F'd Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts: Amazon.ca: Philip J. Kaplan: Books

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From Amazon

The graveyard of dot-com disasters is overflowing with grandiose ideas gone spectacularly bad, and Philip J. Kaplan's F'd Companies offers an unapologetically acerbic opinion on dozens of the most outrageous. Kaplan, a programmer turned consultant whose own online dreams began when he launched a bulletin board system for pirated game software back in 1989, pulls no punches as he bluntly dissects Web failures that remain dazzling for their pretentious plans and audacious executions. There are big names like Webvan ("a classic example of PAYING more for products than they were SELLING them for") and Go.com (a "portal to nowhere"), but most here are less well known despite similarly burning through cash like a cyber-brushfire. In language far more explicit than his softened-for-the-bookstore title, Kaplan skewers the likes of Iam.com (which lost $48 million trying to convince models and actors to post their portfolios on the Net), OnlineChoice.com (which spent $20 million to learn consumers weren't interested in group buys of electricity and other utilities), HeavenlyDoor.com (which sunk $26 million into a site peddling caskets and burial plots), and Eppraisals.com (which dropped $15 million on an effort to sell online evaluations of antiques). The result is consistently profane, frequently hilarious, and usually right on target. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

"I'm a computer programmer," Kaplan writes. "I'm that dude at your office in the dark cubicle who nobody listens or pays attention to (especially the hotties in marketing)." Kaplan's claim to fame is FuckedCompany.com, a Web site he built over Memorial Day weekend in 2000 to serve as a forum for bad news about Internet companies. His timing a few months after the Internet bubble began to deflate was perfect, and FuckedCompany became an immediate hit. Thousands of fired or about-to-be-fired dot-commers were more than willing to share their horror stories about the collapse of one Internet company after another. He has translated the material posted on the site into a book, offering brief vignettes of the demise of more than 150 Internet ventures. His basic formula includes a description of what the company purported to do (Mercata.com "customers would use the site to band together and purchase merchandise at wholesale prices"), how much money it blew through before going bankrupt and how many people were fired ("$89 million and 100 employees were burned"). Kaplan, 25, attempts to enliven each story with humor, which is often more crude than clever. That many of the stories sound the same is not Kaplan's fault, as most really are: someone comes up with an idea, finds a venture capitalist willing to pour funding into the company despite the flimsiest of business plans, and then goes broke when the money dries up. Although he tries, Kaplan delivers little more than an elegy for the Industry Standard, Pets.com, Contentville.com, Flooz.com, Bid.com and Kozmo.com, not to mention Zing.com, ProcessTree.com and MetalSpectrum.com.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

105 Reviews

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3.3 out of 5 stars (105 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars A Front Row Seat to the Dot.Com Implosion, Jan 27 2004

By

James Sadler (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: F'd Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts (Hardcover)

Philip J. Kaplan didn't set out to chronicle the disappointment and wrath of so many dot-commers burned by the internet bubble. But one Memorial Day weekend in 2000, trying to kill some time, Kaplan ( a web designer at the time) set up a site, F**kedcompany.com. The site offered the latest gossip about sinking dot-coms and even included an online betting pool on when companies would go under. Kaplan suddenly found himself thrust into the spotlight as a kind of overseer of the dot-com collapse.

And while Kaplan often refers to himself as an "idiot" throughout the book, he nonetheless clearly loves the hype generated by his website. He has been profiled by "The New York Times," "Salon.com," and ABC News's "20/20." among others. In this book, Kaplan offers capsule descriptions of about 150 of the looniest ideas and largest implosions. Kaplan reveals how many millions the companies burned through and gives, in sometimes clever but crude language, his sarcastic explanation for the failure of the many companies he skewers.

He garnered much of his information from the website. His website's betting pool assigned high scores to those submitting the best information about coming dot-com catastrophes. There was no actual monetary payout, winning is its own reward.) he was inundated with e-mails from employees, who were often angry, bitter, or just out to stick a knife in an occasional back, reporting rumors of pending layoffs, shutdowns, and bankruptcies.

As more companies failed, an almost sick fascination with the site grew, its notoriety spread, and disgruntled employees continued to send thousands of e-mails regarding various internet companies. The information often turned out to be accurate, that reading the postings was like knowing a train wreck was coming and having to set up near the tracks and watch. And people clearly loved watching company after company flameout and wreck.

The book spotlights many companies, among them: the sports site MVP.com, Webvan, and some you may never have heard of, such as little known Third Voice. Third Voice's pitch? It offered what amounted to virtual "sticky notes" which could be attached to websites. It had no real practical application, other than to potential muck up the websites of other businesses, yet investors poured some $15 million into the company.

Like his website, the book maintains a satirical tone which both amuses and irritates at times. The book may not be quite as timely as Kaplan might hope as there have been numerous other recent books which have chronicled the idiocy of the internet explosion. Still, Kaplan had a front row seat for much of the implosion, and it certainly makes for an entertaining read.

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1.0 out of 5 stars PUD is as F*(^%ED As the Dot Coms, Jan 8 2004

By

Leeza Ryan (Cupertino, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: F'd Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts (Hardcover)

This book is a very sad rant by Pud (Kapaln), himself a washed out dot.commer.

Here is a guy who rips into many companies from which he ran banners on his site. They became F&*#ED when he could not longer get them to advertise. (HotJobs for example.)

Anyone who actually is able to learn anything from this garbage probably did not pass Business 1A. All in all, a waste of paper.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Cut, Paste, Get Million Dollar Check, Dec 11 2003

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Ccole (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: F'd Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts (Hardcover)

Classic Pud here. I'm guessing he did this on purpose, just to flaunt something, not sure what. Literally Cut, Paste, Spell Check, Get 1,000,000 check. End of story.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Too glossy, no meat
I was expecting a little more substance from the book, perhaps some deeper examples and some better analysis and dirt and gossip from the wackoes that ran these dot coms, but the... Read more

Published on Aug 20 2003 by Dariushd

4.0 out of 5 stars Dot.funny
F'd is a catalogue of all the dot.com flameouts and foibles. It is also laced with Philip Kaplan's cutting, biting, ascerbic, scalding, acidic, vitriolic commentary that tends to... Read more

Published on Aug 4 2003 by Darrell Edward Ehrlick