> Unfortunately, I've found that describing what I've learned over the past three years (without any negativity) gives founders the ick. The survival skills you need in the jungle are very different from the ones you need in a zoo, and they feel I've spent too much time in a zoo.

Try describing where you want to be and not so much where you have been.

By that, I mean when interviewing with smaller organizations, pick out the things you have learned which would be beneficial to a much lesser funded effort. For example:

  - automated builds are repeatable
  - unit/feature/integration tests translate to lower costs
  - too many layers of management stifles progress
  - <insert other lessons you have learned here>