Webvan had $178.5 million of revenue in 2000, selling in only a few markets, and it had semi-coherent plans for growing its revenue quite a lot farther by penetrating existing markets more deeply and adding new ones.

Trouble was, Webvan's way of doing business bled cash at a horrific rate. The bigger it got, the more money it lost. Investors got tired of throwing more cash into the company because the cash-bleed problem couldn't be fixed.

I don't think Webvan is the last company ever to suffer from such problems -- or to be unable to save itself if/when investors go on strike.