From Lunatic Optimism to Panic and Crash.
ValueAmerica.com was supposed to do a for e-commerce what Wal-Mart did for retail: blow the competition out of the water. Theoretically an innovative way of piling 'em high and selling 'em cheap, the site was supposed to be the ultimate one-stop shop on the web.
Led by a marketing dynamo of rare vision and creativity, Craig Winn, the company also had serious backing from power players like Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and FedEx Chairman Fred Smith. Yet within a year of launch the company had haemorrhaged over $200 million.
What went wrong? Was this just another story of dot-com doom and gloom or a spectacularly conspicuous case of corporate overreaching? Dot.Bomb is the hair-raising, hilarious and humbling story of ValueAmerica's fall from grace, and is destined to become the first classic Internet business book - a Liar's Poker for the online generation.
