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Comment on Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?

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amazon.com

it was supposed to be a folksy, communal, whole-earth inspired bookstore that would interact synergistically with actual book stores and the rest of the world.

instead, we built a fucking monster that is awesome for consumers and a nightmare for almost everybody else.

sorry.

A few things have changed since you left, it has to be said! There is no need to apologize - you weren't involved in the later stuff.

Amazon has been wildly successful in most financial measures, so surely you can claim some bragging rights for that.

As a monster ... ... yes it is. Awesome for consumers? Perhaps. Nightmare for almost everyone else? Again - perhaps.

I'll drop this now, its a glass half full/empty type discussion and way too involved for now. I will suggest you might take pride in being in there at the start and having a hand in creating a unicorn that went full on pegasus.

it was supposed to be a folksy, communal, whole-earth inspired bookstore that would interact synergistically with actual book stores and the rest of the world.

Like Discogs, but for books?

EDIT: looks like Amazon bought that too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33933791

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