Failed Startups in the USA

Unit Economics & Governance · Valuation hype cannot mask fundamentally broken unit economics. Corporate govern…

Regulatory Crackdown & Youth Vaping · A $38B e-cigarette company that hooked teenagers on nicotine faced total regulat…

Production Scaling & Cash Burn · Rivian IPO'd at $150B — briefly worth more than Ford and GM. The stock fell 90% …

Fraudulent Product · Technology claims must be independently verified. Board composition matters—Ther…

Ponzi-Like Structure & Insolvency · Crypto yield platforms offering 17% APY are unsustainable. When yields come from…

Market Downturn & Burn Rate · Marketplace businesses in cyclical industries must have fortress balance sheets …

Massive Capital Burn Without Revenue · $3.6B from Ford and VW wasn't enough to make autonomous driving commercially via…

Algorithmic Pricing Failures · Zillow's algorithm overpaid for 65% of homes it bought. Lost $881M in Q3 2021 an…

Unsustainable Unit Economics · $3.4B in funding for instant convenience delivery still hasn't produced profitab…

Counterparty Losses & Contagion · Crypto prime brokerage with $3B in outstanding loans collapses when multiple bor…

Unit Economics & Regulation · Hardware-as-a-service in public spaces faces vandalism, regulation, and unit eco…

Digital Media Advertising Collapse · Vice was valued at $5.7B as the "millennial CNN" but digital media advertising c…

Regulatory & Scaling Challenges · Autonomous delivery robots raised $2.1B but commercial deployment remained limit…

Execution & Complexity · Vertical integration in construction is extraordinarily complex. SoftBank's mass…

Housing Market Reversal · iBuying houses with algorithms works in rising markets but creates massive losse…

No Product-Market Fit · Even $1.75B in funding cannot create demand for a product nobody wants. Test ass…

Quality Reputation & Shipping · Cheap products from China with 3-week shipping create a race to the bottom that …

Post-Pandemic Demand Collapse · Peloton's $50B peak was pandemic-inflated. When gyms reopened, demand evaporated…

Acqui-hire by Microsoft · Raising $1.5B for a personal AI chatbot that can't compete with ChatGPT leads to…

Unprofitable Unit Economics Post-Acquisition · Nestlé paid $1.5B for a meal delivery service that never achieved profitability.…

Tech Premium in Low-Margin Industry · Giving real estate agents better tech doesn't justify a $7B+ valuation. Brokerag…

Failed Business Model Pivots · An agtech startup that pivoted from seed microbiome to carbon credits to grain m…

Market & Policy Shifts · Government subsidies and policy support can evaporate. Building on policy assump…

Fake Pre-orders & Execution · Fabricating 100,000 pre-orders for an EV truck that doesn't exist yet is securit…

Cash Burn & Scaling Failure · Electric bus manufacturing has thin margins and long sales cycles. Government pr…

Execution & Cash Flow · Automotive manufacturing requires extreme precision in execution. Software issue…

Counterparty Risk & Contagion · Crypto yield products are just unsecured lending with extreme counterparty risk.…

Governance Crisis & Overvaluation · A checkout company valued at $11B that ousted its controversial CEO still couldn…

Fraud & Execution Failure · Nikola's founder rolled a truck downhill to fake a demo video. The SPAC hype mac…

Unviable Unit Economics · Growing lettuce with LEDs and robots in warehouses costs 10x more than conventio…

Competition & Product Issues · Hardware startups face brutal competition from deep-pocketed incumbents. Quality…

Over-expansion & Market Fit · AI solutions in healthcare face long sales cycles, integration complexity, and r…

Integration Complexity · Healthcare AI automation faces unique integration challenges that make scaling n…

Premature Scaling · The original grocery delivery failure: $830M to build massive warehouses before …

Parent Company Insolvency · Using customer deposits to fund Bitcoin mining operations is reckless and possib…

Housing Market Reversal · Rent-to-own fintech models collapse when interest rates spike and home prices de…

Operational Losses & Market Shift · Online used car sales require operational excellence that most tech companies un…

Execution & Cost Overruns · High-tech greenhouse farming in Appalachia couldn't compete on price with conven…

Unproven AI Kiosk Model · Replacing human doctors with AI-powered health kiosks in malls was too futuristi…

Execution & Cash Burn · Factory-built housing sounds great in theory but faces zoning, logistics, and qu…

Cash Burn & No Revenue · Another SPAC-era EV startup that burned through $600M without achieving meaningf…

Post-Pandemic Demand Collapse · Building a business on pandemic demand without a diversification plan is existen…

Regulatory & Technical Barriers · Flying cars have been "5 years away" for decades. Even Larry Page's fortune coul…

Competition & Model Decay · Flash sales e-commerce was a 2010s trend that Amazon and social commerce killed.…

Energy Costs & Bitcoin Price Crash · Bitcoin mining companies are leveraged bets on crypto prices and energy costs — …

