It’s hard out there for a startup. Just ask Dot & Bo, the online furniture company that alas, is no more. On Friday, the three-year-old company joined a long list of San Francisco ventures that seemed promising until they simply weren’t — in a statement on their website, the company abruptly announced the cessation of business.
“It is with a heavy heart that we must share that Dot & Bo will be ceasing all operations as of the end of the day Friday, September 23,” the statement reads. “We were in deep discussions to be acquired by a prominent public company, but ultimately the partnership did not come to fruition.”
While the company once enjoyed a period of substantial growth, noting that its business increased 16-fold during its existence, and served “millions” of customers, this ultimately proved to be insufficient to maintain operations. Once valued at $60 million and obtaining a total of $20 million in venture funding, Dot & Bo was ultimately unable to compete in an increasingly cutthroat eCommerce landscape.
In an interview with Recode, Dot & Bo CEO Anthony Soohoo admitted simply that the company just … didn’t work out. Speaking of their business plan, Soohoo said, “I know in Silicon Valley you are always trying to look on the bright side, and you tend to put your head in the sand when things don’t work out.” But ultimately, he acquiesced, “At the end of the day, Dot & Bo just failed.”
An investor elaborated a bit further, tell Recode, “The capital requirements to fund the supply chain and working capital commitments proved to be greater than originally anticipated, and more than the VC market had the appetite for, especially with the backdrop of how much out of favor e-commerce is at the moment.”
All the same, Dot & Bo expressed its gratitude for its “loyal customers” and pride for the “impact we made on the home furnishings market.”
“On behalf of the entire company, we are grateful for the opportunity to have helped you make your home a more inviting place and only wish that we could continue doing so in the future,” the company concluded.
And thus ends the story of Dot & Bo.
