I co-founded one of the first web development companies in Philadelphia. Yes, in the 90s, the office was very much as you described. We had a foosball table. I personally loved foosball which I first played in college. My business partner who was from UK loved all things soccer.

But we weren't a dot-com. We took no venture capital and had no shareholders. We consulted our employees about what goes in the office and they seemed to be drinking the same 1990s KooAid that the "bosses" were.

We remained a boutique firm, topping out at about 15 employees. We didn't make unrealistic promises to our employees. Employees stayed with us a few years and then moved to higher-paying firms. I thought that was reasonable.

What we DID offer was more authority to try things. For example, one of our designers was given very strict instructions on what she could create at her previous employer, CDNow. At our company, we told her what the client wanted and asked for a few different sketches of possibilities. This designer had never been allowed to...well, DESIGN before!

Oh, and I sent people home at 5pm. I didn't want people working late. I know that I wouldn't have wanted that as an employee.

Well, here's what happened. I got burned out after 10 years and left. But my business partner continued to run the firm...and runs it to this day.