Web startup, circa 2004
Topix. The 2 servers on the table were the whole site at this point. $60m exit 15 months later.
We were in the cheapest office space we could find with a Palo Alto zip code. It was above a trophy shop in a wood termite-infested building. But we could open the windows! (and smell fumes from the cabinet-painting shop across the street).
Palo Alto fiber was in the street in front of our office, but actually getting access to it was bureaucratically impossible. An abortive effort to put a fast microwave link on the roof of the building went nowhere but wasted a lot of time. So we pulled a T1 (router is on the wire rack above the servers) and were in business.