Yea at startups you often have way more flexibility to grant larger options blocks or a bit more equity to rockstars to bring them in while the salary is closely eyed by the investors to keep burn rate low. So startup salaries are by definition lower and “just enough” to get people come there. If they added something like “assumed value of options or equity when I first joined” that would be useful to understand. The reality is a ton of people at senior levels get paid way more than 150k in Silicon Valley. Plus there are levels above senior at virtually all companies.