When people mockingly look back at the Internet bubble, they usually don’t poke fun at Henry Blodget or Mary Meeker or Abby Joseph Cohen. Instead, the icon held up as the symbol of that lunatic period is invariably the Pets.com sock puppet:

So what is it we can say about this little critter? Well, a couple of things spring to mind.

First of all, the company he represented sought to sell specialty products to a large installed consumer base via an online website. Sort of like Amazon, but a more specific audience. The modern-day equivalent would be Chewy.com, which seems to be thriving. So it’s not like the business idea was terrible. (more…)