Marco.org

This is hilarious and a bit sad. Amp’d Mobile, a Verizon-reselling MVNO, has burned through $360 million in funding and is about to shut down, with nobody willing to buy them out. They targeted the young, hip college (or should-be-in-college) market… but apparently about 50% of their young, hip customers didn’t feel like paying their bills, so Amp’d can’t pay their big bill to Verizon.

Lesson learned: Don’t build an entire business that relies on young, hip people being responsible debtors.

Of course, the entire MVNO idea is a complete joke that should never have existed. You have to provide additional value, and if you’re just reselling someone else’s retail service, there’s very little reason not to just go with the origin in the first place.