Startup Flops Leave Little Trace Beyond For-Sale Sign

A failed start-up doesn't spell purgatory for entrepreneurs with the right connections, the Boston Globe reports. Take Mort Rosenthal, who struck gold in the 1980s as a software entrepreneur, only to launch two flops—one in alternative medicine, the other in cell-phone retail—with millions in lost venture capital. Now he's back in the game with a business backed by $20 million Microsoft dollars.

Rosenthal's IMO was dubbed "the Starbucks of cell phones" in one industry magazine, but despite having the founder of Staples on the board and $10 million in funding, the company went bankrupt after 4 years. One venture-capital firm quickly erased IMO from its website, and IMO.com is on the block, perhaps, its owner suggests, perfect for the funeral industry as "In Memory Of." (More venture capital stories.)