Is the collapse of Yahoo evidence that all internet companies are pyramid schemes?

Biggest is probably the product-market fit. Is your product or service helping (enough) people solve a problem or fulfill a need? This is the biggest question a startup is trying to answer. You have to answer this question within a "finite time" and with "limited resources". So it really comes down to how focused a startup is in answering this question. If you lose focus with other stuff (co-founder issues, business cards, spending too much time making the product beautiful or whatever else) you are going to run out of time and resources and you have lost the game. I interview some of the very successful digital entrepreneurs on the web that respond to questions like this. Check out the interviews here: http://treptalks.com

Snapchat is definitely not in the same age and situation than pets.com. Look how long it took Yahoo to be forced to sell... If Twitter doesn't start growing soon, it'll be in a similar situation within 24 months. If the table turns for Snapchat and does not grow, they would force the CEO to step down within a year, then give the new CEO 2 years to show results. If they don't want to sell, then they would replace the second CEO within 18 months. Of course, this is pure speculation and considering similar companies in hard situations. You should definitely read THE HARD THING ABOUT HARD THINGS by Ben Horowitz.

Lyft was founded in 2012. They operate in 200+ cities in the U.S. cities. They've raised more than $2B and they're valued at $5.5B. Udacity was founded in 2011 and is valued at over $1B. Vox Media was also founded in 2011 and is also valued at over $1B. Uptake was founded in 2014 and is valued at $1.1B. Oscar was founded in 2013 and is valued at $1.7B.

According to Sensor Tower volumes Snapchat has no signs of desperation. Rebranding usually has nothing to do with desperation or failing products, more likely with a different market positioning. Snapchat could be sold tomorrow for around 15 billions with just 330 employees. To me this looks pretty successful !

You might be able to share this and teach courses on Udemy! This is what I do and it works really well! A year ago I was at the brink of losing my startup and now I have transitioned to teaching 18 courses on Udemy full time. You are welcome to chat with me for a few minutes to see where your biggest opportunities might be on Udemy.