[michaelpinto]

This blew me away:

"Venture capitalist Michael Cardamone, the tournament’s co-organizer, approves of young companies buying tables with venture funds. “You absolutely should,” he says. “It’s part of building culture.”"

[jychang]

It makes sense in terms of cost to benefit. A ping pong table is a few hundred dollars at most. An employee performing well is $100,000 at minimum.

Little things like free food and ping pong tables actually offer a massive return on investment.

[cylinder]

Who are these people who play ping pong during work hours? I want to finish my work and go home. If I have a break, I want to go outside and get some sun and air because I hate being inside all day. I'm not looking for a frat.

[dabeeeenster]

In London a Ping Pong table would cost around £10k/year in floorspace used.

[jonnathanson]

"Little things like free food and ping pong tables actually offer a massive return on investment."

Yes, provided everything else about the company is working. People are productive. The product is showing signs of fit. People believe in the founder(s)' vision and in the CEO's direction. Under these circumstances, things like ping pong tables and free meals can offer amazing ROI.

But when your first few business moves are shopping for fancy digs and filling the space with ping pong tables, your priorities are questionable. Morale can't be bought with trinkets. Morale is earned with a strong sense of collective mission and product traction. The rest is icing on the cake.

This distinction is often lost on people, who rush off to buy foosball tables as though the mere presence of such will trick employees into being happy and productive. It's a very '90s attitude: "People want to work for a startup that looks startupy." Well, sure. But the best people want to work for a startup that has a real shot at success, first and foremost.

[bnegreve]

Only if having a ping pong table (or free food) improve productivity.

That's a rather strong assumption.

[joelrunyon]

From the article

> Startups pay up to $2,300 for a high-end Butterfly-brand table.

Your point stands, but the pricing is quite different.

[jon-wood]

Its part of building a culture certainly. Believe it or not its possible to build a company culture around things other than ping pong though - the last company I was at had a culture that revolved around food, cooking, and eating together for example (they do food delivery). Probably not as good for my waistline, but it definitely brought everyone together.

[golergka]

In my current company, ping pong table is the strongest day-by-day teambuilding activity — something that different team members do together, not related to work, something that builds positive relationships between anyone. Most of interactions with some people in the company are intense and have potential for conflict (just because our respective roles), and ping pong offers us a chance to have a different kind of interaction.

In previous company, it was a pool table and game room with Rocket League. In one before that, foosball. Regardless of the game, having some game that is played regularly by coworkers together really helps to build positive relationships and create a team. Definitely worth investor's money.

[TrevorJ]

That's cargo cult thinking if I've ever heard it.