The rapid rise and fall of Nasty Gal Inc., an online retailer once popular with millennial shoppers and venture capitalists, is culminating in a bankruptcy sale to a rival.

In less than a decade, Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, 32 years old, transformed an eBay vintage store into a company that generated $85 million in revenue for the 2014 fiscal year.

But the Los Angeles company’s swift growth led to stumbles. Leadership turnover and poor communication hurt its bottom line, according to interviews with 10 former employees. Some described the company culture as becoming “toxic,” referring to turbulence in recent years including several rounds of layoffs.

The turmoil culminated in a November bankruptcy filing, with Nasty Gal preparing to sell its brand name and other intellectual property for $20 million to a rival fashion site, the U.K.’s Boohoo.com. Nasty Gal’s saga serves as a cautionary tale for startups and investors who, in their quest for quick growth, don’t always spend their money wisely, retail analysts and former employees say.

A Nasty Gal spokesman declined to comment for this article. Early in the bankruptcy case, Nasty Gal lawyer Scott Gautier said the company “is an incredibly valuable brand and will only be stronger through the chapter 11 process.”