F'd Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts - Softcover

Kaplan, Philip J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416577939 ISBN 13: 9781416577935

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2007

Synopsis

Not long ago, the world was awash with venture capital in search of the next Yahoo! or Amazon.com. No product, no experience, no technology, no business plan -- no problem. You could still get $40 million from investors to start up your dot-com. And you could get people to work around the clock for stock options and the promise of millions. Then, around April 2000, it all came crashing down.

Smart investors, esteemed analysts, and the business press found themselves asking:

• Who knew people wouldn't rush out to trade in their U.S. dollars for a virtual currency called Flooz?
  
  
• Who knew people wouldn't blow all their Flooz on a used car from the guys at iMotors.com?
  
  
• And who needed a used car from iMotors.com when they could just sit at home and have 40-lb. bags of dog food delivered to them by a sock puppet?
  

F'd Companies captures the waste, greed, and human stupidity of more than 100 dot-com companies. Written in Philip J. Kaplan's popular, cynical style, these profiles are filled with colorful anecdotes, factoids, and information unavailable anywhere else. Together they form a gleeful encyclopedia of how not to run a business. They also capture a truly remarkable period of history.

F'd Companies is required reading for everyone involved in the "new economy" -- assuming your severance check can cover the cost.

About this title

Review

The graveyard of dot-com disasters is overflowing with grandiose ideas gone spectacularly bad, and Philip J. Kaplan's F'd Companies offers an unapologetically acerbic opinion on dozens of the most outrageous. Kaplan, a programmer turned consultant whose own online dreams began when he launched a bulletin board system for pirated game software back in 1989, pulls no punches as he bluntly dissects Web failures that remain dazzling for their pretentious plans and audacious executions. There are big names like Webvan ("a classic example of PAYING more for products than they were SELLING them for") and Go.com (a "portal to nowhere"), but most here are less well known despite similarly burning through cash like a cyber-brushfire. In language far more explicit than his softened-for-the-bookstore title, Kaplan skewers the likes of Iam.com (which lost $48 million trying to convince models and actors to post their portfolios on the Net), OnlineChoice.com (which spent $20 million to learn consumers weren't interested in group buys of electricity and other utilities), HeavenlyDoor.com (which sunk $26 million into a site peddling caskets and burial plots), and Eppraisals.com (which dropped $15 million on an effort to sell online evaluations of antiques). The result is consistently profane, frequently hilarious, and usually right on target. --Howard Rothman

About the Author

In May 2000, having nothing better to do with his Memorial Day weekend, Philip J. Kaplan created Fuckedcompany.com to track the layoffs, the bankruptcies, and the generally bad behavior of dot-com companies. The site became an immediate success and has grown into one of the most well-read news sources on the Web, attracting more than 4 million visitors a month. Fuckedcompany.com was named "Site of the Year" by Rolling Stone, Time, and Yahoo!, among others. Kaplan is also the president of PK Interactive, an e-commerce solutions firm. He lives in New York City and can be seen playing drums in smoky heavy metal clubs around town.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1416577939
• ISBN 13: 9781416577935
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208