Why They Died

A cemetery of failed startups. Each profile is a forensic post-mortem: what they did, what killed them, what to learn.

50 profiles buried, and counting.

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Featured graves

  • Quibi

    2018–2020

    Short-form premium video for mobile.

    No product–market fit
  • Solyndra

    2005–2011

    Cylindrical thin-film solar panels, undone when polysilicon prices collapsed

    Outcompeted
  • Webvan

    1996–2001

    Online grocery delivery that built robotic warehouses across nine cities before proving anyone wanted the service

    Premature scaling
  • Theranos

    2003–2018

    Single-drop blood testing — that didn't work.

    Fraud or scandal
  • eToys

    1997–2001

    Pure-play online toy retailer that briefly outpriced Toys R Us before the dot-com crash buried it

    Ran out of money
  • Aereo

    2012–2014

    Cloud-based dime-sized antennas streaming over-the-air broadcast TV to phones, tablets, and laptops

    Regulatory