> 1. Quality of life and work: employees at startups get to touch more things, work on more exciting projects, eat free food, play ping pong, be a part of a tight-knit culture, etc. A lot of people highly value this, and I don't blame them!

It's not worth 10s of thousands of dollars a year when you can get a lot of that (or all it) at a company that will pay you more.