I'm in Seattle, and $125k (which you mentioned elsewhere) is definitely on the thrifty end of the spectrum these days around here, and I'd expect that to be rea

I'm in Seattle, and $125k (which you mentioned elsewhere) is definitely on the thrifty end of the spectrum these days around here, and I'd expect that to be really low for SV. You might be able to pull it off if your company is extremely cool or if you're offering crazy equity (which a profitable, conservatively managed company most certainly is not doing), but even up here, the big boys are easily hitting $300k total comp for senior developers. I can't imagine expectations are any lower in SV. Obviously, this just underscores your point, but I wanted to give you some datapoints since you seemed surprised that someone might not take the $125k offer. It's a seller's market.