Like many things in the startup world, the investors are the men behind the curtain pulling the strings on these myths. They perpetuate this image that startups

Like many things in the startup world, the investors are the men behind the curtain pulling the strings on these myths. They perpetuate this image that startups are staffed only by super tech geniuses and big companies are staffed only by incompetent, washed-up slackers who've given up on their dreams because they want to exploit the cheap, inexperienced labor pool of naive new college graduates who will work for something "cool" for almost no money. Once you grow up and get a wife, kids, and mortgage, it isn't so important to work for the "cool" kids anymore. There is a great wealth of expertise and mentorship that is missing in the startup world because investors throw a bunch of college kids together, tell them they're the coolest guys around, and pay them a pittance. If investors were a little more willing to offer a real salary to a person with the self-respect to demand at least market rates and reasonable working hours, I think we'd all be in a better place.