As if we’re back in the late 90’s, venture capitalists with bulging pockets (from a hot stock market) and amnesia are looking for online startups, small companies and whatever company says things like “sleek. thin. hot” or “the skinny” or “sexy” with their Web 2.0 sites.  VCs are chomping at the bit to find fund the next Google.  Some will find the next hot investment, while others will crash.

Amp’d mobile ran endless TV campaigns that appealed to a younger crowd thirsting for music and video on their phones. Sure seemed like a good bet- trendy commercials, cheapo products… fills a gap that needed to be filled, right? Nope- even after $360 million in VC money, and sexy ad campaigns, they had to lower their credit criteria to boost subscription rates.  To add insult to injury, Amp’d had 200,000 subscribers this spring but had to drop HALF of them for not paying their bills.  So much for courting the “low credit score” demo.

After all of that, the VC pool has clearly dried up- Amp’d is closing down, abandoning all of their users:
Los Angeles-based mobile service provider Amp’d will shut down at 12:01am Tuesday. Existing customers will be able to port their phone numbers to a new service, but Amp’d won’t help them do this, and their will be no customer service after Monday. Amp’d assets will be sold in an auction.

So, what if other companies with heavy VC backing couldn’t get their junk together either?  What if prior to closing, a real estate company’s VC money ran out and their offices closed?  What if their “customer service” call center stopped taking calls 24 hours before they shut their lights off? 

Yeah, yeah- Realtors can simply change brokers and find new sponsorship.  Most people won’t sponsor someone that they think is tainted.  At a job interview, my UT degree was brought into question as a hardcore Aggie interviewed me- I was tainted to him.  Thank God he wasn’t the exclusive decision maker!  The point is that just because you have your hand in a VC’s pocket doesn’t mean your company will succeed- just ask Amp’d!