Bird

Bird pioneered the dockless e-scooter revolution and was once valued at $2.5 billion. The company went public via SPAC in 2021 but filed for bankruptcy in December 2023. The fundamental problem was brutal unit economics: scooters cost $300-500, had an average lifespan of 3-6 months due to vandalism and weather, and generated only a few dollars per ride. Cities imposed increasingly strict regulations, fees, and fleet caps. Bird burned through cash expanding to 400+ cities while never achieving profitability in any market. The company also struggled with operational complexity—charging, rebalancing, and maintaining a distributed fleet of low-cost hardware proved enormously expensive at scale.