“The Dot-Com Super Bowl is a cautionary tale about the dangers of prioritizing visibility over sustainable business strategy,” said media executive Michelle-Marie Heinemann, founder and publisher of Old Fashioned Mom magazine.

“These startups assumed that massive exposure would translate to lasting success,” she continued, “but their failure highlights that marketing—no matter how high-profile—cannot substitute for a solid value proposition, a viable business model, or the understanding of your customer.”

The dot-commers also learned that arrogance can be even more expensive than 30 seconds in the Big Game.

“The dot-com era was chock full of overconfidence and hype,” said filmmaker and entertainment industry veteran Scott Hamm Duenas. “Which translated to [startups] throwing caution to the wind and blowing big bucks on Super Bowl ads without any experience in the promotional or TV world.”

An audience as big as the Super Bowl remains an enticement to this day. But, Duenas added, size isn’t all that matters.

“These companies operated under the assumption that visibility was the key to success and that the Super Bowl with its massive viewership was the perfect platform to strike it big,” he said. “Unfortunately, terrible commercials combined with massive overspending was a recipe for disaster.”