalization: this purely based on anecdotal evidence from myself and people I know.