F'd Companies: Spectacular Dot-Com Flameouts

By Philip J. Kaplan

Book Overview

Not long ago, the world was awash with venture capital in search of the next Yahoo or Amazon.com. No product, no experience, no technology, no business plan -- no problem. You could still get $40 million from investors to start up your dot-com. And you could get people to work around the clock for stock options and the promise of millions. Then, around April 2000, it all came crashing down.

Smart investors, esteemed analysts, and the business press found themselves asking:

Who knew people wouldn't rush out to trade in their U.S. dollars for a virtual currency called Flooz?

Who knew people wouldn't blow all their Flooz on a used car from the guys at iMotors.com?

And who needed a used car from iMotors.com when they could just sit at home and have 40-lb. bags of dog food delivered to them by a sock puppet?

F'd Companies captures the waste, greed, and human stupidity of more than 100 dot-com companies. Written in Philip J. Kaplan's popular, cynical style, these profiles are filled with colorful anecdotes, factoids, and information unavailable anywhere else. Together they form a gleeful encyclopedia of how not to run a business. They also capture a truly remarkable period of history.

F'd Companies is required reading for everyone involved in the "new economy" -- assuming your severance check can cover the cost.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416577939
• ISBN13: 9781416577935
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Funniest of the funny!

Do you find pleasure in reading a scathing review? An article asking "what were they thinking?" If so than this book is for you. I honestly can't remember the last time I laughed so hard from words on a page. Some of the "companies" written about in this book boggle the mind in their madness. What in the HELL were thinking!?! A wonderfully well written and important history of a wild and crazy time. 5 Stars!

Great Tales of Wasted Millions

I really enjoyed this book. It is a quick read, but will definately give you a chuckle. If you do not like profanity, this book is not for you. However, if you want to see how the dot bomb wasted millions / billions of dollars, then F'd company will share the stupidty of these companies. I just wonder who was dumber, the people who started these companies, or the morons who gave them cash?

Entertaining and educational

This book is a virtual almanac of internet companies, their business plans, why their business plan wouldn't work, how much money they were 'given' by investors, and how quickly they spent all of it. Not too mention the number of employees they hired and then later laid off.Approx. each page of this book is a short story of an internet company. It's extremely educational and it's written in a George Carlinesque type of language, which makes it very funny and quite the page turner.I only wish there were more companies in the book. I think he covers around 180 dot com fiascos, but there were several I could think of that weren't even mentioned. Still, what an eye-opening experience it is to read the truth about the internet insanity that occurred.

Its good, IF you like F'dcompany.com

Alright, those of you who aren't fans of f'dcompany.com I can understand your feelings about the book.. it is after all a "little" bit crass.But seriously I read the website often and after hearing all the bad press about the book, I had to read it for myself. Surprisingly, I like it! For starters Pud does not change his tone for the book, he's crass on the site and he's crass on the book which to me, is honest. But mostly, I don't think he just regurgitates whats on the site.. he groups them into different segments and offers his views on why he thinks they went out of business PLUS he includes the amount of money blown for each f'd company.So alright, its a rehash, but hey, you can get all of this in a nice, fun to read (in a Pud's way) digest without having to read through all the Joe Wang, ESC**W.com, racist, derogatory spam messages posted by some of the readers :)My buddy likes to think "big ideas".. all the time, and I'm going to buy him this book as a gift and tell him, next time before he goes and claims discovery of the next "killer app", to see if its already in this book.. and if not, I'll listen to him ;) Seriously, if you enjoy the site, you'll enjoy the book. I did.

Finally some sanity!

As expected, Kaplan's approach to the venture capital-induced madness that subsumed the 'internet industry' is the same hilariously straightforward cynical analysis that gave his website instant cult status. I couldn't put the book down and laughed out loud at least once every two pages.A work of literature it is not, but if you have any interest in the 'internet bubble' and always suspected that the whole thing a massive joke, then this is a definite must-read.