For startups, it&#x27;s not just about the cost, it&#x27;s about flexibility.  It&#x27;s easier to have a decent open-plan low density and 3x the people in it overall, or particularly, to 10x a certain department while 1.1xing the other departments temporarily, into a crowded shitty open plan, than it is to have a bunch of 1-2 person sized offices and somehow put 30 into a single office while keeping the others at 1-2.<p>That&#x27;s the <i>only</i> reason I can excuse open plan in sv tech at all; otherwise it seems to be a clear failure vs. well-executed offices.  It&#x27;s better than the hierarchical allocation of offices&#x2F;corner offices&#x2F;etc. to managers, but that isn&#x27;t the optimal way to deploy offices.<p>We can do better, even at 0-50 person startups, than either.