October 27, 2000

6:40 AM

"Fastest f*** ever"according to F***edCompany.com. "Scout Electromedia, the maker of the Modo lifestyle pager, will hold a launch party tonight at Les Deux Caf€ in Los Angeles, despite the fact that the company ceased operations Tuesday after less than two months of selling the device."
posted by highindustrial (10 comments total)

The Modo lifestyle pager is one of the most inane ideas I've ever heard. I can't belive that people actually gave this idea a green light. What's wrong with people? Is every one smoking crack? Maybe they should send pages on where the best crack rock is being sold... that's a helluva better idea
posted by chiXy at 7:03 AM on October 27, 2000

You ever written many rock-solid business plans, chixy?


posted by capt.crackpipe at 7:18 AM on October 27, 2000

I was offered one of these things for free, and didn't take it. They were selling for $100 in stores, and did the same thing as Vindigo, which can be put on a Visor ($120).

I don't know if it was a flawed business plan, or just a really stupid product.
posted by Doug at 8:14 AM on October 27, 2000

well...according to the article, they were selling them...Selling Well actually...but:

''Despite the strong consumer response to Modo, there was insufficient funding to support ongoing operations prior to the company reaching profitability,''

Does that mean that they were spending too much money on office furniture, sign-on bonuses and parties?
posted by th3ph17 at 10:20 AM on October 27, 2000

they have ads all over LA pointing to modo.net

only problem is that their URL appears to be modo.com, unless the .net address only went down in the past week, which was when I checked on it.
posted by s10pen at 10:32 AM on October 27, 2000

capt.crackpipe -- Yes is fact I have-- and sold two businesses (for profit). Even made it through the first two rounds of funding unscathed with the last one.


posted by chiXy at 11:02 AM on October 27, 2000

Speaking of such companies, I'm kinda sad that the company Teri Garr is spokesperson for is apparently down to four employees. No more Teri at tradeshows!
posted by gluechunk at 1:04 PM on October 27, 2000

Then you can understand how hard it is to get a good product off the ground in the current landscape.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 3:32 PM on October 27, 2000

I've found that in the current landscape it relatively easy to get ANY idea or product off the ground. That's the problem. It won't stay off the ground for long unless it is a good idea/product.
posted by chiXy at 1:11 PM on October 28, 2000

Uh, no, chiXy. That was last year's "current landscape". Last year you had scads of clueless money following ideas around as if their lives depended on being invested in the tech market regardless of the strength of the idea.

This year, unsurprsingly, there's very little backlash against the people with poor ideas and those who worked for them, because they now have that rarest of commodities, "experience". The seed VC people cashed out early enough. The average investor, however, got soaked.
posted by dhartung at 8:35 PM on October 28, 2000