Fresh hardware is a test. It should be a drop in the bucket and a no-brainer but its very often not. When it goes bad, its a huge red flag. If you get even the slightest bit of "well we can't really approve something like that without this or that managers sign-off and then the 30 day procurement process from an approved vendor..." head for the door.
I've seen companies burn 100 hours of $150/hour employee labor in order to save $50 on a mouse. You don't want to work there.
I worked for a very large enterprise software company for a while. They gave everyone their stock computers with stock keyboards and mice (the basic ones that came with the HP systems). I spent about a month trying to get them to buy me a new keyboard which I felt was necessary for ergonomics and because I had (informally) demonstrated a higher typing speed on it.
Eventually I just bought one for myself. It was $50. Managers made all sorts of excuses, then IT said they wouldn't buy non-standard hardware, and there were particularly a lot of excuses in the vein of, "but then we'd have to buy keyboards for everyone." That they wouldn't consider buying their $100k/yr employees a $50 keyboard every few years was just another symptom of their dysfunctional environment.
Hardware, and other expenses such as conference trips, is indeed a very small expense compared to salaries. It's a cheap way of showing employees that you care.
Just as a recent example, it took an email to my manager and 10 minutes later a keyboard for $150 was approved. Say it lasts for 5 years - the feeling of appreciation by easily getting what I need approved and bought is worth so much more, compared to what $150 spread out over 5 years of salary would buy them (disregarding that the raise would also cost a more considering taxes and such).
I'd be interested to know going in what a startup's policy on conferences would be.
While I expect most trips to be ultimately grounded in business development (and with good reason), is the company purely focused on talking up a product, or will they accommodate my technical/social interests as well?
Giving a pitch can be fun, as long as I have Plenty of time to chat with other programmers, attend panels, learn something, etc.
I've seen companies burn 100 hours of $150/hour employee labor in order to save $50 on a mouse. You don't want to work there.