Here's some free perks that a startup can provide: remote work, flexible hours, no to open-plans, freedom to use any software/OS the developer wants to.
And best of luck to small startups looking for affordable and scalable office space without open floor plans, especially in the Bay Area. I'm as opposed to open plans as anyone. But they're usually a necessary evil for a company trying to keep its burn rate under control. Doubly so for a company trying to keep burn under control while simultaneously growing quickly.
More often than not, if you're in the market for a space with any discrete offices -- regardless of their size -- you're going to have to "buy the cow" and rent a generally bigger space. That's just how office space is developed, rented, and sold these days. The open floor plan has become such a standard that one has to pay a premium to acquire the equivalent amount of non-open work space.
Non-open offices have become something of a rarity, especially in the Bay Area. Typically they're rented to law firms, medical practices, and other professional associations: companies with lots of cash flow and a relative indifference to price, creating price-inelastic demand in the market.
The advantages small companies have are about flexibility, not about doing chores. If I wanted to be coddled I'd work for google.
- remote work - I agree, it's a nice to have, but if you're joining a startup you're a new team member, you need to be in the same office to get used to each other, up to speed etc (unless of course you're all BFF). Trust me, been there done that and still tackling that problem, it's not as simple as it sounds, especially for new starts. Perhaps after 6 to 12 months we'll consider 2-3 work from home days if you've never done this before. [Disclosure: I work remotely - ~600miles from HQ - and have done for my company for almost 11 years]
- open-plans - until the startup gets seed A money forget open plans, even with seed A it'll be the founders/senior devs who'll be on first come, first served for that office with a door. As a new employee you'll be open plan until your company can afford such luxuries. The best I got at a startup was after second round funding (the kind that affords 20-30 employees new Kinnarps desks, chairs, a proper phone system and a proper server room) and moved into an office with three other staff.
- freedom to use any software/OS the developer wants to - well, what can I say. Your startup has a goal which is definitely not worrying about you wasting time making the stuff you wrote on some obscure distro work with their environment. Forget that one. Everyone needs to be singing from the same hymn book with their dev envs and not wasting time wondering why some crap doesn't work on your machine but does on the standardised platform. Otherwise it adds to the burnrate, suck it up you'll use the tools/OS you're told to....and yes been there before and spent days with a guy who wouldn't use anything but Slackware getting some crap for a demo to work that was targeted at CentOS.
None of the above are free, except perhaps flexible hours. Where I work we're pretty flexible for school runs, medical appts, or hell, you just fancy a lie in for an extra couple of hours (provided you let someone know)....as long as the work gets done, and you didn't have anything on your calendar involving a client or other team member that is mission critical then we can flex hours.