The Industry Standard - Where are they now? - Comments

After struggling through the

David LaBar — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:39:01 -0700

After struggling through the tech bust days and the loss of its founders, Razorfish down-sized and merged with online ad agency Avenue A in '04. Since then, it's grown into the largest interactive agency. It eventually attracted the likes of Microsoft, which purchased it in 2007 for $6.6 billion (along with sister companies Atlas and DRIVE). Avenue A | Razorfish is an independently operated subsidiary, while Atlas and DRIVE are part of Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group.

After struggling through the

David LaBar — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:36:37 -0700

After struggling through the tech bust days and the loss of its founders, Razorfish down-sized to profitability and merged with online ad agency Avenue A in 2004. Since then, Avenue A | Razorfish has grown into the largest interactive agency. It eventually attracted the likes of Microsoft, which purchased it in 2007 for $6.6 billion (along with sister companies Atlas and DRIVE). Avenue A | Razorfish is an independently operated subsidiary, while Atlas and DRIVE are part of Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group.

razorfish went belly up and

vonbek — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:30:00 -0700

razorfish went belly up and is now part of Avenue A or some such...I admit to rather enjoying providing the title story to the finals day of rf on Netslaves....razorfish founder flounder...sadly (or luckily) my fame was fleeting.

Update: There's another

Ian Lamont929744 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:33:57 -0700

Update: There's another profile from the "Where are they now"? series, about Flooz -- we researched this company and conducted an interview with the former CEO based directly on the feedback above. Thanks for your suggestions, and keep 'em coming!

Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard

Everyone: The first

Ian Lamont929744 — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:39:53 -0700

Everyone: The first installment of the bimonthly series is up, based on an emailed suggestion by a reader. Check out Where are they now: AllAdvantage.com to find out about the rapid rise and fall of this well-known pay-to-surf site. Other services that are in the works include Flooz, CMGI, and NetPerceptions.

Can you please do the

TDK — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:33:34 -0700

Can you please do the legwork on incamail? With no warning it disappeared one day, taking all my email with it.

+1 for a hard hitting

Mike D — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:24:59 -0700

+1 for a hard hitting follow-up on Flooz.

Marty: Thanks! I dimly

Ian Lamont929744 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:25:28 -0700

Marty: Thanks! I dimly remember hearing about the Pixelon founder being arrested, but don't remember the Who party (maybe no one who was there does, either!)

I am passing along these tips to the lead writer, and the first new profile should appear on the last day of June, 2008. I'll post a link when it's up. Thereafter, the schedule is every two weeks.

Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard

Ian - Great piece, just came

marty — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:01:05 -0700

Ian -

Great piece, just came across it.

Let's not forget Pixelon - the company with probably the most extravagant and notorious launch party (hiring the Who) and flameout (founder arrested). Another video company with arrested founder: MetaTV.

Would also love to hear about what happened to New York's Prodigy as well as content creation companies like Cyberstudios and Razorfish Studios.

Thanks for the continuing

Ian Lamont929744 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:45:00 -0700

Thanks for the continuing comments, everyone. I just wanted to let you know that we are turning this into a regular feature, and the next installment will appear at the end of the month. We are taking some of your suggestions, and will be following up on CMGI (July) and Flooz (probably August). Thanks for all of the tips!

Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
Industry Standard

Beenz was another e-money

David Moisan — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:21:28 -0700

Beenz was another e-money operation. I always thought it and Flooz died because you could not use Flooz to buy Beenz!

Dying to know more about

Tired Old Brain in TX — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:18:18 -0700

Dying to know more about what's become of CMGI, for a fleeting moment the Patriots were playing in Wetherell's stadium. And Flip and Divine Interventures. Do tell! But don't forget Austin's biggest "dot bom darling" - Agillion. Superbowl ad, all company trip to Cabo, Aeron chairs for everyone, and there is still a mile long list of folks in Austin owed money, my own group included.

Exactly! I went thru a due

dinamoxx — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:20:28 -0700

Exactly! I went thru a due dilligence with them and they nearly invested $10 million in my company, MediaInternet.com. One day they consulted with George Garrick, one of the founders of Engage - and a member of their Board - and I had to go meet him in CA. The situation was amazing: I went coast-to-coast from NY to his house in Palo Alto and out of respect wore a suit to the meeting: the first thing he said when he saw me was "we don´t wear suits in California!".So the start of the meeting to defend my business plan didn´t go that well. The Guatemalan gardeners were placing the grass on his bare earth mounds, in the backyard of the house he had just bought with the proceeds from the sale of Engage. I remember we made our meeting under an umbrella and a pool side table and the guy would not offer a glass of water, though I had gone half around the world to meet him. After the meeting he gave us a gigantic thumbs down to the founder of Divine, a Philipowski I think it was and thus we were left with almost nothing. we nevertheless kept on going and our company's still around. I think he was negatively impressed by my lack of California looks. I haven't checked about them lately, or have either heard anything...

Another online currency --

fermata — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:19:31 -0700

Another online currency -- Beenz.
Would love a follow-up on MarchFirst.
Having been with at high-tech PR agency in SF during this time, my list of failed start-ups (and corresponding t-shirts) is long...

I'd like to second CMGI (or

Bradley Baker — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:02:55 -0700

I'd like to second CMGI (or principals) being on the next edition of the list.

Where are they now?

Ian Lamont — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:19:43 -0700

They were among the darlings of the first dot-com bubble: Boo, TheGlobe.com, Pets.com, Webvan, eToys, DrKoop.com, Garden.com, Kozmo, Excite@Home, and Entertaindom. Beginning in the mid 1990s, they traced a path of online innovation and IPO riches that lasted through the early part of the present decade. Billions were invested, from the biggest venture capitalist firms on Sand Hill Road down to small investors trying to latch onto the dot-com stock craze. Few of them got rich; most saw their stock and ownership stakes become nearly worthless after the bubble burst in 2000.

In the following pages, we'll profile the ten services, drawing upon interviews, research, and articles from The Industry Standard over the last decade. Besides examining their early history and business models, contributors David Cotriss and Mark Henricks also detail how the companies fared after the bubble, and where the founders and other senior executives ended up. The Industry Standard was able to talk with many of them, and their assessments of the successes and failures are fascinating. For instance, factors that brought down Webvan included high customer attrition rates and "intense" greed, says a former employee. Ryan McIntyre, an Excite co-founder, cites overstaffing and advertising problems contributing to the demise of Excite@Home. TheGlobe.com, an early online community, was "10 years too early," says co-founder and former CEO Stephan Paternot. Even though bankruptcy was widespread, a surprising number of the dot-coms are still operating, albeit under new ownership. Many of the veteran founders have moved onto greener pastures -- starting new ventures, becoming VCs, and even working for Amazon, Yahoo, Google, and other former competitors that now dominate the Web landscape.

We encourage readers to share their memories of this era and the 10 services in the comments below each profile. Remember using any of these dot-coms, or seeing their lavish Super Bowl ads? Tell us about it. In addition, be sure to check back, as The Industry Standard will be turning this feature into a regular series. If there's a company that you would like to see profiled in a follow-up edition, leave a comment below or email me at ian (at) thestandard.com.

Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard

Where are they now? The profiles:

eToys
Webvan
Pets.com
Boo
TheGlobe.com
Entertaindom
Excite@Home
Kozmo
Garden.com
DrKoop.com

Additional "Where are they now?" profiles from the ongoing series: