
How my startup failed (1999) - vivekd
http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=41260
======
matt4077
I'm pretty surprised he had trouble getting 10,000 condoms.

I once helped organize a student conference and asked a manufacturer to donate
5,000 condoms, about one per day per participant. Yes, we were aiming high.

I noticed something was wrong when the truck driver started unloaded three
pallets worth of condoms. They had sent us 5,000 boxes with 25 condoms each =
125,000.

During the next two years, we did manage to find a few events that gratefully
took most of the load of our hands. But a few thousand remained in my basement
and I learnt: there's nothing sadder than a thousand expired condoms.

~~~
cortesoft
When was this? It might have been harder to find and contact a manufacturer in
the mid-nineties.

~~~
gfodor
Perhaps the era of a condom keychain in every pocket has finally come.

(probably not)

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finid
Funniest piece I've read in a long time. And there are many lessons in there,
too.

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PhilWright
Surely today you would get them made in China at the same kind of total cost.
No more lacerated fingers putting them together yourself. There are
fulfillment companies that take your stock and then send them out to customers
as orders come in. Setup a website that hooks into the fulfillment company
process and you have a virtually no touch process.

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fapjacks
The article was written in 1999, before the advent of internet-based commerce.
Maybe that could have made things turn out differently for him? Interesting
post!

~~~
davidwihl
Amazon and eBay launched in 1995. There were many examples by 1999.

~~~
fapjacks
Well, you're being pedantic. In '99 the great mouthbreathing horde were not
buying things online.

~~~
tyingq
Not sure why you're being downvoted.

eBay revenue, 1999: $224.7 million

eBay revenue, 2015: $8,590 million

Edit: That's 38x

~~~
davidwihl
Amazon revenue was already $1.6B in 1999. Clearly out of startup phase by
then.

So it depends on your measure. eCommerce is still a relatively small
percentage of GDP, 5.4% of US according to
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/250703/forecast-of-
inter...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/250703/forecast-of-internet-
economy-as-percentage-of-gdp-in-g-20-countries/)

~~~
tyingq
eCommerce as a percentage of all retail sales is a decent measure.

1999: 0.2%

2015: 8.4%

42x

[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ECOMPCTSA](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ECOMPCTSA)

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amelius
It is actually pretty refreshing to read a "startup failure" story for a
change. IMO, HN should have these more often!

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throwaway4891a
That. is. hilarious.

(Business is like life, love and war: difficult)

