Fast CEO Domm Holland at the 2021 Web Summit in Lisbon. On Tuesday, he announced that the startup would be shutting down.
Harry Murphy / Sportsfile for Web Summit via Ge
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Harry Murphy / Sportsfile for Web Summit via Ge
Fast CEO Domm Holland at the 2021 Web Summit in Lisbon. On Tuesday, he announced that the startup would be shutting down.
Harry Murphy / Sportsfile for Web Summit via Ge
According to the company’s chief executive officer, Domm Holland, Fast, a popular startup that has attracted more than $120 million in investments to help people expedite online purchases, is shutting down.
Fast has stood out in the crowded field of one-click payment startups after it raised $102 million in cash in a fundraising round last year led by payments giant Stripe. head.
The company is embarking on its next round of funding, trying to bring in fresh money at a valuation above $1 billion, also known as Silicon Valley unicorn status, as it struggles.
Fast has hired hundreds of employees, including well-paid executives, but the startup’s product is generating low revenue, according to several former employees. Technology Publications Information first report Fast generated about $600,000 last year.
Some rating workers, whom the company calls “Fastronauts”, told NPR that they have noticed the Netherlands pouring significant money into deals intended to create marketing buzz, such as partnerships with sports teams. They question benefits.
“With Fast,” said a former employee who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. “It was like, ‘how can we burn money fast? “
NPR announced an investigation in February, in which some people close to Fast cast doubt on Holland’s decision-making, and others knew him in his home country of Australia, revealing lingering bitterness over the company’s collapse. his company is there.
In a statement confirming Fast’s closure, Holland said he’s grateful to employees and investors for sharing his vision for improving the way shoppers shop online.
“Sometimes the forerunners don’t make it to the top,” says Holland. But even in those situations, they pave the way that everyone else will follow,” Holland said, adding that the company has done that with its one-click payment software. .
Affirm, a San Francisco-based consumer lending startup, said it would extend its job offer to the vast majority of Fast engineers “to improve on our existing product,” a spokeswoman said. confirmed by the company. It’s not clear how many engineers will take the job.
Fast’s rising fast and bumpy
Fast was founded in 2019 by Holland, former Uber executive Allison Barr Allen and Australian businessman Joshua Abulafia.
But after about a year, Holland and Abulafia got into an argument over the company’s finances and direction. Abulafia has been pushed out, according to several former employees close to the situation. Abulafia was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.
The initial turbulence did not make the Netherlands falter. He zigzags around Silicon Valley and calls himself “The fastest CEO in the world“received media attention and appeared on a podcast, touting his ‘frictionless’ payment button.
The aim is to quickly bring the one-click payment feature now available on Amazon to the rest of the Internet. Amazon’s patent for one-click payments expired five years ago, setting off a controversy among companies like Fast for trying to make the tool available to the rest of the site.
Paypal and Apple are among the biggest and most formidable players in the field. But Holland, a charismatic leader known for hijinks like racing stunts and skydiving, convincing Silicon Valley investors that his company would outperform smaller rivals like Bolt and Shopify.
But even as the Netherlands stirs new excitement among tech investors, the NPR investigation shows the company’s best payments product is at its best and unused across all products. products that the company claims is its biggest partner.
Fast hired engineers in Nigeria to build the first version of the technology Fast used to pitch to investors – before abruptly firing those engineers. A handful of them told NPR that Holland acknowledged their work. While it is not uncommon for companies to hire foreign engineers when they are just starting up, the experience leaves some Nigerian engineers with negative feelings.
NPR also found that the previous business of Holland, an Australian towing start-up that ended in liquidation, was in dispute with the Australian government and some of the parent drag businesses in general, they lost millions of dollars. Holland claims he tried to help those businesses, but some consider Holland’s later success unfair.
Some locals have noticed that Holland started going after “Domm” instead of “Dominic” after he moved to the US and launched Fast, and saw it as a way of running from his past. A spokesman for Holland vehemently denied this and insisted he had long used the moniker.
Offer 1 million dollars to Chainsmokers
Following a $102 million investment in Fast, some employees found the company’s spending, which some describe with NPR, as “frivolous” and “extravagant,” especially when trying to secure the future. celebrity endorsements.
Emails reviewed by NPR show that, at Holland’s direction, Fast booked American electronic duo Chainsmokers to play an event during a January 16 retail conference in New York City. An employee with direct knowledge of the arrangement said Fast had agreed to pay the group $1 million for the performance, an arrangement that included the artists making a promotional video with Holland. When NPR asked a spokesperson for Fast, they declined to provide any information about the gig.
The event was eventually delayed because of the rise of the Omicron coronavirus. A Chainsmokers representative attempted to confirm the reset, but the emails were not returned, the company’s email shows.
“The band has been offered and I would like to know if the event will continue on our calls. I would appreciate it if someone could get back to us with a question. reply,” Mac Clark of Creative Artists Agency, wrote on behalf of the group, on February 1.
Clark declined to comment for this story.
