> This really is one of these things where every employee in a cheap cost of living area will say "Exactly, man!" and people in an expensive area will see it differently because it might cap them lower than what they could get.
Well the co-founders live in the Silicon Valley area, with their physical HQ being in Emeryville:
If you owned a home in the Bay Area prior to 2020 and refinanced down to a sub 3% mortgage 200k is plenty. If you’re trying to buy now on that salary it will be challenging.
Early stage VC-backed startup compensation is very different from later stage companies or bootstrapped companies. It's very common for founders or early employees to receive a lower salary and receive equity instead.
I don't know how you're coming to that conclusion. 200k's not going to buy you a large house, but it'll comfortably pay rent/food/savings for a 2-3 bedroom house or apartment for a family of 2-4 in all but the very most expensive parts of the Bay.
For mortgages, you'd need to be looking in the cheaper parts of the Bay, but that still means "dense, boring suburb" as opposed to "crime-ridden slum".
Well the co-founders live in the Silicon Valley area, with their physical HQ being in Emeryville:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emeryville,_California