The Legends Who Killed It
A haunted museum of spectacular failures. These are the cautionary tales that changed business forever.
From billion-dollar frauds to products nobody wanted — study these corpses carefully.
Not All Failures Are Equal
Some failures teach us. Some build the future.
This hall contains two kinds of failures: cautionary tales (frauds, hubris, bad ideas) and productive failures (experiments, iterations, learning).
SpaceX blows up rockets to learn. Edison tried 10,000 filaments. NASA lost Apollo 1 but gained the moon. These failures mattered because people learned, documented, and built something better.
Total Destroyed Value
$309B+
Legendary Failures
35
Shortest Life
1 days
New Coke (79 days)
Biggest Unicorn Death
$68B
Enron
Browse the Graveyard
Filter by category or sort by spectacular failure metrics
Yahoo
The internet's homepage (was)
⚰️ 1994-2017
💀 Death by a thousand pivots
Valuation: $125 billion peak, sold for $4.48 billion
Burned: $125 billion in shareholder value
Body count: Thousands across multiple layoffs
"They had it all..."
Enron
Ask why
⚰️ 1985-2001
💀 Creative accounting
Valuation: $68 billion
Burned: $74 billion in shareholder value
Body count: 20,000 jobs lost
"They asked 'why not cook the books?'..."
Internet Explorer 6
The browser that wouldn't die
⚰️ 2001-2016
💀 Microsoft finally gave up
Burned: Incalculable dev time
Body count: Millions of hours debugging CSS
"PNG transparency broke..."
WeWork
Elevated the world's consciousness (and office rent)
⚰️ 2010-2019
💀 Math is hard
Valuation: $47 billion
Burned: $18.9 billion
Body count: 12,500 layoffs
"We tried to elevate consciousness..."
Adobe Flash
The web's animation engine
⚰️ 1996-2020
💀 Steve Jobs wrote a blog post
Burned: Adobe's entire platform
Body count: Millions of Flash devs retrained
"Skip intro..."
FTX
Cryptocurrency exchange
⚰️ 2019-2022
💀 Excel spreadsheet went brrr
Valuation: $32 billion
Burned: $8 billion customer funds
Body count: 300 employees
"Effective Altruism, Ineffective Accounting..."
Melvin Capital
Sophisticated hedge fund
⚰️ 2014-2022
💀 Reddit had other plans
Valuation: -$7 billion
Burned: $6.8 billion on GameStop alone
Body count: Entire fund
"Here lies smart money..."
Blockbuster
Be Kind, Rewind
⚰️ 1985-2013
💀 Missed every sign
Valuation: $5 billion peak
Burned: $5 billion market cap
Body count: 60,000 jobs lost
"Late fees killed goodwill..."
Tesla Cybertruck
The future of trucks (allegedly)
⚰️ 2019-Present
💀 Is it dead or just undead?
Burned: $billions in R&D
Body count: TBD but morale is low
"Here lies the polygon truck..."
SpaceX Starship Test Explosions
Rapid unscheduled disassembly
⚰️ 2019-Present
💀 Intentional iterative testing
Burned: $2 billion in R&D
Body count: 15+ Starship prototypes
"They blow things up fast..."
Quibi
Premium short-form video
⚰️ April 2020 - December 2020
💀 Solution looking for a problem
Valuation: $1.75 billion
Burned: $1.75 billion
Body count: 200 employees
"Quick bites for your commute..."
Theranos
Revolutionary blood testing
⚰️ 2003-2018
💀 The blood was fake
Valuation: $9 billion
Burned: $1.4 billion
Body count: 800 employees
"Here lies Theranos..."
Jawbone
Wearable tech pioneer
⚰️ 1999-2017
💀 Beat by Fitbit, then both lost to Apple
Valuation: $3.2 billion
Burned: $930 million
Body count: 300+ engineers
"First to market..."
Apple Newton
Eat up Martha
⚰️ 1993-1998
💀 Couldn't read its own handwriting
Burned: $500 million
Body count: Hundreds of engineers
"Here lies Newton..."
Google Glass
The future of wearables
⚰️ 2013-2015
💀 Glassholes
Burned: Hundreds of millions
Body count: One division
"OK Glass, find dignity..."
NASA Apollo 1 Fire
The tragedy that saved the moon landing
⚰️ January 27, 1967
💀 Cabin fire during ground test
Burned: $400 million (1967 dollars)
Body count: 3 astronauts (Grissom, White, Chaffee)
"Three gave their lives..."
