20 WORST investments
 

20 worst investments by venture capital funds. I used to work for a VC firm in the late 90s and boy, did we invest in some doozies. How many can you spot/recognize from this list? http://www.insidecrm.com/features/20...tments-111907/

Kozmo.com: Kozmo.com's small-goods delivery service, while a recipient of around $250 million in investment, and popular with students and young professionals, ultimately met its end and liquidated in 2001. Its business model was criticized as unprofitable because it didn't charge for deliveries. Kozmo.com's demise is profiled in the documentary film e-Dreams.

I remember Kozmo.com, a friend of mine was the roommate of the guy who founded the company. My buddy kept insisting that it was HIS idea. Sure enough, when Kozmo went on life support, my friend began to insist that he just HELPED and it wasn't his idea. Just proves the old saying once again:

"Success has many fathers. Failure is an orphan."

Anyway, enjoy the trip back to the late 90's early 2000s.

lmaoooo ampd mobile

I made money off of the pets.com blow up. I ended up clearing out some stores who had the pets.com puppet for like pennies...turned around and sold them on eBay for like $15 a pop...LOL

Just goes to show that fundamentals always win in the end.

Hehehehe sweet!:thumbsup

Dude, you're so right on the money. I remember reading Business2.0, forbes, and other articles re "HOW TO VALUATE THE NEW ECONOMY". What bullshit. Either a company makes money or it doesn't. Those articles were writing shit like "New age ways to redefine and revalue the concept of profit." Yeah.... evalue doesn't pay the rent.

S E X Y L A D I E S .com?

No such thing as a bad investment. Only varying degrees of expensive lessons.

It pays the erent. :1orglaugh

Good attitude. I like that!:thumbsup It's not whether you win or lose, it's whether you learn or not. I'm with ya 100% on that.:thumbsup

:1orglaugh

Enron should definitly be #1 thought...

or in Canada, opening up any donut shop other than Tim Hortons

You need to learn the difference between bad INVESTMENT and bad MANAGEMENT.

Lots of people invested in the way the accounting was done as far as energy investements were going. It was supposed to change the way business was done.

The ideas behind Enron was probably as bad as the management. Hot hair.

They are including management problems too... How a business is managed is as good as the business plan behind the business.

Pixelon.com: Although Pixelon's money-burn of $16 million isn't remarkable in comparison to the other all-stars on this list, the way it was burnt certainly is. Pixelon's founder, "Michael Fenne" was more con man than entrepreneur, spending most of the company's investment on a Las Vegas launch party peppered with stars like Tony Bennett, Kiss and The Who. Eventually, it came out that Mr. Fenne was actually David Kim Stanley, a man on the run from the law and living in his car, who previously pleaded guilty to swindling $1.5 million from friends and neighbors.

Yeah that whole "new economy" thing was ridiculous. All of a sudden profits don't matter because the company is internet based....or people just assumed that eventually our economy would be dominated by internet companies so they better get in now before it got too expensive.

These are the same people that two years ago thought housing prices would rise 25% a year forever so they better buy them up now or else they'd never be able to afford one.

Fundamentals always win in the end.

There's also a difference between bad management and crooked management. But that's another discussion altogether.

If Enron was trading at a multiple anywhere near where the rest of the S&P was trading (I think it was around 30 times earnings) then any sane investor should have gotten out. :2 cents:

speaking of fundamentals....S&P 500 closed at 1439 today, this would be a great buying opportunity for anyone who has money in a cash position.

This is definitely a good time to jump into the market.

This one's priceless:

Man, you'd think that after 25 years of being a failure someone would learn a lesson and give the fuck up already...

Tomorrow GFY will have nine posters if this advise is followed.

that tanning salon in Iran didnt go over too well either...

Thanks, bro :thumbsup

The US Dollar is the worst investment going right now.

I run an outsourcing/offshoring company. Boy, do I know :(:(:helpme

best investment is self knowledge

A currency isn't really an investment though.

I'm not saying the dollar is doing well or anything like that....but currency is another subject altogether.

21: EpicCash

I did receive checks from AllAdvantage back in the time!! Some good old memories! :)

Ah the memories, I had over 80k paid to surf referrals and over 45k referrals with All Advantage, I still have my AA debit card. I remember thinking I was the shit when I could sit and down and surf the web and make $75/hr because of all my referrals. When the stock market crashed in March 2000 it marked the end of most of the paid to surf companies as the IPO was no longer a viable option and all the venture capital funding was yanked. I remember talking with so many execs and it was obvious they were burning through funding and losing a ton, just trying to gain enough signups and exposure to get an IPO and strike it rich.

Even though it was a bummer when they all died along with my earnings, I credit much of how I learned to market online with my experience with those companies, its where my nick lazycash came from.

it's sad bolt.com had to go out of business. It was a great website I used to frequent a lot.

The guys behind it came back....... look up AGLOCO. Not as fat as Alladvantage though.

I love your posts man. You actually learn something. They are great. :)

i remember when amped mobile was all over the tv with ads selling phones to getto people with no credit

LOL

$5 submissions, please never leave GFY. You post some of the coolest articles and share some of the most amazing ideas on here. Keep it up, because "we" do read your threads.

Maybe there could be short term bounce (or christmas rally), but in the long term this is not definately good time to jump into the market, except companies, who do well in recession times too.

"The only two exceptions of a housing recession not leading to economy-wide ones were those during the Korean War and the Vietnam war when a massive fiscal stimulus rescued the economy. What we spent ? or waste ? on Iraq is not sufficient to get that fiscal stimulus; we would need another equivalent of $200 billion fiscal stimulus to do the job."
From:
http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/223214/

Kozmo was actually a fucking awesome service. You could order a latte and some gum and they'd deliver it for you for free. I didn't live in Chicago at that time, but had friends who did. They whored out that service so much that the delivery guys knew their names.

Speaking of dot com busts, does anyone remember Flooz? It was supposed to be "internet money". Dumbest fucking idea I've ever heard of.

AA was the shit.

We can always bomb Iran and make up for it.