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F'd Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts
A humorous, biting look at dot.com mania and disaster by the president of PK Interactive offers an insider's perspective on the waste, greed, and stupidity of more than two hundred e-commerce failures, featuring cynical profiles, colorful anecdotes, and facts that offer an intriguing guide to how not to run a business.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published April 9, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 21, 2010
This is the best book in the history of the universe. It is better than the Bible.
Full disclosure: I wrote it
Full disclosure: I wrote it
January 29, 2019
The author does well to bundle many startups that failed into the various categories as well as provide information about their funding and company size. His style of writing, while mostly evokes a chuckle from the reader, at times is cringe worthy.
It would be great to have a revised version of this book highlighting the startups that have failed in the last 15 years or so.
Good for a light read.
It would be great to have a revised version of this book highlighting the startups that have failed in the last 15 years or so.
Good for a light read.
November 13, 2016
F'd Companies : Spectacular Dot Com Flameouts (2002) by Phillip J Kaplan that lists company after company that raised money, burned money and went out of business. Kaplan, aka Pud, created the site F'dCompany that was a really fun site that catalogued the collapse of many dot com companies. I saw him speak in DC not long after the book had been released and he was also an entertaining speaker. I think I read the book around then as well.
The book is of some historical interest because it looks at failure, which is something that isn't often looked at. There are dozens of books about Apple, Google, Microsoft, Ebay, Amazon and co but few books look at the many, many failures that looked almost as likely at one point. The book is also funny, at least for a while, but the sort of thing that makes a funny blog post (which this book actually predates really - blogs took off after) isn't what makes a funny book. It gets a bit tiring. But there are still some laughs. For anyone who was around at the time it will bring back some memories.
But reading the book in 2016 makes you realise that a number of the ideas were just before their time. On demand internet video, now known as Youtube, is there. Also a company called 'myspace' in their first incarnation as an online storage site. There are also other online storage sites like Dropbox that went insolvent. Hosting companies are also numerous. Also mocked is six-degrees, which was about the first social networking site, long before Facebook. Also mocked are various sites for making internet sites mobile friendly, admittedly over WAP which never took off. Still, an idea before it's time that doesn't make any money is a bad idea. It's also worth noting how many failed companies Amazon was involved in.
If you'd been really smart and looked at the book in 2002 and thought about how increasing broadband and internet adoption was coming and what would work once there was three or four times as many people on the internet as there was in 2000 you could also have founded Youtube or Facebook. Who knows, perhaps some of these companies were founded by people who'd read the book and thought about what would work in the future. This is overly simplistic, there is a lot of skill in making things like that scale but it does show that ideas that do eventually work have often failed before.
There's something in this book for people who remember the first dot-com boom and people who listen to 'The Internet History Podcast' but want to remember some of the many companies who didn't make it. They style is pretty terrible but the content is there. It's also worth noting that Pud went on to found some successful companies, so the book isn't about total disillusionment with the internet, it just shows that there money was too easy to come by and ideas that were half baked got funded like never before and never since.
The book is of some historical interest because it looks at failure, which is something that isn't often looked at. There are dozens of books about Apple, Google, Microsoft, Ebay, Amazon and co but few books look at the many, many failures that looked almost as likely at one point. The book is also funny, at least for a while, but the sort of thing that makes a funny blog post (which this book actually predates really - blogs took off after) isn't what makes a funny book. It gets a bit tiring. But there are still some laughs. For anyone who was around at the time it will bring back some memories.
But reading the book in 2016 makes you realise that a number of the ideas were just before their time. On demand internet video, now known as Youtube, is there. Also a company called 'myspace' in their first incarnation as an online storage site. There are also other online storage sites like Dropbox that went insolvent. Hosting companies are also numerous. Also mocked is six-degrees, which was about the first social networking site, long before Facebook. Also mocked are various sites for making internet sites mobile friendly, admittedly over WAP which never took off. Still, an idea before it's time that doesn't make any money is a bad idea. It's also worth noting how many failed companies Amazon was involved in.
If you'd been really smart and looked at the book in 2002 and thought about how increasing broadband and internet adoption was coming and what would work once there was three or four times as many people on the internet as there was in 2000 you could also have founded Youtube or Facebook. Who knows, perhaps some of these companies were founded by people who'd read the book and thought about what would work in the future. This is overly simplistic, there is a lot of skill in making things like that scale but it does show that ideas that do eventually work have often failed before.
There's something in this book for people who remember the first dot-com boom and people who listen to 'The Internet History Podcast' but want to remember some of the many companies who didn't make it. They style is pretty terrible but the content is there. It's also worth noting that Pud went on to found some successful companies, so the book isn't about total disillusionment with the internet, it just shows that there money was too easy to come by and ideas that were half baked got funded like never before and never since.
