Is the market rate really >$200k for "low level software engineers"? I know a lot of them, even some that are working at Google, and my impression is that $200k is quite high for someone in that category.
It is very high, of course, but this is HN, where everyone knows some friend's roommate's brother who makes $200K at Google--therefore $200K must be the going rate for software engineers everywhere in the valley. I highly doubt that there is a significant number of engineers outside these few outlier companies making those figures.
At Google, assuming what I saw was representative, 220+ k$/yr in total comp (salary + bonus + RSUs) was the standard last year for one promotion up from new grad (SDE IIIs).
(Note that Google RSUs, unlike Uber's, are convertible to cash immediately upon vesting.)
The point is that an entry-level engineer can make $200K at e.g. Uber (think $120K base + $80K equity), so for a newish company (with near-worthless equity, per the advice in this thread) to match that, they would have to pay $200K base.
