back to article Lily Cole: Profit still looks almost Impossible.com

Impossible.com, the world-changing “sharing economy” website founded by millionaire supermodel and polymath Lily Cole lost even more money last year. Year end P&L accounts filed with Companies House revealed that I Am Possible Ltd - with Cole as director - was £257,889 in the red for year ended October 2015. That’s worse than …

  1. Antron Argaiv Silver badge
    WTF?

    While over here in the US...

    ...we have Theranos.

    A disruptive medical diagnostic company, based on the revolutionary idea that you can do medical testing with only a single drop of blood. It was founded ten years ago by an visionary, (attractive, blonde) 19 year old woman, who dropped out of Stanford after her first year (because they had nothing to teach her?), and whose qualifications to run this company seem to be her looks, her positive can-do attitude and her family's money and connections.

    Notably lacking: hard science to back up her brilliant idea. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services seems to think she's been pulling a fast one on them.

    http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/07/holmes-to-remain-at-theranos-despite-federal-ban-and-gross-negligence/

    1. Ashley_Pomeroy

      Re: While over here in the US...

      I've read about Theranos. Their CEO explicitly models herself on Steve Jobs, which is disconcerting - she dresses like him. Over time her hair has become increasingly uncontrollable.

      I remember reading that their original tech guru was a British biochemist who committed suicide because he couldn't get their hardware to work. The widow didn't sue because she was given future stock options, which are of course now worthless because the company isn't likely to have an IPO any time soon. His name was Ian Gibbons and you'd think his death would have set alarm bells ringing, but no.

      http://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901

  2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Legacy

    When people speak to me of Mr Cameron's legacy, I always refer them to Impossible.com.

    As if that were the biggest money pit Cameron tried to fill…

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Cameron's Legacy

      I just wondered which aide was responsible for counting all his kids out of No. 10...

      1. Cynical Observer
        Trollface

        Re: Cameron's Legacy

        The problem was not with counting them out....

        it was counting them all back in again.

    2. asdf

      Re: Legacy

      >When people speak to me of Mr Cameron's legacy

      Pretty certain his legacy will be shit for far bigger reasons (as poster above says) regardless. Lets put it this way, If he was a POTUS they wouldn't have let him build a presidential library and even W and Nixon got one.

  3. TheProf
    Angel

    All change

    impossible(.)com now appears to be a shop selling t-shirts and other essential tat.

    Where am I going to post my hippy-dippy dreams now?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: All change

      impossible(.)com now appears to be a shop selling t-shirts and other essential tat.

      Better buy some quick, then. Might be worth something in tech circles in a few years time.

      1. asdf

        Re: All change

        > Might be worth something in tech circles in a few years time.

        Kind of like a Kin phone.

  4. HmmmYes

    Dont forget that Hippo in curtains org- Kids Company.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: Hippo in curtains

      Hey, I wanted some of that Superman Ice-Cream.

      Just not the Batman-Jelly.

  5. Dr_N

    Alien

    Who is the extraterrestrial in the headline image?

    1. Dabooka
      Alien

      Re: Alien

      Glad it wans't just me. I honestly thought it must've been a photoshopped image.

      She looks just like a boss eyed ginger ET. And that is what counts as supermodel material?

    2. tfewster
      Thumb Up

      Re: Alien

      Bride of Chucky?

  6. GrumpenKraut
    Pint

    Why do I have a vision of

    ...Orlowski grinning ear to ear? Any ideas, anybody?

    Anyway, it's beer o'clock.

  7. Hollerithevo

    Smart cookie

    Good degree from U Cambridge, worth millions by doing modelling and acting, got a dollop of Government money and now has a way of writing stuff off against business losses.Cameron might have been foolish, but she sounds like she's doing OK.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Smart cookie

      I take your point.

      But here's the acid test. Would you put your own money in?

      1. Hollerithevo

        Re: Smart cookie

        No, but I'd follow her example and establish my own start-up and see if I could get Gov't £££.

  8. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Coat

    Troubleshooter

    What we need is an updated version of "Troubleshooter" with Sir John Harvey-Jones**. Alas the gallant Knight is no longer with us, so I would like to nominate a person with an impeccable digital entrepreneurial pedigree - Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho

    *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubleshooter_%28TV_series%29

    **https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvey-Jones

    1. TheProf

      Re: Troubleshooter

      You deserve 2 upvotes. One for the sensible idea and one for the completely loopy idea.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why the shit did the majority of traffic to impossible.com come from India?

    1. mark 177

      "Why the shit did the majority of traffic to impossible.com come from India?"

      Those Indians are canny. They see a site where they can pass off some village-made dross as "ethical goods" and charge 1000x what it would fetch in India.

      1. Simon Coyne

        1000x mark up?

        wouldn't that upset Primark?

  10. Alan Brown Silver badge

    "The site won £200,000 from the Cabinet Office, funnelled via innovation quango Nesta (now a charity, and therefore un-FOI-able). Remarkably, Impossible.com won the funding even though it failed to meet the published criteria."

    As a recipient of govt funding it's perfectly FOIable. They'll deny it but an appeal to the ICO for a declaration of coverability is the next step.

    1. Hollerithevo

      Why does NESTA exist?

      We had a chance, a little while ago, of recommending which quango should die, and NESTA got many, many votes. And here is another reason why. If is almost archtypically a quango: no actual need for it to exist, jobs for apparatchiks and drones, lots of public money going in and no visible benefit coming out. We talk about the corruption in the EU as a reason to brexit -- why can't we leave these ridiculous organisations behind as well?

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