I've been involved in Silicon Valley start-ups for nearly 10 years. You're right, there is certainly a lack of reality here when it comes to coporate spending... even among the startups that are full of young, energetic and hard working people. The problem is that these people are at the bottom. They are the worker bees while (most middle) and upper management figure out ways to do less work and waste more money. The worst is usually marketing dept... the ones who produce nothing but gets the biggest budget and makes the worst decisions.
One other thing failing start-ups share is the UP-SIDE-DOWN organizational structure where most of the departments have more VPs, directors and managers than associates, coordinators, or just simply a common employee.
We call that he martini glass configuration. The sharp end points down... straight into the ground is where that company will go. But their CEOs and VPs worry not... they've already got another gig lined up by some VP friend somewhere else...since that how they got their current job in the first place.
EESO does not look like a company I described above. And thanks for raising the point that this is a midwest based company. Just based on that, it raises my confidence in this company 100x.