Failure museum of companies, products, sports & toys

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Allan - Failure Museum

Allan

Released in 1964, Allan, was named after the son-in-law of Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler. He was marketed as Ken’s best friend who could also fit

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Atari’s E.T. Game - Failure Museum

Atari’s E.T. Game

Atari’s game, Extra-Terrestrial, was designed in a record five weeks by a single programmer in 1982. The game was a commercial failure due to its

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Blockbuster - Failure Museum

Blockbuster

In 1994, Viacom bought Blockbuster for $8.4 billion. In 2000, the year after its IPO, Blockbuster turned down an opportunity to buy Netflix for $50

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FTX - Failure Museum

FTX

FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, once valued at $32B in January 2022, scammed billions from crypto-currency users. The company had built its

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Jarts - Failure Museum

Jarts

In 1988, lawn darts with metal spikes were banned in America by the Consumer Product Safety Commission due to the severe danger they presented. From

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Miss Bic - Failure Museum

Miss Bic

In 2012, Bic created a pencil for women. Yes — a pencil for women — since it’s share amongst women was lagging. Miss Bic didn’t

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New Coke - Failure Museum

New Coke

In 1985, Coca-Cola reformulated Coke because they were losing market share to the sweeter tasting Pepsi-Cola.  Consumers rejected New Coke as they had a deep

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Pets.com

Pets.com

In November 1998 the website was launched and in November 2000 it was shutdown. Pets.com’s highly unprofitable pet food, especially with high shipping costs, killed

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Sports Illustrated - Failure Museum

Sports Illustrated

Launched in 1954, Sports Illustrated was one of the few sources of real sports reporting. Its circulation peaked 30 years ago and has been declining

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Theranos - Failure Museum

Theranos

Raised $1.3B and lied to patients to keep partners and investors happy leading to it’s demise in 2018.

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Webvan- Failure Museum

Webvan

Webvan raised $880M to launch in 10 cities before they had proven one leading to their demise in 2001.  Webvan needed $1B for each distribution

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About Us

Failure Museum
A collection by Sean Jacobsohn of failed companies and products. Discover the causes of these failures and how to learn from them.

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