No. 017 · 1998 · San Francisco

Pets.com

Shipped dog food at a loss. Bought a Super Bowl ad.

Dead in nine months

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Make my startup a legend
  1. 1 1999. Pet food, but dot-com.
  2. 2 Problem: dog food is heavy.
  3. 3 They sell it below cost.
  4. 4 Solution: a sock puppet mascot.
  5. 5 A Super Bowl ad. $1.2M.
  6. 6 IPO. February 2000.
  7. 7 The bubble pops.
  8. 8 Nine months later: closed.
Founders
Greg McLemore and Eva Woodsmall, with Julie Wainwright as CEO from 1999
Founded
1998, San Francisco
What they do
Online pet supplies. Closed in 2000.

The story

Pets.com spent heavily on a sock puppet mascot and a Super Bowl ad while selling heavy bags of food at a loss. It went public in February 2000 and shut down that November, becoming the bubble's best-known cautionary tale.