Silicon valley’s best con artist that merely got away!!

The ’90s was a developing era that would reshape the 20^th century and bring faster mediums of communication, transportation, and so much more. Especially with the advent of “the internet,” it was a magical invention that quite “literally” built the 21^st century. Back in the ‘90s, many successful technology-oriented companies had to sell themselves to guarantee the proving grounds of the product.

The internet was introduced as a medium of communication and was in no condition to handle any load from excess users let alone media consumption, but one startup, namely Pixelon, begged to differ and established its services and products to be different and surprisingly was regarded as the best startup ever of the late ’90s.

The upbringing of Pixelon

Before we move ahead, let’s understand the scenario in which Pixelon was started. The 90’s barely comprised of the internet, where even loading an image took minutes to load and several minutes to download. Having a high-speed connection was virtually impossible. Keeping this scenario in mind, Michael Fenne established Pixelon which guaranteed streaming videos into every internet browser which was started in 1998. The ’90s were quite different, and Fenne was a seller more than anything and convinced investors to pour in millions into the company before anything was ready. Michael Fenne appointed himself as the chief technical officer of the company and gathered a group of engineers to kick start the company.

At first, everything seemed reasonable, where it was regarded as a breakthrough Silicon Valley startup that would revolutionize the streaming industry. Later on, the company stated that it would stream Paramount Pictures “Star Trek” as its first online promotion venture. While everything seemed fine and dandy, things were slowly starting to get away from hands. Earlier, venture capitalists often went with what the market had to say and poured money into the company. Learning from their mistakes, it all depended upon the team behind the product, intellectual property, and the technology.

The downfall of Pixelon

When a company launches any new product, it might do it silently to save funds on the promotions and target the right users to fulfill purchase orders and help grow the company. But Pixelon made a lot of noise through its launch party at Las Vegas’s MGM Grand, which costed more than $12 million. Being a privately owned company, obligating the total investment with other assets was impossible to be determined and remains an unknown fact.

While everything was looking great, it was a matter of time before everyone in the company, including the investors, realized the true identity of Michael Fenne. His real name was David Kim Stanley, who had topped the Virginia fugitive list for several years for skipping bail in being guilty of a stock-swindling conviction. Finally, he was caught and surrender to the authorities.

If you are still thinking about what happened to the company? Well, it was a complete scam as its primary function of streaming video content on an unstable 90’s internet connection of a concert onto the screens of Times Square failed miserably. But wait, There’s more!! Despite the founder of the company being arrested, there was a lawsuit filed where creditors weren’t paid more than half a million dollars of cash and stocks in products and services.

With no further intention to keep a failed company running and the future looking bleak and the company sold all its assets and went bankrupt with a death knell for a couple of years and filed for chapter 11 in 2002. Everything happened to fast, that there was no warning whatsoever said a spokesperson who worked at Pixelon.

Pixelon, as of now

Pixelon happens to be the biggest Live stream scandal ever. It is taken into consideration as a learning curve for many aspiring entrepreneurs to differ from what Pixelon did. Theft by deception with a failed or no product defines Pixelon. It has certainly gone down as the biggest dot com con’s in recent times.

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