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Boo Hoo: A Dot.com Story from Concept to Catastrophe
This is the story of how an international model and a former poetry critic from Sweden dreamed up the most ambitious and glamorous internet start–up ever attempted; how they convinced the world’s biggest fashion houses and Wall Street investment banks to invest $135 million into their plan; and, ultimately, how they burned through all the money in just over a year. The rise and fall of boo.com is an insider’s look at the 18 months of euphoria that ushered in the dot.com era.
385 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 8, 2012
Oh my word. I thought I knew what the "dot.com" bubble was all about, but I really had no idea until I read this book.
Essentially two twenty-somethings who haven't achieved much scribble three A4 pages worth of a business plan and somehow convince people who should know better to give them millions and millions of dollars to set up a company that doesn't work, and fails a few weeks in. What's really infuriating about this book is the fact that a) it's written by one of the co-founders who clearly thinks—even now, with hindsight—that he can do no wrong and b) the amount of money they spent on living like CEOs of a profitable global brand when in fact they hadn't made a dime yet, and all the money they were spending belonged to someone else.
The excess in this story is quite sickening. They don't seem to have heard of the concept of organic growth, or know anything about Jobs starting Apple in his garage, for example. Instead, they become a multinational overnight, complete with all the trimmings (and minus any customers, sales, etc.) They decide to have an online magazine; they hire a former Vogue fashion editor. They want a little video to play on their website; they hire Fatboy Slim's video director. They need to change the hairstyle on their virtual online assistant; they hire one of the world's most sought-after hairstylists. Yes, really. All without having earned any money yet, or even put their business—a version of ASOS.com—into action.
My favourite bit was when they decided they had to fire an executive. First, Ernst (the author and co-founder) calls a headhunter to set her to work on finding a replacement. Then he has to meet with someone who has experience of firing executives, and that meeting takes place over an expensed lunch. Then on the day of the firing, they hire two hotel rooms, one to do the firing in, and one for the career consultant they've also hired to talk to the executive after they've fired him. And then of course, they'll have to hire a replacement. All before the website has launched, all before they've made a single penny. It's just obscene. It's like a little boy and a little girl playing about being CEOs of a global company, and I found it especially distasteful given that I'm living in a country (Ireland) suffering now because of this very kind of ego-driven speculation.
Reading it will give you newfound respect for Zuckerberg and his dorm room.
This is all a giant shame, but the story itself is a riveting one. But it really needs to be written by someone else, someone who can tell the story of Boo without glossing over all the mistakes, and who can say, perhaps once in a while, that maybe they should have had a profitable business before they started living like they had one.
Essentially two twenty-somethings who haven't achieved much scribble three A4 pages worth of a business plan and somehow convince people who should know better to give them millions and millions of dollars to set up a company that doesn't work, and fails a few weeks in. What's really infuriating about this book is the fact that a) it's written by one of the co-founders who clearly thinks—even now, with hindsight—that he can do no wrong and b) the amount of money they spent on living like CEOs of a profitable global brand when in fact they hadn't made a dime yet, and all the money they were spending belonged to someone else.
The excess in this story is quite sickening. They don't seem to have heard of the concept of organic growth, or know anything about Jobs starting Apple in his garage, for example. Instead, they become a multinational overnight, complete with all the trimmings (and minus any customers, sales, etc.) They decide to have an online magazine; they hire a former Vogue fashion editor. They want a little video to play on their website; they hire Fatboy Slim's video director. They need to change the hairstyle on their virtual online assistant; they hire one of the world's most sought-after hairstylists. Yes, really. All without having earned any money yet, or even put their business—a version of ASOS.com—into action.
My favourite bit was when they decided they had to fire an executive. First, Ernst (the author and co-founder) calls a headhunter to set her to work on finding a replacement. Then he has to meet with someone who has experience of firing executives, and that meeting takes place over an expensed lunch. Then on the day of the firing, they hire two hotel rooms, one to do the firing in, and one for the career consultant they've also hired to talk to the executive after they've fired him. And then of course, they'll have to hire a replacement. All before the website has launched, all before they've made a single penny. It's just obscene. It's like a little boy and a little girl playing about being CEOs of a global company, and I found it especially distasteful given that I'm living in a country (Ireland) suffering now because of this very kind of ego-driven speculation.
Reading it will give you newfound respect for Zuckerberg and his dorm room.
This is all a giant shame, but the story itself is a riveting one. But it really needs to be written by someone else, someone who can tell the story of Boo without glossing over all the mistakes, and who can say, perhaps once in a while, that maybe they should have had a profitable business before they started living like they had one.
June 16, 2011
First off, I was never even interested in boo.com and secondly, the fact that you can make money out of writing a book of your financial disasters amused me loads when I first saw it and I let the library shell out the £7.99 for this book. I wasn't interested in boo because I'm both completely uninterested in the fashion brands it was pushing and I'm also the kind of person who responds to hype by ignoring it's source. Also this book ends abruptly at the moment boo call in the liquidators so I have no idea whether Ernst Malmsten, one of boo's co-founders was hoping that this book would be a money spinner.
