Vessyl promised a mug that could detect exactly what you were drinking and tell you the nutritional content of the drink. The company got breathless writeups from underinformed journalists who were excited about Yves Behar's design without realizing that despite his unassailable design chops, Mr. Behar was not exactly qualified to make a giant leap in spectroscopy.

When they realized the Vessyl wasn't going to work, Vessyl shipped the "Pryme Vessyl" which did a mediocre job of tracking liquid intake. Furious backers got furiouser and the company folded forthwith.