Pets.com
Because pets can't drive
⚰️ 1998-2000
💀 Sock puppet couldn't save them
Valuation: $300 million
Burned: $300 million
Body count: 320 employees
"The puppet was famous..."
McDonald's Arch Deluxe
The burger with the grown-up taste
⚰️ 1996-2000
💀 Adults don't go to McDonald's to feel sophisticated
Burned: $300 million marketing
Body count: Unknown
"It had dijon mustard..."
MoviePass
Unlimited movies for $10/month
⚰️ 2011-2019
💀 Math still matters
Valuation: $1 billion valuation
Burned: $300 million in 2 years
Body count: 200+ employees
"Ten dollars for infinity..."
Microsoft Zune
Welcome to the social
⚰️ 2006-2011
💀 iPod existed
Burned: $289 million loss
Body count: Unknown
"Brown was a choice..."
Amazon Fire Phone
Dynamic perspective
⚰️ 2014-2015
💀 Solution desperately seeking problem
Burned: $170 million write-down
Body count: Entire hardware division pivoted
"It had 3D shopping..."
Juicero
IoT juice press
⚰️ 2013-2017
💀 Humans have hands
Valuation: $120 million
Burned: $120 million
Body count: 120 employees
"Here lies the $700 juice press..."
Segway
Revolutionary personal transport
⚰️ 1999-2020
💀 Cities have stairs
Valuation: Acquired for pennies
Burned: $100M+
Body count: Unknown
"It was supposed to change cities..."
Vine
6 seconds of creativity
⚰️ 2013-2017
💀 Twitter couldn't monetize it
Valuation: Acquired for $30M, shut down at peak
Burned: Unknown but Twitter's patience
Body count: Dozens of creators' careers
"Six seconds was enough..."
Crystal Pepsi
You've never seen a taste like this
⚰️ 1992-1993
💀 Clear doesn't mean healthy
Burned: $40 million marketing
Body count: Several brand managers
"Crystal clear failure..."
OUYA
Android gaming console
⚰️ 2012-2015
💀 Mobile games on TV: turns out nobody wanted that
Valuation: $8.6M Kickstarter
Burned: $15 million
Body count: 60+ employees
"They Kickstarted dreams..."
New Coke
The best just got better
⚰️ April 23 - July 11, 1985
💀 Fixed what wasn't broken
Burned: $4 million R&D
Body count: Several marketing careers
"For 79 days..."
Taco Bell's Seafood Salad
From the sea to your Taco Bell
⚰️ 1986-1989
💀 It's seafood. At Taco Bell.
Burned: Unknown
Body count: Countless stomachs
"Here lies ocean meets Bell..."
Edison's 10,000 Lightbulb Attempts
I found 10,000 ways that don't work
⚰️ 1878-1879
💀 None - eventually succeeded
Burned: $50,000 (1879 dollars)
Body count: 10,000+ failed filaments
"Ten thousand tries..."
Objective-C
Apple's original language
⚰️ 1984-2014
💀 Swift happened
Burned: N/A
Body count: Still technically alive but everyone left
"The brackets were many..."
Skeuomorphism
When UIs looked like real things
⚰️ 2007-2013
💀 Jony Ive killed it (Scott Forstall took the fall)
Burned: Countless design hours
Body count: Every textured button ever
"Here lies rich Corinthian leather..."
Intel-based Macs
The Intel era
⚰️ 2006-2020
💀 Apple Silicon
Burned: N/A
Body count: Every Intel Mac dev
"Here lies the Intel switch..."
CoffeeScript
JavaScript's nicer syntax
⚰️ 2009-2015
💀 ES6 stole all its good ideas
Burned: N/A
Body count: Thousands of devs
"It's just JavaScript..."
James Dyson's 5,126 Prototypes
5,127th time's the charm
⚰️ 1979-1983
💀 None - eventually succeeded
Burned: 15 years of his life, nearly bankrupt
Body count: 5,126 failed prototypes
"Five thousand tries..."
Fleming's Contaminated Petri Dish
The failed experiment that saved millions
⚰️ September 1928
💀 Accidental contamination
Burned: £0
Body count: 0 (saved millions)
"A messy lab bench..."
The Thomas Edison Corner
Think you're Thomas Edison who figured out how to make a lightbulb after 10,000 failed attempts?
Well, we hope you enjoyed this little distraction from getting your work done. Now be a human and admit a time you've fucked up — maybe you'll leave here with a friend.
Fine, I'll Share My FailureKnow a legendary failure we're missing?
Nominate it for the Hall of Infamy. Bonus points if you were there when it died.
Nominate a Failure