// STARTUP COMPARISON
Cornershop Chile vs Fast
Cornershop Chile failed in 2023 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Fast failed in 2022 due to Unit Economics. Different causes, different sectors, different eras — but the same simulation outcome.
| METRIC | 🔥 Cornershop Chile | 🔥 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Marketplace | Fintech |
| Country | Chile | USA |
| Founded | 2015 | 2019 |
| Died | 2023 | 2022 |
| Raised | $200M | $580M |
| Peak | $1.4B Uber acquisition (2021) | $580M raised |
| Primary Cause | Acquisition Gone Wrong | Unit Economics |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 Cornershop Chile
Acquisition Gone Wrong
Cornershop was LatAm's leading on-demand grocery service, acquired by Uber in 2021 for $1.4B. Post-acquisition, Uber integrated Cornershop into Uber Eats as "Uber Grocery" — eliminating the Cornershop brand in most markets. The standalone app retained loyal users, especially in Chile and Mexico, but Uber's integration decisions homogenized the product into the Uber Eats experience. Cornershop's advantage — personal shopper relationships with grocery stores — was lost in the integration. Uber shut down the standalone Cornershop app in Chile in 2023.
// LESSON
Grocery delivery retention is built on personal shopper trust — the shopper who knows which avocados you prefer. Homogenizing a grocery app into a food delivery platform destroys the differentiation that justified the acquisition price. The $1.4B was paid for the brand and relationships Uber then eliminated.
Grocery delivery retention is built on personal shopper trust — the shopper who knows which avocados you prefer. Homogenizing a grocery app into a food delivery platform destroys the differentiation that justified the acquisition price. The $1.4B was paid for the brand and relationships Uber then eliminated.
🔥 Fast
Unit Economics
Fast raised $580M for a one-click checkout product. Internal reports cited by TechCrunch revealed the company had approximately $600K in monthly revenue against $10M+ in monthly burn — a 17x revenue-to-burn mismatch. Unable to raise a Series C in the 2022 market, Fast shut down in April 2022. Stripe had already launched Stripe Link (a competing product) and Shopify Payments dominated the checkout space.
// LESSON
$580M raised is not a business. $600K monthly revenue against $10M monthly burn is a company racing toward zero. No amount of capital fixes a 17x revenue-to-burn ratio in a checkout category dominated by Stripe and Shopify.
$580M raised is not a business. $600K monthly revenue against $10M monthly burn is a company racing toward zero. No amount of capital fixes a 17x revenue-to-burn ratio in a checkout category dominated by Stripe and Shopify.
// EXPLORE FURTHER