December 19, 2020
20 years later, this remains one of the best depictions of the dot-com culture of its era. Reading it now is like taking a trip down memory lane.
On a bleaker note, many of the failed companies listed here have contemporary successful versions, typically because they were able to replace salaried employees with gig workers.
On a bleaker note, many of the failed companies listed here have contemporary successful versions, typically because they were able to replace salaried employees with gig workers.
November 1, 2025
Interesting stories, not a huge fan of the style of narration and a lot of conclusions seem arbitrarily post rationalized. Cool to see how many ideas were just too ahead of their time but ultimately turned into successful companies today (see Webvan)
August 12, 2019
Are readers getting f'd?
Kaplan reminds us at least half a dozen times in the book that he's "an idiot." That's quote unquote. But if so, he's an idiot with a gimmick, the gimmick being misery loves company, and he's here to provide it in the form of "look who else was just as dumb as you" (or maybe even dumber)!
Well, no. No dot com investor is going to be reading this book. Pain is pain. Readers of this book will be down-sized dot com ex-employees finding some gallows humor in all the billions of wisenheimer dollars that went down the dot com drain. With the pages of this book and the stock certificates of the companies chortled over herein, one can paper a wall or...well, you can read the fine suggestions from readers below.
But the really disappointing thing about this "book" is that Kaplan didn't even try to be informative about the companies he chuckles over. I mean most bits were something like two hundred words and out, and some of that was pure repetition and woefully inadequate explanation. He just went with what he thought he knew, research be damned, threw in a few of his hormonal obsessions, stirred in some "shocking the bourgeoisie" language, some crude high school humor, and laughed all the way to the bank. The only real "insight" into what happened provided by Kaplan is the "duh" observation (which he repeats again and again) that enterprises for profit really ought to charge their customers more for the product or service than they pay to provide it.
And folks, this is a Simon and Schuster book, beautifully presented, typo free, and reasonably well edited. I mean, was there a war in the boardroom when they discussed publishing this? Didn't they (royalty publishers are investors) get the idea that they were being taken to the cleaners same as the idiots who threw their money down the dot com drain? But then again, maybe this book is making money and the laugh is on the buyer. (Not me. I borrowed it from the library.) At any rate, the book design by Bonni Leon-Berman deserved a better text.
However, this is not to say we can't learn something here. But I think Phineas Taylor Barnum said it a lot better in just six words: "There's a sucker born every minute."
Final note: on page 116, in "explaining" how send.com went bottom up, Kaplan focuses on its shipments of bottles of "exceptional wine...wrapped in...crisp, white linen...," and sums up with this pithy comment: "I chug wine."
Yes, Kaplan is the kind of guy who would chug-a-lug Chateau Petrus and that really does explain everything.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
Kaplan reminds us at least half a dozen times in the book that he's "an idiot." That's quote unquote. But if so, he's an idiot with a gimmick, the gimmick being misery loves company, and he's here to provide it in the form of "look who else was just as dumb as you" (or maybe even dumber)!
Well, no. No dot com investor is going to be reading this book. Pain is pain. Readers of this book will be down-sized dot com ex-employees finding some gallows humor in all the billions of wisenheimer dollars that went down the dot com drain. With the pages of this book and the stock certificates of the companies chortled over herein, one can paper a wall or...well, you can read the fine suggestions from readers below.
But the really disappointing thing about this "book" is that Kaplan didn't even try to be informative about the companies he chuckles over. I mean most bits were something like two hundred words and out, and some of that was pure repetition and woefully inadequate explanation. He just went with what he thought he knew, research be damned, threw in a few of his hormonal obsessions, stirred in some "shocking the bourgeoisie" language, some crude high school humor, and laughed all the way to the bank. The only real "insight" into what happened provided by Kaplan is the "duh" observation (which he repeats again and again) that enterprises for profit really ought to charge their customers more for the product or service than they pay to provide it.
And folks, this is a Simon and Schuster book, beautifully presented, typo free, and reasonably well edited. I mean, was there a war in the boardroom when they discussed publishing this? Didn't they (royalty publishers are investors) get the idea that they were being taken to the cleaners same as the idiots who threw their money down the dot com drain? But then again, maybe this book is making money and the laugh is on the buyer. (Not me. I borrowed it from the library.) At any rate, the book design by Bonni Leon-Berman deserved a better text.
However, this is not to say we can't learn something here. But I think Phineas Taylor Barnum said it a lot better in just six words: "There's a sucker born every minute."
