Bull. Startups can't pay more because there's no investment capital.
Established and successful companies that pay well still can't get people. The shortage is real.
Established and successful companies that pay well still can't get people. The shortage is real.
Same for freelancers.
Sometimes I see very large teams of mediocre developers. Why didn't they hire 2-3 (more expensive) experts instead of 10 juniors? Maybe because they doing this because of an aqui-hire exits or some ridiculous "hire 10 people" todo that their VC dictate.
An architect usually can't build a house.
As my postings are focussed on the German market, I rarely see real Lean Startups that. It's still very common to build one thing big and to hope that it succeeds. So actually you don't start from scratch more than 1 time except some low profile developers messed it up.
Now I know most people live outside London to save money, but you can't complain there is a shortage of talent if the senior guys aren't earning a wage that allows them to live in the same city they work in.
Talented people are scared that all but elite firms will fuck up their careers and therefore are only interested in a few companies at any given time. (Interesting enough, those companies are often places like Google that, except for the validation that getting hired by one indicates, aren't great for career progress.)
Firms end up having to buy talent at a panic price (acq-hiring, which usually involves purchase of mediocre talent) because they've lost faith in their own people or, at least, the middle-management filter that has occluded any visibility for talent at the bottom.
There is no shortage of talent or capital. Both are abundant in comparison to the actual limiting factor, which is trust.
Not only are the salaries junk, but your fucked up taxes take it all. Might as well go to Hong Kong or Singapore.