How to Burn $2 Billion in 15 Months for Dummies

With 2 billion dollars, you could send the Falcon Heavy to space 13 times, buy 10 state-of-the-art Boeing 787s, provide clean water and food to millions in Africa…. or you could w̶a̶s̶t̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶ invest it in Ofo, the bike-sharing startup that set off to revolutionize transportation in China. It was adored by investors, consumers, and the government…. *spoiler alert! Ofo is basically dead now.*

On its surface, Ofo is one of the fastest-growing startups, acquiring new users at a speed that’s never heard before. But in reality, all Ofo has done is stockpiling a f**k ton of shitty bicycles that end up in landfills. * More like a huge oof than Ofo* In a way, it sounds like my uncle, who got into one of those multi-level marketing schemes and packed his garage full with off-brand protein powders.

Ofo was started by Wei Dai and his friends at Peking University, where they were able to achieve 4,000 uses/day within 2 months and received its seed funding of $1.5 million (9 million Chinese Yuan). Soon after that, Ofo reached 200,000 users/day and went through 5 rounds of funding, totalling $200 million. VCs were literally fighting each other to get a chance to invest in Ofo. Even Alibaba invested in Ofo, it was INSANE.