Pitch: “Share your thoughts with people around you — anonymously.”

🧠 Cause of Death: Anonymity is powerful… and dangerous.

⚰️ Notable Twist: Valued at $400M, then banned from campuses and sold for scraps.

💸 Raised: ~$73.5 million — spent on a feed that fed chaos

💬 Last Words: “Let’s require usernames now.”

📝 Short Description (for detail page):

Yik Yak exploded on U.S. college campuses with a viral promise: say anything, anonymously, to people nearby. The app skyrocketed to the top of the App Store and raised $73M, but it quickly became a magnet for cyberbullying, hate speech, and threats. Schools banned it. Law enforcement got involved. And when the founders tried to curb abuse by requiring usernames, users fled. The community collapsed, the company imploded, and its assets were quietly sold to Square for $1M. A digital Icarus — flying too close to the edge of free speech.