Thread by @Leandro8209

WTF moments in startupville: A thread.

Don't look at these if you're currently struggling to raise funds.

Theranos 💉
Founded: 2003
Known for: Convincing the world that all kinds of diagnostics can be read from one drop of blood.

Raised: $400 million +
Status: Deceased

WTF moment /2

Juicero 🍊
Founded: 2013
Known for: Selling a $400 juicer, that worked with bags, that could be squeezed by hand, making the machine useless.

Raised: $100 million +
Status: Deceased

WTF moment /3

Teaforia 🍵
Founded: 2014
Known for: Trying sell us something that makes tea for $1000.

Raised: $12 million
Status: Deceased

WTF moment /4

Bodega 🛒
Founded: 2017
Known for: Making a smart cabinet, filling it with startup feed (including LaCroix of course), and calling it “Bodega” of all things. It’s a vending machine.

Raised: $2.5 million
Status: Alive (as Stockwell)

WTF moment /5

Liquid Death 💧
Founded: 2019
Known for: Putting water in a tall can, and marketing it as an edgy, punk-style brand.

Raised: $1.2 million
Status: Alive

WTF moment /6

Cangoroo 🦘
Founded: 2019
Known for: Trying to do the sharing thing (like with e-scooters) with a pogo stick.

Raised: N/A
Status: Still not sure if real

WTF moment /7

WeWork 👩‍💻
Founded: 2010
Known for: Trying really hard to be seen as a tech and lifestyle company, but once you strip it down, it's an office leasing company that is scaling so fast, many fundamentals are being missed.

Raised: $12.8 billion 🤯
Status Alive

WTF moment /8

Clinkle 💵
Founded: 2011
Known for: Dreaming up a rewards based payments platform, that never really saw the light of day.

Raised: $25 million
Status: Deceased

WTF moment /9

YO 🗣
Founded: 2014
Known for: Creating a chat app, that only lets you send messages with the word “yo".

Raised: $1.5 million
Status: Active

WTF moment /10

Fyre Media 🏝
Founded: 2016
Known for: Trying to organise a "luxury festival" on the Bahamas, with the goal of promoting an app of the same name. Take a washed up rapper, add some fraud, breach of contract and more...

Raised: $23 million
Status: Deceased

So, this seems to be doing some numbers.

As you’re here - we are building our own business, no VC, no friends and family round, completely self funded - hard but rewarding.

If you’re looking for a simpler way to deploy web applications - check us out: unubo.com

WTF moment /11

Color 🔵
Founded: 2011
Known for: Creating a photo, video, sharing/discovery app. Classic overfunded startup, struggling to find its way. Add to that a captain (founder), who abandoned ship after organisational mismanagement.

Raised: $41 million
Status: Deceased

Yikes, this is getting out of control 😁

Just a thought…

A lot of us read major tech publications like TechCrunch, TNW, The Verge, Inc etc.

They all cover stuff like “Acme Inc. raises $25 million for their AI toaster”, and always talk about FANG, and not much else. 1/2

In an ideal world, would it be interesting, or fair, to see people like you and I featured in these same publications, who are doing things on their own terms, with no VC funding etc?

By show of thumbs, let me know.

If 👎🏾 nay please say why. 2/2