25 Internet Startups That Bombed Miserably

If the Internet could speak with one voice, it would probably groan “oh, not again!” That’s because every raving success story about Internet startups is tempered by dozens more that crashed and burned in a sea of wasted money, bad ideas, or unfulfilled hype. As venture capitalist Paul Graham writes, most of these failures are never written about. No one knew about them, so they were never really expected to go anywhere. But a select few had very public flame-outs - what Graham calls “the elite of failures.”

The list below celebrates not the failure of these companies, but presents us with a conservative reminder of a not-so-distant past and the lessons we can learn from it.

The List