There are a shocking number of older tech companies around Boulder (say 10+ years old) that haven't gotten the memo about the market value of engineers. They've somehow gotten away with paying engineers $80k/yr, and now they can't even hire a new grad for that.

I've certainly had several hiring discussions that were going great until we hit salary. I make good money but nowhere near crazy money, yet these hiring managers weren't even in the same ballpark.