Entrepreneurial Disasters Discussion

In much of the material in this class you will read about examples of successful entrepreneurs. What you don’t hear as much about are examples of failed entrepreneurship. Keep in mind that over 90% of new business ventures end up failing, so it is just as important to learn from the failed cases as it is from the successful cases.

One of the most famous cases of entrepreneurial failure is Pets.com, which some of you may remember from their “sock puppet” TV commercials from the late 1990s. Another big failure was Webvan.com, a grocery delivery company. These two companies lost hundreds of millions of dollars during their short existence.

Fortunately you can still find TV commercials on YouTube for Pets.com, Webvan.com, and other famous failures. Find a couple of videos of commercials from these companies or other failed companies that you find to be the most ridiculous or most indicative of their future failure. Share the links with your classmates, and explain what about the videos were the biggest red flag to you that the company was doomed. But in addition to making fun of the videos, also explain what you learned from looking into some of these failed companies and what practical lessons you might have learned on how to avoid failure.

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