Startup Failures in 2001

The dot-com that paid 13 million users to watch ads while they browsed — spent $160M on user payments but could never charge advertisers enough to break even

Jean-Louis Gassée's OS company that Apple almost chose over Steve Jobs' NeXT — sold its IP to Palm for $11M after asking $400M from Apple in 1996

Beenz.com invented internet currency in 1998. It raised $100M and failed. Bitcoin did it with $0 in VC.

The digital software store born ten years too early

The $8B B2B chemical exchange that suppliers refused to use.

The Usenet archive that pivoted to product reviews and comparison shopping — raised $100M+ before being acquired by Google for effectively nothing

Built the complete Usenet archive — Google bought it to build Google Groups, then let both die.

The toy e-tailer that IPO'd at $8B and went bankrupt two years later when the dot-com dream evaporated

IPO at $78 per share in 1999. Filed for bankruptcy in 2001. A $4 billion valuation on $30M in losses.

Kleiner Perkins-backed prestige beauty e-commerce — discovered that luxury cosmetics buyers want to smell the samples first.

Turned down buying Google for $1 million in 1999. Filed for bankruptcy two years later.

The internet portal + broadband ISP that tried to be the AOL killer. It killed itself instead.

The furniture dot-com that discovered sofas are not books — delivery costs made every sale a loss.

Disney spent $790M trying to be Yahoo. It took them 2 years and a $790M write-down to find out they weren't.

E-government payments in 1999. Raised $60M. Featured in Startup.com documentary. Gone in 18 months.

The dot-com real estate portal that faked $390M in revenue. Multiple executives convicted. $10B peak.

Reverse auctions were supposed to flip procurement — buyers never showed up

Online mortgage origination before it was possible — $100M raised, shut down when the math never worked.

Online printing raised $70 million and lost to a startup charging less for more

The 1-hour delivery startup that burned $280M delivering $1.99 candy bars for free in 2001

The original Instacart — delivered anything in an hour, lost money on every delivery, ran out of dot-com cash in 2001

The European tech champion built on $700 million of fabricated revenues

The $6 billion dot-com agency that spent $1.5 billion in 14 months and filed the largest bankruptcy in advertising history.

The peer-to-peer music platform that hit 80 million users in 2 years — and was destroyed by the music industry before it could become Spotify

A legacy broadcaster bet $2.7 billion on the internet and lost it in 14 months

SixDegrees.com built the first real social network in 1997. Sold for $125M. Shut down in 2001. The world wasn't ready.

First social network. IPO gained 606% on day one in 1998. Stock hit $0.10 by 2001.

The $1.2B grocery delivery startup that tried to build 26 city warehouses before proving it worked in one