How my startup failed (1999)

http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=41260

by vivekd • 10 years ago

141 21 10 years ago

alumni.stanford.edu

finid• 10 years ago

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

fapjacks2• 10 years ago

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!

elefanten• 10 years ago

Maybe. But likely the pitfalls would simply look different.

davidwihl2• 10 years ago

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

fapjacks2• 10 years ago

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

matt40772• 10 years ago

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• 10 years ago

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

gfodor• 10 years ago

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

(probably not)

matt40772• 10 years ago

2006 or so. Maybe we just git "lucky".

gumby• 10 years ago

probably could have donated them e.g. to a homeless shelter.

disposablezero• 10 years ago

The Olympics uses 150k in a week.

staticelf• 10 years ago

But a few thousand remained in my basement and I learnt: there's nothing sadder than a thousand expired condoms.

So you had several thousand at first and are sad that only 1000 is left when they expired? Sounds like you got laid a lot and I would not be sad about that ;)

L_226• 10 years ago

But a few thousand remained in my basement and I learnt: there's nothing sadder than a thousand expired condoms.

I was once given a few thousand spare condoms after the G&L Mardi Gras in Sydney. By given, I mean they suddenly appeared in my house. Many were used in ways other than intended, like being filled with nitrous oxide :)

synicalx• 10 years ago

took most of the load of our hands

Hehehehe, that's what condoms are for right?

throwaway4891a• 10 years ago

That. is. hilarious.

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

PhilWright• 10 years ago

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.

amelius• 10 years ago

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

How my startup failed (1999)

Related Stories