E-Dreams

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The recent "new" economy with its unprecedented highs and frantic reversals of fortune is rife with fascinating true stories. e-Dreams turns it's focus to the recently defunct Kozmo.com. Once upon a time, a story like this would have been unbelievable, even among those intimate with the workings of Wall Street. But Kozmo.com is now a case study of how an entire economic sector went awry. Just three years ago, Kozmo.com was just an idea in the minds of two 20-something Korean American investment bankers: an online convenience store that made deliveries of snacks, videotapes and other products within a half hour. Beginning in an unfurnished warehouse, co-founders Joseph Park and Yong Kang and their small group of employees did everything from build the website to making deliveries on bicycle. Over the following year their business grew from 10 employees to 3,000 and extended to 11 cities. Like so many other dot-coms, Kozmo.com's growth was something hitherto unseen: It raised more than $250 million and attracted the attention of Starbucks and Amazon.com. But in the tough times following the April 2000 stock market crash, Kozmo found itself in a perilous position-unprofitable and struggling to keep its operations going; and the formerly ubiquitous bicycle-delivery people in orange became and endangered species. e-Dreams stands as an invaluable documentary about the feeding frenzy of success and failure that nearly consumed the nation's economy.