Logistics Complexity & Post-Pandemic Demand · Fashion rental requires expensive logistics (cleaning, shipping, repairs) that c…

Insurtech Profitability Challenge · Telematics-based car insurance IPO'd at $6.7B then lost 97% of value. Insurance …

Unviable Unit Economics · Internet-beaming stratospheric balloons are technically impressive but economica…

Adoption Failure & Complexity · Ingestible sensors in pills to track medication compliance is technically fascin…

Fraud & Overbilling · Fabricating advertising metrics to justify $500M in investment is fraud.…

Regulatory Opposition · Even Facebook (Meta) with billions in resources couldn't launch a cryptocurrency…

Subscription Box Fatigue · Beauty subscription boxes grew to $1B+ revenue but consumers eventually tired of…

No Consumer Demand for Camera Glasses · Camera-equipped sunglasses sounded fun but $500M+ in R&D later, consumers still …

Digital Media Business Model Failure · BuzzFeed won a Pulitzer but couldn't make digital journalism profitable. Shut do…

Insurtech Margin Reality · AI-powered insurance sounds disruptive but insurance is a regulated, low-margin …

Market Shift & Regulatory Issues · Sale-leaseback for homeowners sounds innovative but faces consumer protection sc…

Over-engineering & Failed Pivot · A pizza delivery robot startup that pivoted to compostable packaging after SoftB…

Payer Reimbursement Failure · FDA-approved digital therapeutics don't matter if insurance companies refuse to …

Acqui-hire by Amazon · AI agent startups raised billions but most were absorbed by Big Tech before ship…

Parent Company Fraud Contagion · Even a supposedly "separate" US subsidiary collapses when the parent company com…

Unit Economics & Banking Complexity · Neobanks targeting teens and underbanked users face high churn, low revenue per …

Taken Private at Massive Discount · SAP bought Qualtrics for $8B, IPO'd it at $27B, then Silver Lake took it private…

Pay-Per-Mile Insurance Niche Too Small · Pay-per-mile car insurance is a niche product that couldn't support a public com…

SEC Investigation & Leadership Fraud · Another SPAC EV fraud: co-founders allegedly bought shares below the IPO price b…

Rover Competition & Thin Margins · SoftBank invested $300M in a dog walking app. Rover won. Wag! went public via SP…

Three Arrows Capital Contagion · Lending $660M to a single borrower (Three Arrows Capital) without collateral is …

DTC Mattress Commoditization · Casper proved that mattress-in-a-box is easily replicated. 175+ competitors eras…

Failed Pivot & Burn Rate · Flash sales models are inherently unsustainable. Pivoting repeatedly while burni…

Competition & Brand · Even Android's creator couldn't compete in smartphones. Brand loyalty and ecosys…

Unsustainable Business Model · Selling a product below cost without a clear path to monetization is not a busin…

Unit Economics & Timing · The dot-com era classic: shipping heavy, low-margin products (dog food) at a los…

Sales Execution & Market Fit · Enterprise AI document processing is a crowded market where selling to the gover…

Abandoned Core SMB Market · Brex raised $1.5B serving SMBs then abruptly abandoned them to chase enterprise …

SPAC Implosion & Thin Margins · A payday advance app that went public via SPAC at $4B lost 99% of its value.…

Overprescription Scandal & DOJ Investigation · Telehealth ADHD prescribing at scale attracted DEA scrutiny and a DOJ investigat…

No Differentiation vs. Amazon · Selling generic products at $3 each with "no brand tax" doesn't work when Amazon…

Market Fit & Pivot Fatigue · AI-powered underwriting for subprime loans faces regulatory scrutiny and fair le…

Post-Pandemic Revenue Collapse · Pivoting from genomics to COVID testing generated temporary revenue but left no …

Technology Ahead of Market · Enterprise AR headsets in 2019 were too expensive, too heavy, and too limited. T…

Regulatory Burden & Cash Burn · Cannabis delivery faces federal illegality, state-by-state regulation, banking r…

Unviable Unit Economics · Another vertical farming failure: $238M couldn't make indoor leafy greens cost-c…

Acqui-hire by Amazon · AI-powered warehouse robotics is so capital-intensive that even $222M leads to a…

Technology Pivot Failure · Pivoting from highway autonomy to camera-only systems couldn't compete with Tesl…

DTC Fashion Commoditization · Sustainable sneakers were a niche that couldn't support a $4B public company. Ni…

Competition & Customer Churn · Meal kit pioneer IPO'd at $2B then lost 98% of value. HelloFresh and Amazon crus…

Consumer Robot Demand Gap · Consumer robots are a novelty that wears off after a few weeks. Anki's Vector ro…

Post-Pandemic Demand Collapse · Travel nurse demand skyrocketed during COVID but crashed when the pandemic ended…

Rising Interest Rates & Margin Compression · A credit card debt management app funded by cheap capital collapses when interes…

