Kozmo.com was a venture-capital-driven online company that promised free one-hour delivery of anything from DVD rentals to Starbucks coffee in the United States. It was founded by young investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang in March 1998 in New York City. Kozmo had a business model that promised to deliver small goods free of charge, typically by using bicycle messengers.Its headquarters were located in New York City. The company raised about $250 million, including $60 million from Amazon.com. 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.
While popular with college students and young professionals, 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. Kozmo had filed an IPO with Credit Suisse First Boston before the layoffs, but it never went public. According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in 1999 the company had revenue of $3.5 million, with a resulting net loss of $26.3 million.
Kozmo.com face failure because of wrong business strategy. Free delivery services might sound good but one-hour point-to-point delivery of small objects is extremely expensive. Kozmo.com also had a bad business plan. They used almost 60% of their capital just on advertisement.
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