All these new delivery startups remind me of Kozmo.com, which raised quite a bit of money from high-profile investors (including Fred Wilson and Amazon[1]) and

All these new delivery startups remind me of Kozmo.com, which raised quite a bit of money from high-profile investors (including Fred Wilson and Amazon[1]) and even filed for an IPO in 2000. Kozmo.com described itself this way in its IPO filing: "We enable consumers to order a variety of entertainment, food and convenience products over the Internet for free delivery in under one hour. Our promise of under one hour delivery is designed to satisfy a consumer's desire for immediate gratification. We focus on selling frequently purchased, high margin items with well-known brand names. Additionally, we recently initiated a business-to-business service to enable select retailers to provide their customers with an expedited delivery option on a fee-for-service basis through our distribution networks."[2] If you've never heard of Kozmo.com, it's because the company went bust. The business grew very quickly... but only as long as there was freshly raised capital coming in. When the flow of fresh capital stopped, the company couldn't find a way to become profitable. Here are some articles chronicling Kozmo.com's swift rise and even swifter fall: https://web.archive.org/web/20040821125230/http://www.manufacturing.net/scm/index.asp?layout=articleWebzine&articleid=CA184173 https://web.archive.org/web/20040821125230/http://www.manufa... https://www.forbes.com/2000/06/22/mu3.html https://www.forbes.com/2000/06/22/mu3.html Deliveroo doesn't look that different from Kozmo.com... or does it? -- [1] http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=81108&highlight=%20press%20release http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-new... [2] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1075749/000091205700012562/0000912057-00-012562.txt https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1075749/000091205700...