Old Sailnet

I worked here until July of this year.

www.sailnet.com

They have just filed bankruptcy. Chapter 11, I think. That is the really bad one, right?

Google group

Newspaper article Talked with a reporter in Charleston the other day. Following is his article to
be published in the Charleston paper:

SailNet appears to be on
rocks
Customers who placed orders with dot-com report that it's left them
adrift

BY KYLE STOCK
Of The Post and Courier Staff


SailNet,
an online retailer of boating goods that once employed about 200
people, has
run into rough waters.
While it's not clear if the North Charleston-based
dot-com has sunk, the
company has stopped taking orders and is not responding
to phone calls or
e-mails. Its Leeds Avenue offices are shut with a "closed"
sign on the door.

Meanwhile, sailing message boards on the Internet are
filling up with
postings from irate customers who say they have been
overcharged or have not
received orders they placed.

The company now
has an unsatisfactory record with the South Carolina Better
Business Bureau,
which received two complaints about SailNet this month. The
unsatisfactory
record reflects the company's failure to respond to at least
one of the
complaints, according to the bureau.

James Reddington, a 47-year-old
sailing buff in Connecticut, said he ordered
$184 worth of goods from the
company in mid-May. Reddington received a few
of the items, but he is still
waiting for a $100 halyard, and his attempts
to contact the company have gone
unanswered for three weeks. Now, he's
seeking restitution with his credit
card company.

"I'm certainly not happy, but I guess this is what happens
with businesses
sometimes," Reddington said.

SailNet launched in 1994
with entrepreneurs Sam and Cheryl Boyle at the
helm. Originally looking for a
way to connect sailing buffs, the Boyles took
a business tack with SailNet
when they moved from Detroit to Charleston in
1999.

The next year,
they sold a controlling stake in the company to IDG Ventures,
a San
Francisco-based venture capital firm that has more than $1 billion
invested
worldwide. They also drummed up funding from New Millennium
Partners, another
San Francisco-based venture capital firm, and private
investors.

Flush
with cash, SailNet bought Johnson Sales Inc., a Florida-based business
that
manufactured and sold sails, cushions and other boat accessories.
SailNet
also acquired Boatscape.com, a Boston-based competitor. At the same
time,
SailNet hired a crew of programmers, sales staff and craftsmen.

At its
peak, the dot-com had about 60 employees in North Charleston and
another 140
or so making and shipping boat gear from St. Petersburg, Fla.

SailNet
became a much-celebrated local phenomenon in those heady days. The
startup
won Web site accolades from Forbes magazine, and Boyle spoke on a
chamber of
commerce panel about "the secrets of high-tech success."

But the fickle
winds of commerce can fade quickly -- especially in the
dot-com world -- and
SailNet was soon struggling to make headway. Man-
agement started
jettisoningemployees.

"It was fast growth, race to the top and spend lots
of money to get there,"
said Randy Draftz, who spent almost six years
creating and managing
SailNet's online store. "But the bubble burst before it
got there, and it's
been in survival mode ever since."

Bill Wright,
who handled SailNet's manufacturing from St. Petersburg, said
the company
simply tried to grow too fast.

Wright used to work at Johnson Sales, the
company SailNet bought in 2000,
and was later hired by the
Boyles.

Wright said he left SailNet when it was struggling in 2002,
buying a bunch
of the outfit's assets to launch a separate
store.

"There were a lot of consultants involved and a lot of people who
thought
they were smarter than everybody here," Wright said. "There was just
too
much money floating around."

In December, Sam and Cheryl Boyle and
the controlling investors came to a
parting of the ways.

Reached at
their Mount Pleasant home Thursday, the Boyles denied that the
company had
been mismanaged. They said SailNet was a victim of market
forces.

"It
was predicated on a market that totally evaporated," Sam Boyle said.
"It's
easy to play Tuesday-morning quarterback, especially when you have
a
videotape of the game."

The couple declined to comment on the
company's finances. When asked if
SailNet ever turned a profit, Sam Boyle
said, "I think it's safe to say that
it's a very tough business to be
in."

IDG Ventures did not return phone calls or e-mails Thursday
afternoon. John
Rublaitus, who the Boyles said is now chief executive officer
of the
company, also did not return phone calls or e-mails. A woman who
described
herself as Rublaitus' wife said SailNet "is kind of closed down
these days"
but declined to comment further.

The SailNet parking lot
has been empty for about three weeks, according to
Jillian Hollingsworth, who
works at Hospice of Charleston next door.

She has seen several people
pound on the door and peer in the windows, she
said.

The Boyles
incorporated a new company in November and launched SailJazz.com,
a site that
sells clothes and hosts message boards for sailing buffs.

"Sometimes you
just have to move on," Sam Boyle said. "I don't want to have
the rest of my
life tied up with this

There was an article, but I can't find it. Karma is a fat, ugly bitch. They treated the employees like shit.

This is the website of the original owners, Sailjazz