Final note: on page 116, in "explaining" how send.com went bottom up, Kaplan focuses on its shipments of bottles of "exceptional wine...wrapped in...crisp, white linen...," and sums up with this pithy comment: "I chug wine."
Yes, Kaplan is the kind of guy who would chug-a-lug Chateau Petrus and that really does explain everything.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
October 23, 2022
I like reading old tech books like this because they're usually a great source of unintentional humor. One of my favorites is Silicone Snake Oil by Clifford Stoll, where he is WILDLY inaccurate about the future of the internet. This book is not as bad - while the author can't predict that shipping/logistics will improve greatly and make many of the companies not just viable, but a reality decades later, his assessments of the companies' failures are otherwise sound. I got this for 50 cents at a library sale and it was a fun addition to my "90's books about the internet" collection.
October 7, 2020
A dumpster fire of a book. It is worth a skim in order to provide a laugh of some of the absurdity going on during the .com era, but that is it. Completely unbearable to read really isn't even a book.
December 26, 2020
Super fun and interesting. Not super detailed or insightful
January 7, 2010
Informative. I like the details he includes about how much money they spent and how many people they hired. His opinions are very dated. There are many companies flourishing today (2010) that offer the services at which he scoffed.
I can't recommend this book though because of the language. Almost all pages contain terminology and references at which a decent person would blush.
I would be very interested in a new version of this, with information about current web companies that went bust - but only if he cleans up the language.
I can't recommend this book though because of the language. Almost all pages contain terminology and references at which a decent person would blush.
I would be very interested in a new version of this, with information about current web companies that went bust - but only if he cleans up the language.
September 21, 2014
On the plus side - a fun trip down memory lane...or rather, the memory graveyard of dotcom failures. Lots of companies I had forgotten, and many I remembered.
On the negative side, the sophomoric tone of the book takes away from what could have otherwise been a really impressive catalog of the dotcom boom years in the '90s.
Then again, this was never intended to be a book. It's a collection of content from a personal website. So temper your expectations, and enjoy it.
On the negative side, the sophomoric tone of the book takes away from what could have otherwise been a really impressive catalog of the dotcom boom years in the '90s.
Then again, this was never intended to be a book. It's a collection of content from a personal website. So temper your expectations, and enjoy it.
March 20, 2016
It's fascinating to read about the 90's bubble flameouts. Feels eerily like a lot of these ideas are back, and just as likely to fail.
The hard part of the book is what an asshole the author makes himself out to be. Which is sad because he's built this amazing history, and it didn't need the snark.
The hard part of the book is what an asshole the author makes himself out to be. Which is sad because he's built this amazing history, and it didn't need the snark.
June 8, 2019
Funny little book about dumb stupid stuff people make to get into the bandwagon in a craze. Sort of an eye opener about not to get over excited about anything in life. Still worth reading and reminiscing. :). Alert: the esteemed author makes countless references to his disgusting bodily fluids at every opportunity he can concoct. :)
August 2, 2009
another bathroom or waiting-room read. this one chock-full of common sense from the emperor-has-no-clothes heyday of silicon valley. and cussing, if you couldn't guess from the name, or the similarly named website (don't know if it's still around).
December 12, 2012
Fun read--reminding all of us that a fool and his dotcom can convince any VC to part with their money.
If it happened before, it will happen again.
If we don't learn from history, maybe we can at least learn to take advantage of those who don't learn from history.
If it happened before, it will happen again.
If we don't learn from history, maybe we can at least learn to take advantage of those who don't learn from history.
February 23, 2013
After the Dot Com bubble in 2000, just as I was starting my career, I used to read Fucked Company almost every day. I remember my cousin Greg spent the better part of a day reading this book when he visited me in San Francisco once.
Read
January 26, 2011Great magazine-length sections covering the insane amounts of money thrown at almost illogical dotcom ideas.
June 24, 2010
ironically picked this up in the remainder bin - read all about pets.com and other flameouts from the last bubble.
July 4, 2010
Brilliant
April 9, 2012
V funny - I was there on the middle of the dot con blow out. Unreal time
July 8, 2012
I reread this book at least twice a year. Fucking love it.
March 1, 2013
Still waiting in vain for F'd companies 2.0.
March 30, 2013
A should-read book on startups for knowledge workers and aspiring entrepreneurs.
March 1, 2019
Fascinating stories. Especially as most of the F'd companies in this book are large companies / startups today.
It could have been so much better if written in a different tone.
It could have been so much better if written in a different tone.
November 14, 2019
An entertaining and snackable read - each company takes about a minute to read. Fun to see the parallels with doomed startups today. There are a lot of recurring patterns.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews