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How my startup failed (1999)
- finid 10y agoFunniest piece I've read in a long time. And there are many lessons in there, too.
- fapjacks 10y agoThe article was written in 1999, before the advent of internet-based commerce. Maybe that could have made things turn out differently for him? Interesting post!
- elefanten 10y agoMaybe. But likely the pitfalls would simply look different.
- davidwihl 10y agoAmazon and eBay launched in 1995. There were many examples by 1999.
- fapjacks 10y agoWell, you're being pedantic. In '99 the great mouthbreathing horde were not buying things online.
- tyingq 10y agoNot sure why you're being downvoted. eBay revenue, 1999: $224.7 million eBay revenue, 2015: $8,590 million Edit: That's 38x
- davidwihl 10y agoAmazon revenue was already $1.6B in 1999. Clearly out of startup phase by then. So it depends on your measure. eCommerce is still a relatively small percentage of GDP, 5.4% of US according to https://www.statista.com/statistics/250703/forecast-of-internet-economy-as-percentage-of-gdp-in-g-20-countries/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/250703/forecast-of-inter...
- tyingq 10y agoeCommerce as a percentage of all retail sales is a decent measure. 1999: 0.2% 2015: 8.4% 42x https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ECOMPCTSA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ECOMPCTSA
- DanBC 10y ago1999 is definitely Beanie Baby Bubble timing. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/books/review/the-great-beanie-baby-bubble-by-zac-bissonnette.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/books/review/the-great-bea...
- matt4077 10y agoI'm pretty surprised he had trouble getting 10,000 condoms. I once helped organize a student conference and asked a manufacturer to donate 5,000 condoms, about one per day per participant. Yes, we were aiming high. I noticed something was wrong when the truck driver started unloaded three pallets worth of condoms. They had sent us 5,000 boxes with 25 condoms each = 125,000. During the next two years, we did manage to find a few events that gratefully took most of the load of our hands. But a few thousand remained in my basement and I learnt: there's nothing sadder than a thousand expired condoms.
- cortesoft 10y agoWhen was this? It might have been harder to find and contact a manufacturer in the mid-nineties.
- gumby 10y agoprobably could have donated them e.g. to a homeless shelter.
- disposablezero 10y agoThe Olympics uses 150k in a week.
- staticelf 10y ago> But a few thousand remained in my basement and I learnt: there's nothing sadder than a thousand expired condoms. So you had several thousand at first and are sad that only 1000 is left when they expired? Sounds like you got laid a lot and I would not be sad about that ;)
- throwaway4891a 10y agoThat. is. hilarious. (Business is like life, love and war: difficult)
- PhilWright 10y agoSurely today you would get them made in China at the same kind of total cost. No more lacerated fingers putting them together yourself. There are fulfillment companies that take your stock and then send them out to customers as orders come in. Setup a website that hooks into the fulfillment company process and you have a virtually no touch process.
- amelius 10y agoIt is actually pretty refreshing to read a "startup failure" story for a change. IMO, HN should have these more often!