Fake Users & Fraud · Vanity metrics and inflated user numbers will eventually be exposed. Investor du…

No Product-Market Fit · App search engine sounded revolutionary but users just use the App Store. Alibab…

Cash Burn & Execution · Peer-to-peer car selling: expensive inspections, transport, and a $300K/month CE…

ChatGPT Commoditized Its Product · AI content writing tools raised hundreds of millions before ChatGPT made the tec…

Margin Compression & Credit Risk · Payments businesses with thin margins can't sustain high customer acquisition co…

Unit Economics & Logistics · Prepared meal delivery with centralized kitchens has brutal unit economics: food…

Competition & Capital Requirements · Building an alternative delivery network to UPS/FedEx requires far more than $12…

No Product-Market Fit · One-click checkout is a feature, not a company. Burning $10M/month with $600K re…

Over-engineered Product · When your $400 machine can be replaced by squeezing a bag with your hands, you h…

Competition from Spotify · Rdio was the better product but Spotify had better distribution, more capital, a…

Feature Copied by Twitter/Spotify · Audio social rooms went from $4B valuation to irrelevance in 2 years after Twitt…

Insurance Fraud & FBI Raid · Billing insurance for medically unnecessary microbiome tests is healthcare fraud…

AI Claims vs. Reality · Claiming AI automation while secretly using manual labor is fraud.…

Manufacturing & Demand Shortfall · Mobile battery units to replace diesel generators face slow enterprise adoption.…

Ghost Kitchen Market Collapse · Ghost kitchens were a pandemic trend that faded. Restaurants went back to their …

Supreme Court Loss · Building a business on a legal loophole gets shut down by the Supreme Court.…

Acquisition Below Value · Product analytics is a competitive market where deep-pocketed incumbents squeeze…

Demand Slowdown & Competition · On-demand warehousing marketplace struggled when e-commerce growth slowed and tr…

Amplitude Competition & Free Tools · Product analytics pioneer struggled as Amplitude went public and free alternativ…

Technology + Law Mismatch · Even Justin Kan (Twitch co-founder) couldn't automate legal services. Law is rel…

Unsustainable Service Model · On-demand valet parking: each job cost more in labor than customers paid.…

Toxicity & Retention · Anonymous location-based social apps attract bullying and threats. A $400M valua…

Competition from Alexa/Google Home · A $900 social robot can't compete with a $50 Amazon Echo that does more.…

Unit Economics & Small Market · On-demand package shipping for consumers: most people ship 1-2 packages per year…

Technology Risk & Funding Gap · Custom AI neuromorphic chips require billions. $60M isn't enough to compete with…

Unit Economics Failure · Cooking and delivering restaurant-quality meals for $10 doesn't work when each m…

Ahead of Market & Apple AirPods · Smart earbuds with noise filtering launched just before Apple AirPods. Being a p…

Compliance Failures & Missing Funds · Banking-as-a-Service platforms handling customer deposits face existential risk …

No Audience & Rapid Cash Burn · Launching a news site in 2023 by spending $50M on staff and traffic acquisition …

Regulatory Timeline vs. Startup Funding Cycle · Nuclear microreactors face 10-15 year regulatory timelines that are incompatible…

Competition from Apple Watch · Pebble pioneered smartwatches via Kickstarter but couldn't survive Apple's entra…

AI Styling Couldn't Scale Profitably · AI + human stylists for personalized fashion sounded great but the model was too…

Worker Classification & Unit Economics · On-demand cleaning services with 1099 contractors face worker classification law…

Unviable Production Costs · Lab-grown meat at $50+/pound can't compete with conventional beef at $5/pound.…

Toxicity & Growth Stall · Anonymous social apps attract toxicity, cyberbullying, and eventually get abando…

No Value Proposition · Digital currency less convenient than cash or credit cards solves no real proble…

ChatGPT & Claude Competition · Consumer AI chatbot startups face extinction when foundation model companies off…

Competition (Slack/Teams) · Building a better Slack when Microsoft Teams is free with Office 365 is an uphil…

Founder Immaturity & No Product · 22-year-old raises $30M from celebrity investors, spends it on parties and hype …

Competition from Free Resources · Paid coding bootcamps struggle when YouTube and freeCodeCamp offer the same cont…

Unit Economics · Even celebrity chef David Chang couldn't make upscale prepared meal delivery pro…

Narrow Market & Acquisition Costs · A niche app to negotiate bank fee refunds has a small addressable market.…

Insufficient User Growth · Even Instagram's co-founders couldn't make a personalized AI news app work. The …

Unsustainable On-Demand Model · On-demand laundry pickup is a feature, not a venture-scale business.…

DTC Alcohol Regulations & CAC · DTC alcohol faces state-by-state shipping regulations that make scaling a logist…

Unit Economics · Delivering $6 meals in 10 minutes — each order lost money. Another prepared meal…

Platform Neglect & Competition · Twitter acquired Vine for $30M before launch, then starved it of resources while…