Who every came up with this list did a great job. All the main players are listed here. The fact that Procket, Alladvantage and Boo are all listed just shows how good the list is.
James Currier
· 2 years ago
eToys was actually a great investment for venture firms like Highland and Sequoia. They got in and got out before the bust came and made $100's of millions.
tom
· 2 years ago
What about OmniSky? $240M in private and public funding, then bankrupt, assets sold in firesale to EarthLink.
Deva Hazarika
· 2 years ago
If only this were accurate. Unfortunately, there are countless other flameouts out there that took tens of millions (or more) of dollars in financing and then crashed before a liquidity event. I have been keeping a list for sometime, maybe I'll toss them up on the blog soon.
Miles Mellough
· 2 years ago
That top 20 covers most of the greatest hits of the era, but there were other notable flame-outs. Don't forget the $35 million bomb called Greatentertaining.com. Who would have thought that the world would not go crazy over themed party supplies? (If only there was a place today to overpay for Hannah Montana party cups!) Classic case of a bad idea poorly executed, and backed by blue-chip firm Benchmark among others.
Matt Marshall
· 2 years ago
James, are you sure about Sequoia. I recall they came in very late on eToys -- right before it went public -- and with lock-up they may not have gotten out before it crumbled. I don't know, but would prefer to be certain before updating.
ArgleBargle
· 2 years ago
"eToys was actually a great investment for venture firms like Highland and Sequoia. They got in and got out before the bust came and made $100’s of millions."
I can tell you for a fact that Highland lost all of the money it invested in eToys. They rode it all the way up and all the way back down.
So many memories... Calient, Asera, Photuris, Brience, Corvis, StorageNetworks, Cierra Photonics, CoreExpress, Ensemble Communications. And we haven't even listed any CLECs yet!
recoveringvc
· 2 years ago
What about Pluris? Had to have gone thru $150 million...did a $100 million Series D round. Not as bad as Caspian and Procket...glad we passed on those :)
Jin
· 2 years ago
Where is F*cked company these days? And where is Pud's ad network?
founder
· 2 years ago
It shows how visionary most of the VCs are!
Mark P.
· 2 years ago
Information on at least one of these companies is incorrect and outdated.
XOMA turned a profit in Q3 of this year
Bob
· 2 years ago
Candescent should be on the list they went through over 200mm before the internet bubble.
Matt Marshall
· 2 years ago
Thanks Mark, will note that. That seemed to be the weakest link on the list anyway.
David P. Hamilton
· 2 years ago
There are plenty of good life-science examples beyond Xoma. One that just crossed my transom is Vascular Architects, a medical-device firm that raised more than $42 million and just sold itself for $2.8 million.
Lee C.
· 2 years ago
Would be interesting to see this list with list of funding rounds, (estimated) valuations and participants over time.
Patti
· 2 years ago
Quokka Sports was yet another truly spectacular flameout. One of the most memorable moments of the dot-bust was walking through their office space during the viewing before the bankruptcy auction. It was a veritable temple of overspending.
The problem with a list like this is that 20 isn't nearly enough.
James Currier
· 2 years ago
Matt, yes, you may be right. I am really only certain about Highland's investment, because I was in VC at the time in Boston, and our Monday meeting after that investment was announced, the firm I was at - which generally competed with Highland -- stopped investing in anything with the word "Internet" in it because the valuations were getting crazy and the business models didn't seem to work. That was 1996. :-) We had looked at the eToys deal and declined because, specifically, their cost of customer acquisition was $107 and the lifetime projected profit was about $10. I was in my mid twenties at the time, and I remember following that deal and learning that these bubbles go longer than you think, and if you get in early enough, you can get out a make a lot of money.
Mark Wendman
· 2 years ago
This dates me a bit - it far precedes the net mania, but Amdahl's Trilogy Systems ~1984 had accumulated ~$250m in investor funding and closed due to wafer yield problems and heat dissipation?, but mostly due to low yield from a nickel based wiring interconnect metallurgy - cracking and delaminating.... I only saw the prospectus from a distance....
I am guessing ~$250m in 1984 dollars is considerably more in circa 2000 dollars of most of the net firms cited...
RJ
· 2 years ago
General Magic :)?
dbiz
· 2 years ago
PowerAgent, and less for the sheer $ raised but instead for the intensity and velocity of the flameout: huge PR hype packed into an incredibly short timeframe ... black star-like in its density and smallness. Vapor at its best. Not even listed on Carlick's LinkedIn profile!
All Comments
I can tell you for a fact that Highland lost all of the money it invested in eToys. They rode it all the way up and all the way back down.
So many memories... Calient, Asera, Photuris, Brience, Corvis, StorageNetworks, Cierra Photonics, CoreExpress, Ensemble Communications. And we haven't even listed any CLECs yet!
XOMA turned a profit in Q3 of this year
The problem with a list like this is that 20 isn't nearly enough.
I am guessing ~$250m in 1984 dollars is considerably more in circa 2000 dollars of most of the net firms cited...
Eileen
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