Maybe it's time tech companies let their engineers globally work remotely from comfortable places, instead of parking them into metal boxes and sweetening the deal with catered lunches.
I think a lot of it has todo with ego, investor show-ponying and lack of solid culture. Beyond that many startups justify paying their employees like shit for small office perks like free lunch and couches. That type of stuff doesn't really work remotely.
Async chat tools, file sharing, conference calls, video chats, etc. are the lifeblood of communication at remote companies. Without those tools it's very hard to make remote working work.
People who say remote work doesn't work often times still rely on things like email...that's just not how it works. If you're communicating internally via email you're doing it wrong.
That's not to say tools define remote culture, but they certainly help reinforce it.