"You" can always try harder and one day you might get hired. But as more work is becoming outsourced or automated this sort of advice only means the "you" who gets the job is forcing someone else not too. Startups aren't hiring because there is a massive collection of desperate people and they only select a tiny minority.
A glut of qualified candidates is a problem faced by exactly zero startups.
After 30+ years working for various for-profit companies on both coasts, I came to realize how deeply futile and demeaning our current system of employment is, for everyone concerned. I don't have a solution, but I know that if I had to do it again, I would never try to get employed for any reason.