Malmsten has two co-authors credited on the cover of this book but it's all written in the first person and I came away from the book really disliking him. He's frank about his dislikes and confrontations and fallings out with his staff and company co-founders and there are only a handful of people in the book who can be happy with the way Malmsten portrays them. He tries to be sympathetic and blame himself for mis-hirings and bad decisions but I never got thr feeling he was serious. Although he acknowledges that mistakes were made I don't get the feeling that he really believes that anything was his fault and that he blames his investors for not funding him to infinity.
As a techie person the parts of the book that stand out for me are those concerned with the implementation of the boo website. It was intended to be a ground breaking piece of design and e-commerce and failed to deliver either. I can see that there is far more to running a retail site than software and that the boo team had to concentrate on logistics and suppliers (actually I was really surprised by the difficulty they had persuading old fashioned clothing suppliers to deal with them at all) but they seemed for the most part to expect a complex and innovative site to appear from almost nowhere.
I didn't realise that boo had three founders, as well as Malmsten who took the CEO role in the company and Kajsa Leander who was mostly in charge of marketing and design I think there was a man called Patrik Hedelin who was brought in to handle finances but got pretty much squeezed out as the sums involved in those finances got too big for him to hamdle. My feeling is that the team really needed to contain a strong technical person and someone with a handle on the retail industry in order for boo to have got their ideas right before they burnt up a fortune.
I'm afraid I laughed out loud at finding that this page is all that remains of boo on the web today. Perhaps if they'd started off with a site this simple the company would still be here today.
It is quite a sad story since you know it's going to end in disaster but it's hard to find anyone to feel sad for. The founders always knew that it could end in tears, the senior management earnt enough and learnt enough that they are probably all doing very nicely for themselves by now and the investors all knew what kind of risk they were taking. I guess it's the rank and file staff who were encouraged to think boo 24/7 that I feel the most sympathy for and I expect that they are still waiting for their paycheques.
Malmsten's insistence upon creating a 24/7 fast living and hard drinking culture for boo was one of the things I liked least about the book. Having given up his private life in the name of entrepreneurship he seemed to believe everyone around him should do the same to further his vision. I think that annoyed me even more than his constant whinging that everything would be ok if the investors would just pony up another measley $20 million.
In summary, it's an interesting and compelling book but I wouldn't class it under enjoyable. It's more like rubbernecking to see the accident on the other carriageway.
Malmsten has two co-authors credited on the cover of this book but it's all written in the first person and I came away from the book really disliking him. He's frank about his dislikes and confrontations and fallings out with his staff and company co-founders and there are only a handful of people in the book who can be happy with the way Malmsten portrays them. He tries to be sympathetic and blame himself for mis-hirings and bad decisions but I never got thr feeling he was serious. Although he acknowledges that mistakes were made I don't get the feeling that he really believes that anything was his fault and that he blames his investors for not funding him to infinity.
As a techie person the parts of the book that stand out for me are those concerned with the implementation of the boo website. It was intended to be a ground breaking piece of design and e-commerce and failed to deliver either. I can see that there is far more to running a retail site than software and that the boo team had to concentrate on logistics and suppliers (actually I was really surprised by the difficulty they had persuading old fashioned clothing suppliers to deal with them at all) but they seemed for the most part to expect a complex and innovative site to appear from almost nowhere.
I didn't realise that boo had three founders, as well as Malmsten who took the CEO role in the company and Kajsa Leander who was mostly in charge of marketing and design I think there was a man called Patrik Hedelin who was brought in to handle finances but got pretty much squeezed out as the sums involved in those finances got too big for him to hamdle. My feeling is that the team really needed to contain a strong technical person and someone with a handle on the retail industry in order for boo to have got their ideas right before they burnt up a fortune.
I'm afraid I laughed out loud at finding that this page is all that remains of boo on the web today. Perhaps if they'd started off with a site this simple the company would still be here today.
It is quite a sad story since you know it's going to end in disaster but it's hard to find anyone to feel sad for. The founders always knew that it could end in tears, the senior management earnt enough and learnt enough that they are probably all doing very nicely for themselves by now and the investors all knew what kind of risk they were taking. I guess it's the rank and file staff who were encouraged to think boo 24/7 that I feel the most sympathy for and I expect that they are still waiting for their paycheques.
Malmsten's insistence upon creating a 24/7 fast living and hard drinking culture for boo was one of the things I liked least about the book. Having given up his private life in the name of entrepreneurship he seemed to believe everyone around him should do the same to further his vision. I think that annoyed me even more than his constant whinging that everything would be ok if the investors would just pony up another measley $20 million.
In summary, it's an interesting and compelling book but I wouldn't class it under enjoyable. It's more like rubbernecking to see the accident on the other carriageway.
August 8, 2011
A very interesting read for anyone who worked at a .com during their biggets hausse. It is a very real account of what was going on in those companies.
