Big businesses hold an insurmountable advantage over startups when it comes to recruiting <em>the most conservative and least aggressive talent</em>

"Wanna be the first to do something cool?" vs "If you punch your time card accurately every day, you'll get a sticker at the end of the fiscal year!"

It's a pretty easy choice for most startup-types.

me neither. stock options and passion are your 2 best friends to win over big businesses

and prospect of a huge success too.

For big, boring companies like IBM, sure, it doesn't hold. But the current crop of household names in software, companies like Google and Microsoft, are bombarded with more quality applicants in a day than most startups will ever see. Most people are attracted to success, not potential success.

If you are outside the valley thats probably fairly accurate.

I'm outside the valley. I don't believe such a thing for even one second.

Also, do the people that you want at a startup believe that?

I sure don't.