Well, I decided to check in on on of the companies I used to work for who recently filed for bankruptcy and it looks like they won’t be coming back.

What was even more surprising was that the other associated URLs from that company (Brainplay.com and KBKids.com) just go to 404 error pages instead of redirecting as they used to.  At any rate, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this one.  I was one of the first employees there, back when it was called Thunderbeam, working in a small office with Srikant, Karlyn, Walt and Adam.  On the other hand, there were reasons why I left and there were reasons why this company ended up going belly up.

At any rate, I’ll bid Thunderbeam/Brainplay/KBKids/KBToys a fond farewell.

Yiddish Word of the Moment:

Schmutz
Definition:  Dirt or some other type of miscellaneous debris
Example:  Come over here, you’ve got some schmutz on your face.

I have really mixed feelings about this one.  As employee #4 of Thunderbeam.com which later became Brainplay.com which was then turned into KBKids.com and finally KBToys.com, I was around to see the business grow from a few orders per day to one of the leading online toystores.  Even so, there was always a complete lack of focus on any business metrics while I was there.  I was continually told that my concerns about basic ecommerce metrics like conversion and customer acquisition costs were a waste of time since we were in the middle of “a land grab” as the former CEO and VP of Marketing continued to remind me.

While I do feel for the 103 remaining employees who are likely going to be looking for work soon, a company that never made any money and had a history of poor management should not be surprised by its failures.  Even on the eToys side, there was never a focus on profitibility.  It was always a cash flow/market share game.  There’s a great article about it at The Denver Post.

On to happier news.  I’m still treading water with my bowl picks, now at 6-6 for the season.  Today I’m going with Maryland +2.5, Oregon +2.5 and Rice -3.