jsinger - 2:19 am on Apr 6, 2008 (gmt 0)

Agree.

Blame it on the pressures of being publicly owned. San Francisco based Red Envelope did $120 mil in customized gifts and managed to lose millions year after year.

I see that REDE is blaming some of their problems on the high cost of PPC ads. Their SEC filings contain a lot of insight into what went wrong.

No doubt a couple of hardworking frugal guys operating out of a garage in Iowa or Alabama could get rich in the same business line doing $5 mil in sales.