Spark Capital — portfolio autopsies

Canadian teen messaging app killed Kik to fight SEC enforcement over $100M Kin crypto token ICO

A LINK scooter network backed by Qatar sovereign wealth and Spark Capital that shut down after years of failing to crack micromobility economics.

The Amazon brand aggregator raised $225M from General Atlantic to buy and scale FBA brands and quietly wound down when the aggregator model revealed structural unit-economic failures.

The MIT-founded scooter company that built the safest vehicle — then ran out of money

Yahoo paid $1.1B for Tumblr — Automattic later bought it for $3M after the NSFW ban destroyed the community

DTC eyewear pioneer that went public at $6B — then discovered retail stores cost as much as the old retail model

The therapy app SPAC that lost 90% of value within 12 months of going public.

Online therapy for everyone. The pandemic made it mainstream. BetterHelp ate its lunch.

The on-demand delivery pioneer swallowed by the capital war it helped start.

Built the rails for P2P lending — then the trains stopped running.

A single card that stored all your credit cards electronically — made obsolete by Apple Pay and Google Pay before it could achieve scale.

Boxee built the software that connected TVs to internet content before Roku and Apple TV did. Samsung acquired it. Then abandoned it.

The photo backup startup that lost its users' irreplaceable memories on the way down

The Spanish fintech that pivoted from near-death to a Nasdaq IPO.