That depends on which dimension of success you look at it. As an investment, it probably wasn't successful. As a 6-year education program in entrepreneurship,

That depends on which dimension of success you look at it. As an investment, it probably wasn't successful. As a 6-year education program in entrepreneurship, it was probably very successful. If the people running that company take those learnings and apply it in their next venture, or within the company that acquired them, it could lead to great outcomes later. If the company paid salaries to employees, then it employed people for six years. That is success. If the company contributed to open source or otherwise gave back to the community in whatever form they could, that's positive. Depending on how their contributions were used by others, it could've been very successful. I'm sure there are other dimensions you could consider.