Pets.com
The dot-com era classic: shipping heavy, low-margin products (dog food) at a loss is not viable, regardless of internet hype.
1998 → 2000
$300M
E-commerce
USA
IdeaProof AI Failure Score
Full Analysis
Pets.com became the poster child of dot-com excess. The company sold pet supplies online, spending $11.8M on a Super Bowl ad while generating just $619K in revenue that quarter. The fundamental problem: shipping 40-pound bags of dog food cost more than customers paid. For every dollar of revenue, Pets.com spent $1.31 on shipping alone. The famous sock puppet mascot became more valuable than the business itself. The company went from IPO to liquidation in 268 days. Amazon, an early investor, saw the writing on the wall and eventually built its own pet supplies business (now Amazon's pet category does $10B+). The lesson: brand awareness without unit economics is just accelerated cash burn.
Could This Failure Have Been Prevented?
IdeaProof's AI validates market demand, competitive positioning, and business model viability in minutes — catching the exact issues that sank Pets.com.