I think your instinct is correct. If you're in SF paying market rate, with say a dozen employees, presumably your expenses BEFORE office space are in the range

I think your instinct is correct. If you're in SF paying market rate, with say a dozen employees, presumably your expenses BEFORE office space are in the range of 200K/mo+. Unless they're gold plated, your "lavish" offices would represent <~10% of expenses. Space and perks itself doesn't drive failure I don't think, but they can point to aspects that do. There are plenty of disciplined companies that appear to be "lavish" with space and perks. There are plenty of highly profitable tech startups that really scrimp on space and perks. It's tough to generalize.