Famous Failed Startups
Startup↕ | Founded↕ | Died↕ | Peak Valuation (USD M)↕ | Total Raised (USD M)↕ | What Went Wrong↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quibi | 2018 | 2,020 | 1,750 | 1,750 | Jeffrey Katzenberg's short-form video app, launched mid-pandemic, no one wanted phone-only content, dead in 6 months |
Theranos | 2003 | 2,018 | 9,000 | 945 | Holmes faked blood testing tech, WSJ and Carreyrou exposed fraud, criminal charges |
Pets.com | 1998 | 2,000 | 290 | 110 | Sold pet supplies at a loss, Super Bowl ad sock puppet icon, died 9 months after IPO |
Juicero | 2013 | 2,017 | 270 | 120 | 400 dollar wifi juicer, Bloomberg showed hands squeezed the bag just as well, became Silicon Valley punchline |
Webvan | 1996 | 2,001 | 1,200 | 800 | Overexpanded grocery delivery with billion-dollar warehouse buildout, burned cash, 2000s too early |
Jawbone | 1999 | 2,017 | 3,000 | 900 | Fitness tracker pioneer crushed by Fitbit and Apple Watch, buggy products, slow pivot |
MoviePass | 2011 | 2,020 | 500 | 68 | 9.95 per month for unlimited movies was unsustainable, burned 40 million in one month |
Color Labs | 2010 | 2,012 | 167 | 41 | Raised 41 million pre-launch for a photo app no one used, became symbol of 2011 VC excess |
Solyndra | 2005 | 2,011 | 2,000 | 1,600 | Cylindrical solar panels, got 535 million DOE loan, undercut by Chinese flat panels, political scandal |
Fab.com | 2010 | 2,016 | 1,000 | 336 | Design flash-sales site pivoted multiple times, burned through cash, sold for 15 million |
Better Place | 2007 | 2,013 | 2,250 | 850 | Battery swap EV infrastructure too ambitious, only one car model supported, bankruptcy |
Homejoy | 2010 | 2,015 | 100 | 40 | Uber-for-cleaning, contractor lawsuits, customers churned after first cleaning, Google hired team |
Kozmo.com | 1998 | 2,001 | 300 | 280 | One-hour delivery of anything with no minimum order, unit economics never worked |
Sidecar | 2011 | 2,015 | 200 | 39 | Pioneer of ridesharing before Uber scaled, couldn't compete on fundraising, acquired by GM |
Beepi | 2013 | 2,017 | 560 | 150 | Used car marketplace, burned cash on marketing, expensive inspections, co-founders spent on luxury |
WeWork (original IPO) | 2010 | 2,019 | 47,000 | 12,800 | S-1 exposed losses and Neumann self-dealing, pulled IPO, SoftBank rescue at 8 billion, later SPAC |
Zenefits | 2013 | 2,022 | 4,500 | 583 | HR software unicorn, CEO cheated California broker license tests, never recovered reputation |
Zume Pizza | 2015 | 2,023 | 2,250 | 445 | Robot pizza cooking in trucks, pivoted to packaging, SoftBank bet, eventually liquidated |
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