This is why the Bay Area is a horrible region for a lot of startups, especially ones that plan on pursing monetization early. Few startups can afford inflated Bay Area salaries with minimal VC funding. Unless you're really capitalizing big-time on the VC culture of the Valley, it's a bad place to be for a startup--and this is illustration of that.

For comparison, a $60k/year starting salary is the norm in most American cities (and it provides exactly the same lifestyle that $100k does in Silicon Valley).