[robbrit]

From my experience hiring in startups (and personal life experience, having left the startup world at 28), over-30s have higher salary requirements than startups can afford. It's not even just a Bay Area thing; in pretty much all markets you pay a premium for experience.

[PorterDuff]

I think I'd be happy to work on something interesting for crummy money. The trick is the interesting part.

[systemtest]

I'd rather take more money, retire in my 30s and work on my personal projects from that point on.

[PorterDuff]

If I was 30+ years younger, I would consider that.

One problem is being old school enough that it's darned difficult to work for free.

[robbrit]

Downside is that a lot of startups are not that interesting. They're just filling a business niche.

[mlthoughts2018]

If you can’t afford the salary required to hire the right people, then you’re not a start-up, you’re a side project looking to rip other people off by suckering them into accepting meaningless equity.

The ageism stems from having a harder time suckering older applicants. It’s disingenuous to use language making it sounds like the older candidates’ requirements are “too high.” It’s not about that. It’s about who can this self-absorbed start-up sucker.