Sean Jacobsohn’s Post

View profile for Sean Jacobsohn, graphic

Partner @ Norwest Venture Partners

Launched and discontinued in 2006, ESPN burned through $150M, including $30M on a #SuperBowl ad, for its mobile phone and only hit 6% of its sales target. ESPN built a wireless service and special phone so sports nuts could receive score updates and browse ESPN.com content. In addition to the $300 cost for the phone, customers had to spend between $65 and $225 per month for content. It’s important not to scale go-to-market until you’ve had repeatable success with your product. I explain more about lessons from product flops in my blog: https://lnkd.in/gBAuMS8m My hobby of collecting artifacts from failed companies and products can be seen at www.failure.museum. I feature over 1000 items and their story of failure. Please check out the website and let me know if I'm missing any failed companies or products. Failure Museum

  • No alternative text description for this image

I was serious about Enron pieces if you want to contact me.

Dmitry Bergelson

Reinventing GTM ● Co-founder Extrovert ● GP @ INNORETAIL VC ● Co-founder Regelio, Worktec ● ex CBDO, X5/5ka ● Ex Strategic Consultant

3mo

The ESPN phone is a perfect example of how even big brands can stumble. Customer Development first, pilot sales second, only then scale - and also, gradually.

Marko Mandaric

Building something (again). 🥷

3mo

Just think what could have happened if someone from Apple was friends with someone from ESPN in the early 2000’s…

Scott Slinker

CEO & Founder @ fomopromo | E-commerce Sales Channel Expert

3mo

$65 and $225 per month for content in 2006. Those numbers are insane now, but 18 years ago? Nuts!

Nate Williams

Founder & Managing Partner @ Union Labs VC // DeepTech VC // fmr KPCB EIR & 3X Startup CXO

3mo

I have a bunch of items from Home Automation and IoT + Mobility days past, will DM me Sean Jacobsohn. WSJ piece this weekend was +1

Tim Barnes

Investment Banker I USAF Veteran I Debt Capital placement I Private Market Secondaries I tbarnes@axisgroupventures.com

3mo

I recall a few of these failures around this time.

Krinal Mehta

SEO Consultant | Ex-Global SEO Lead @ FreshBooks

3mo

I like the brand name and also the domain name.

Like
Reply
David MacLean

Intrapreneur, Creative problem solver, Culture builder

3mo

Similar to Amp Mobile

Adam Marchick

Partner @ Akkadian Ventures | Creative Venture Capital investing

3mo

Ah the MVNO days, where Boost Mobile started every deck…

See more comments

To view or add a comment, sign in

Explore topics