Accel Partners — portfolio autopsies

UK's fan-to-fan ticket marketplace raised $35M, was acquired by Ticketmaster, then shut down when Ticketmaster decided it competed with itself.

Brazil's biggest social gaming startup was sued into irrelevance by Zynga over alleged game cloning.

London's taxi-hailing app raised $100M but was crushed by Uber's war chest and merged into MyTaxi.

Argentine-founded social gaming giant with 50M users crushed by Zynga's lawsuit and the Facebook platform collapse.

Mobile games publisher challenging Supercell in Europe

Walmart bought the DTC menswear pioneer for $310M in 2017 — and sold it for $75M in 2023

UK P2P SMB lender IPO'd at £1.5B — stock fell 90%+ as default rates rose and the model broke

Daily deals pioneer rejected Google's $6B offer. Stock fell 97%. CEO fired via shareholder letter. From 12,000 employees to under 500.

Pioneered the beauty subscription box at $485M. Sephora copied it. Sold for $1 to Walgreens in 2021.

The e-commerce personalization leader — acquired before the category it built went mainstream.

Laid off everyone in 2019, rebuilt alone, then couldn't raise the $20M it needed to win.

Australia's design marketplace. Vista acquired it. Independent trajectory ended.

Microlearning pioneer acquired for cents on the dollar after failing to expand beyond compliance.

The adaptive learning giant that raised $105M promising AI-powered personalisation and sold for $25M

Errol Damelin built a £1B payday lender on 5,853% APR loans. FCA capped rates in 2015. Wonga wrote off £220M in unaffordable loans. Filed administration August 2018 after compensation claim surge.

The original content discovery app — killed by eBay's acquisition and then its own founders' buyback

The farm-to-phone meal delivery startup that discovered vertical integration is a cost trap at small scale.

Marc Lore built Diapers.com to $300M revenue. Amazon noticed, dropped diaper prices 30% to force a sale, acquired Quidsi for $545M in 2011, then shut every property in 2017 once the threat was neutralized.

Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning's video chat startup — launched in 2012 with celebrity fanfare, overrun with pornography within 24 hours, pivoted three times, and quietly shut down

21-year-old Stanford student raised $25M from Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Silicon Valley royalty before launching. The app never achieved meaningful adoption. $25M consumed. Company dissolved 2016.

The Spanish fintech that pivoted from near-death to a Nasdaq IPO.

Brazil's Zynga — until Zynga sued them for being too similar