Kozmo.com

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Kozmo.com was a venture-capital-driven online company that promised free one-hour delivery of anything from DVDs to Starbucks coffee. It was founded by young investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang in March 1998 in New York City. The company is often referred to as an example of the dot-com excess.

Kozmo promoted an incredible business model; it promised to deliver small goods free of charge. The company raised about $280 million, including $60 million from Amazon.com. The business model was heavily criticized by business analysts, who pointed out that one-hour point-to-point delivery of small objects is extremely expensive and there was no way Kozmo could make a profit as long as it refused to charge delivery fees. Not surprisingly, the company failed soon after the collapse of the dot-com bubble, laying off its staff of 1,100 employees and shutting down in April 2001. 18 locations nationwide and their Memphis distribution center were liquidated by a veteran entertainment wholesaler from Florida.

In July 2000, it operated in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston, New York, Washington, San Diego and Los Angeles. [1] Its headquarters were located in New York City. It entered a five-year co-marketing agreement with Starbucks in February 2000, in which it agreed to pay Starbucks $150 million to promote its services inside the company's coffee shops. Kozmo.com ended its deal in March 2001 after paying out $15 million.

Although Kozmo filed an IPO with Credit Suisse First Boston, it never went public.

The documentary film e-Dreams (2001) portrays the fate of the company.

In 2005, former CTO Chris Siragusa launched a similar service focused on a small area of lower Manhattan specializing in the delivery of movies and products catering to new parents called MaxDelivery.

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