I ruined our startup culture because of office chairs

I get frugality, but this is going too far. Staples sells office chairs for about $100, and these are certainly good enough for conference room use. Having broken chairs just shows you don't care and can't keep up with things.

(plus it probably doesn't make sense economically either. You are likely paying over $100/hour including taxes - so if 3 people lose 5 minutes per day looking for chairs, you are losing $1k/month in labor on that)