Fast — Failure Case Study Research Compilation
Compilation of multiple sources on Fast’s founding, growth, and collapse, used to build the case-study-fast failure case study article.
Key Sources
- NPR (April 2022) — “Fast shuts down after burning through investors’ money”
- NPR (February 2022) — Investigation of Domm Holland’s past: Tow.com.au collapse, data selling scandal
- Pragmatic Engineer / Gergely Orosz — Most detailed inside account: salary data, headcount timeline, 6-day collapse
- TechCrunch — Funding round coverage and shutdown reporting
- Below the Line (KJ Labuz) — “Fast: An Autopsy” — detailed post-mortem
- Just Another PM — Product strategy analysis
- Business of Business — Data analysis of Fast vs. competitors
Key Data Points
- Founded March 2019, shut down April 5, 2022
- Raised $124.5M total ($20M Series A + $102M Series B, both led by Stripe)
- 2021 annual revenue: ~$600K ($166 spent per $1 earned)
- Monthly burn: ~$10M; needed 1.5-1.8M monthly orders, had ~8,000
- Peak employees: 480 (jumped 42% in a single day)
- Failed Series C killed the company
- 6 days from The Information article to complete shutdown
Key Quotes
Holland: “Start-ups fail for many reasons, of which Fast obviously was not immune.”
Employee: “It was like, ‘how quickly can we set money on fire?‘”