Why Did Webvan Fail?
$1.2 Billion of Warehouses for Customers Who Didn't Exist Yet
📜 What Happened
Webvan decided online grocery needed to be BIG immediately: a $1B Bechtel contract for 26 automated warehouses (each the size of 18 supermarkets), 30-minute delivery windows, expansion to 10 cities before ONE was profitable. Orders never came close to capacity — the warehouses ran at ~30%. From $8B valuation to bankruptcy in 18 months; 2,000 people lost jobs in a single day. Twenty years later, Instacart won the same market with zero warehouses.
☠️ The Fatal Mistake
Built for the demand they projected, not the demand that existed — infrastructure first, customers later, prayer throughout.
🧠 The Lesson (Free for You)
Scale AFTER product-market fit, never toward it. The graveyard's fullest section is companies that built the machine before proving anyone wanted its output.
📕 The Antidote Book
Most startups fail not from bad technology but from building something nobody wants — executing a flawless plan toward a destination that doesn't exist. Ries (via Toyota's lean manufacturing + Steve Blank's customer…
📖 OPEN THE FULL INTERACTIVE BREAKDOWN →Searchable, filterable, free to read — they paid billions; your lesson is free.