January 10, 2020
An open account of the rapid rise and fall of a dotcom startup, written by one of the founders. He's fairly open about the problems they suffered, the fact that they tried to expand too fast, and the personal pain of having to make hard-working and loyal staff redundant. It doesn't contain the same level of detail you'd expect if the book had been written by an investigative journalist, but in many ways that makes it more accessible.
October 27, 2019
One of the best fashion business books I have ever read and reread. *note to self reread when I feel the need to over spend on the business credit card :)*
December 3, 2019
A good internet, dot com story. Easy reading.
June 2, 2020
Fantastic! Must read for any startup!
Read
August 8, 2020The pre .com-bust
Want to read
October 25, 2024Archita Harathi (10/25/24)
October 25, 2012
A fascinating ride on the rollercoaster of the first dot com bubble, exposing the psyches of those inside it, and inviting many parallels with the exuberance of today's tech economy.
Malmsten implies that the book was written partially to show to those complaining of the excess of Boo that they were missing a bigger picture. Instead, it seems to chronicle the excess. He makes a surprisingly good case for much of it, justifying it as necessary in the crazy context of the dot com boom. A lot of the time though, it reads like he's attempting to justify the extravagance to himself and his erstwhile partners as much as the reader. The book is certainly not a sober reflection on the causes of Boo's (or Malmsten's) problems.
Nevertheless, by the end I was rooting for Boo and Malmsten. A lot of mistakes and missteps were made, and staggeringly massive amounts of money was misspent. Especially with the benefit of hindsight though, the pessimism in the bust seems almost as misplaced as the irrational optimism of the boom.
Malmsten implies that the book was written partially to show to those complaining of the excess of Boo that they were missing a bigger picture. Instead, it seems to chronicle the excess. He makes a surprisingly good case for much of it, justifying it as necessary in the crazy context of the dot com boom. A lot of the time though, it reads like he's attempting to justify the extravagance to himself and his erstwhile partners as much as the reader. The book is certainly not a sober reflection on the causes of Boo's (or Malmsten's) problems.
Nevertheless, by the end I was rooting for Boo and Malmsten. A lot of mistakes and missteps were made, and staggeringly massive amounts of money was misspent. Especially with the benefit of hindsight though, the pessimism in the bust seems almost as misplaced as the irrational optimism of the boom.
May 25, 2013
This book can at times feel like a window into insanity but a collective insanity where banks, analysts, retailers and more lost their minds and their millions in pursuit of a dream. The author's relentless faith in his business in the face of all logic and reason is remarkable to behold. He would be one of the great literary creations if her were not real.
Its one of those books which lets you instantly understand an era by summing up the dot com bubble. Stocks soared, investment piles in, but the fundamentals of business are flung out the window by a set of brashly confident proto hipsters.
It is a fascinating and highly recommended read. While it may be written as a study about business it reveals much more about people and the limitless promise the internet entailed in that time.
Its one of those books which lets you instantly understand an era by summing up the dot com bubble. Stocks soared, investment piles in, but the fundamentals of business are flung out the window by a set of brashly confident proto hipsters.
It is a fascinating and highly recommended read. While it may be written as a study about business it reveals much more about people and the limitless promise the internet entailed in that time.
July 27, 2013
A very detailed and, one hopes, honest account of the madness that was boo.com. One would like to believe that the boo founders were as analytical and mature as Ernest portrays them. But this was a senior management team that agonised about the website's Miss Boo's hairstyle to the extent that they hired a world famous US hairstylist to design her bangs (at not inconsiderable cost) while their technology platform was in the doldrums. Fiddling while Rome burned comes to mind. Despite the excesses of lifestyle that these 20 something wunderkinds indulged in, this is a fascinating account of the Internet mania and financial wheeling dealing that abounded at the fin de siècle. A worthy read.
September 18, 2007
A really interesting insight into the dot com bubble and how it all went wrong. Although the author spends a bit too much time blaming others (especially the investors) and not accepting enough responsibility for what actually occured. It's not so bad to lose your business if you are already wealthy, what about all those who lost their jobs and didn't have that safety cushion?
November 5, 2011
All aboard the website equivalent of The Titanic. You know how it's going to end, but you still want them to get away with it. Well written, exciting and believe it or not, inspiring. We learn more from mistakes than successes!
August 14, 2007
If you're interested in fashion and the dot com bust this is a great book.
May 5, 2010
I don't agree with what Ernst's says about the CTO :)
September 14, 2010
Every entrepreneur should read this book. It's always best to learn from mistakes rather than successes!
July 23, 2011
Interesting read to relive the dotcom madness. He could be harsher on himself though.
Read
August 11, 2011what a way to burn $135 million
i still think it was a great idea
i still think it was a great idea
March 25, 2013
crazy swedes burning up a co.
September 14, 2013
Incredibly motivating book with a deep insight of the dizzying dotcommery world during the early rise of e-commerce. A must-read!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews