Startup Failures in 2002

Mark Cuban's internet radio company — sold to Yahoo for $5.7B in 1999 stock, shut down 3 years later, and became Mark Cuban's ticket to buy the Dallas Mavericks

The world's largest internet radio sold to Yahoo for $5.7B in 1999 at the peak of the dot-com bubble — Yahoo discontinued the service in 2002, but Mark Cuban had already sold all his Yahoo stock before the crash

CDNow was Amazon before Amazon was Amazon. Then Amazon became Amazon.

A $10 billion marketplace for lab supplies that buyers refused to use

The IT staffing boom that ended when dot-com IT budgets vanished

The Apple spin-out that invented the smartphone in 1992 — ten years too early, before mobile networks, touchscreens, and affordable batteries existed

Gary Winnick laid 100,000 miles of undersea fiber. Cashed out $735M. Filed the 4th largest US bankruptcy.

Jim Clark's $7.7B healthcare revolution that couldn't integrate its own acquisitions.

"Everything that can be digital, will be." — The digital agency that helped build the dot-com bubble, then collapsed with it.

The lead generation marketplace for home services that could not control service quality.

Bill Gates planned a 840-satellite internet constellation in 1994. Spent $9B. Cancelled in 2002. Starlink succeeded in 2020.

Chemdex hit a $9 billion market cap. Renamed to Ventro. Burned through $350M. Sold for scraps.

Bernie Ebbers hid $3.8B in fraud and created the biggest bankruptcy in US history.