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:
Additional "Where are they now?" profiles from the ongoing series:
Comments
A member of my family was employee #12 (or something like that) at Kozmo and was in the last group of layoffs. Result is that the small overnight suitcase that I use bears a Kozmo business card in its plastic ID slot. He's now working for a hedge fund.
Where is Aether on this list? They burned throught $1 BILLION dollars and never even had a product!
Ian misses the larger picture regarding the dot com bombs. The RICO-style conduct of the investment banks bilked hundreds of millions from pension funds. The Teflon Don had to be envious about how the bankers got away with it..
Wow, I didn't realize the Industry Standard was still around either until this got linked on the slashdot front page. Is Fast Company still in business?
I'd like to see OnLive! Technologies in this list. They were quite popular back in the 90's and had large investments from many other companies (including Microsoft) and even had dealings with MTV (they had their own OnLive! Traveler server). It's a shame they got caught up in the dot com bubble burst though.
This kind of article is both hurtful and hateful. Industry Standard, may you rot in hell for this. Sincerly, Socks the Pets.com mascot
I would love to see a story on where David Wetherall from CMGI is now. CMGI was the godfather of all of these dot com companies, raising them up, IPOing them and riding the rollercoaster. I did a google search of him to see what he is up to, and all that comes up are stories from the late 90s of how big of a genius he is.
I think the great missing story here is perhaps the best dot-com website of them all, F'ckedCompany.
Where is Pud's story?
I just remember the greed and the money all lost after the bust or boom or whatever other headline they used.
And now we are doing it all over again with the sub-prime housing situation.
I wonder whats the next sector...
NotAChance: We will be considering other companies for a follow-up series, but note that of the many thousands of Internet services started in the last 15 years, we only have the resources to track down a relatively small number of them. Do keep the suggestions coming, though ...
I wonder what happened to Divine Interventures ... they were a big incubator in Chicago during the boom.
Hank: I used to follow Pud's site, too, in the early part of this decade. I think it fizzled a little over three or four years ago, as the pace of failures declined.
I remember receiving the last issue of the Industry Standard back in 2000/2001. As the bubble was bursting, I remember seeing each issue getting thinner and thinner.
It would have been a moment of sadness had I not been more preoccupied with my own company closing its doors...
Pud started his own VC-funded dotcom, adbrite, and was promptly sacked as they couldn't find any non-porn customers. He shut down his message board after the FCers started mocking him.
Sadly, there has been no FC replacement. Unfortunate, as there are a lot of housing speculators that remind us a lot of the citizens of the last bubble.
What about ihigh.com? Those guys are still trying to make the high school sports market profitable. I think they are still high on something.
gdel: I remember those days, too. The bursting Internet and tech bubbles had a huge impact on advertising. This unfortunately put many technology and business publications in a tight spot, as they had bulked up with staff and invested in office and their own Internet sites in the boom years. I was working for Network World at the time, and it was shocking to go from 125-150 page issues in late 1999 to 40-50 page issues just a year later.
While the pets.com mascot was better, how many dot com companies had their mascot turned into a tv show? Only freeinternet.com.
You *gotta* include flooz in the next installment. In many ways I believe it epitomized the ridiculous-of-ridiculous dotcom ideas - I would have loved to have heard the pitch that sold the idea of exchanging real money for intarwebs gift credits. Either it was a full-on jedi mind trick, or maybe VC capitalists just wanted to believe anything backed by Whoopi has GOTS ta be a winner ;)
Wow, this from Industry Standard. In 1998 I worked on the same block: Battery st. They were housed where Dwell started out much later. Anyway, at a Friday party at the magazine one day in 1999, I remember having a conversation with an employee about how the whole "industry" was so unsustainable. He added that with the natl savings average having just hit a new low, it was a matter of time before easy credit dried up, and the whole housing boom with it (San Francisco had less than 1% vacancy at the time and highest rents in US).
I kept thinking about that conversation through the dotbombs and watched the housing boom for signs of his "creditbomb". Surprisingly it took a few more years for it to happen. But I can truthfully say that The Industry Standard the first time around helped me see the writing on the wall way before that guy realized he would be a casuality of the bomb himself, and way before the inevitable credit bomb took hold.
Thanks for the foresight, and better luck this time guys!
Wow, this from Industry Standard. In 1998 I worked on the same block: Battery st. They were housed where Dwell started out much later. Anyway, at a Friday party at the magazine one day in 1999, I remember having a conversation with an employee about how the whole "industry" was so unsustainable. He added that with the natl savings average having just hit a new low, it was a matter of time before easy credit dried up, and the whole housing boom with it (San Francisco had less than 1% vacancy at the time and highest rents in US).
I kept thinking about that conversation through the dotbombs and watched the housing boom for signs of his "creditbomb". Surprisingly it took a few more years for it to happen. But I can truthfully say that The Industry Standard the first time around helped me see the writing on the wall way before that guy realized he would be a casuality of the bomb himself, and way before the inevitable credit bomb took hold.
Thanks for the foresight, and better luck this time guys!
chux0r: Good recommendation on Flooz. I think there were several other of these alternative currency sites, too -- anyone remember their names?
From Dot com speculation to housing speculation, to speculation in oil futures (since Enron managed to lobby for removal of SEC oversight over Oil futures)
I'd love to see an extensive list of the compainies that went public (IPO) in the late 90,s and early 2000's (pre-bust). and where the key drivers/players now are located. And no, I'm not a recruiter, lol! But it is interesting to see what biz models survived/morphed or flat our failed or later became successful under a different management. And who ended up in jail and who didn't...;) Could be a provocative article...
Myself, I was the first salesperson hired at CyberGold Inc, on board for 3 rounds of funding, then left to run sales at the SFGate.com. Now, I'm the co-founder at Travel Ad Network . I'm currently enjoying the climate of non-irrational exuberance...lol!
I'd like to second CMGI (or principals) being on the next edition of the list.
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...
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...
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.
Beenz was another e-money operation. I always thought it and Flooz died because you could not use Flooz to buy Beenz!
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
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.
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
+1 for a hard hitting follow-up on Flooz.
Can you please do the legwork on incamail? With no warning it disappeared one day, taking all my email with it.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Beenz was another e-money operation. I always thought it and Flooz died because you could not use Flooz to buy Beenz!
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I'd like to second CMGI (or principals) being on the next edition of the list.
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