Value America owned no warehouse. When a customer ordered a printer or a toaster on its website, the order went straight to the manufacturer, which shipped the product. Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures and FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith both backed the idea. When the Charlottesville company went public in April 1999, its stock closed the first day at $55, more than double the offer price. That valued a three-year-old company with no profits at about $2.4 billion.

Convergence Commerce

Craig Winn and Rex Scatena founded Value America in March 1996 and moved it to Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1998. Winn called the model convergence commerce. Brands would pay to present their products well online, and the store would skip the cost of stocking them. Customers would get low prices and a wide range of goods, from computers to kitchen supplies. The plan depended on dozens of manufacturers filling orders quickly and accurately on Value America's behalf.

Seventeen Months Later

Value America priced its shares at $23 in April 1999 and listed on Nasdaq. The model broke under real orders. Shipments ran late, bills went wrong, and manufacturers struggled to keep up. The company cut its catalog back to computer products and office supplies, then replaced its leadership. On August 11, 2000, Value America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In October 2000, the distributor Merisel bought what was left, including its supply chain system.

Cover: Mail Coach, Horace Vernet. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a galloping mail coach (straight from the maker to the door).