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Sam & Cheryl ??????

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#1 ·
Sam & Cheryl ??????

I have not been in here a lot lately, I may be missing something. I just got a e-mail from John A. Rublaitus telling me he is the new CEO of Sailnet, and that Sam & Cheryl are gone from the company. Where are Sam & Cheryl? Sailnet was their baby. I can''t believe that they would leave with out writing to us here on the boards.

Walt Ward
 
#2 ·
Sam & Cheryl ??????

Walt,

Sam owns a Pearson 10M and participates regularly in discussions there. All he has said on that list (after much speculation by other members) is that he and Cheryl are no longer with the company. No doubt there is a story there that hopefully will come out one day. Very hard to tell at this point what happened.
 
#3 ·
Sam & Cheryl ??????

"Oh, Joe...say it isn''t so..."

Under the List Manager, I found the following post, dated 28 Dec 2004, under the banner "from the CEO of Sailnet"
----------------
SailNet Supporters,

As some of you have heard there have been some changes recently here at SailNet.
The founders of SailNet Sam and Cheryl Boyle have moved on and are no longer
associated with the company. The SailNet Board has asked me to step in as CEO
and to help set the direction of the company going forward.

One key element of the success of SailNet is the forums that create a vibrant
online sailing community and the heart of SailNet. You have built the communities
and they will continue with the support of SailNet and your active involvement.
We mention our commitment here only because some SailNet users have feared drastic
changes were coming and that users might lose access to the communities they have
built with SailNet. I have no intention of eliminating these forums.

I first encountered SailNet when I was living in landlocked New Delhi, India.
Missing the ocean, I began searching the web for sailing information and I found
SailNet''s community of enthusiastic sailors and its library of articles covering
all aspects of sailing. As you do, I value this online resource that is accessible
to any sailor in the world. Sailing information through articles and community
forums will continue to be a resource SailNet provides.

SailNet will continue with your support of our business. The SailNet team will
work hard to provide value through competitive pricing and expert knowledge in
hardware, custom sails and rigging. If you feel we are failing to provide value,
please let me know so that we can take corrective action and provide the value
you expect (you can reach me at JMR@Sailnet.com). If you feel we provide value
as many do, then please support us.

Sailing knowledge is still primarily acquired by the sharing of skills and
knowledge from one sailor to another and one generation to the next just as it
has been for thousands of years. SailNet intends on continuing support of this
tradition by bringing sailors together to share experiences and knowledge.

Sincerely,

John M. Rublaitus CEO SailNet
 
#5 ·
Sam & Cheryl ??????

Unless otherwise persuaded, it seems obvious that somewhere along the line the Boyles got some public financing for this venture. They were either in debt or publicly owned, which allowed some business type to force them out. They are at sailjazz.com now, so it is clear that they had no intention of getting out of the business. I hope they succeed.
 
#6 ·
Sam & Cheryl ??????

"...it seems obvious that somewhere along the line the Boyles got some public financing for this venture..."

I find this a curious statement and think the facts suggest just the opposite. They clearly moved quickly into a similar web business, which suggests they signed no ''non-compete clause'' related to the sale of their share of the business, a very common practice. Couple that with their prior statements that they brought in private funding to expand Sailnet, and the logical conclusion in my mind would be that a majority of the ownership felt a change in management was required. Whether the Boyles left with a buy-out of their ownership share or not is not really relevant to how the change could occur in the first place.

OTOH if public funding was involved, I would suspect things would happen much slower and be far more public.

Just my hunch...

Jack
 
#7 ·
Sam & Cheryl ??????

Assuming no copyright laws are being breached. . . following is a cut & paste of a note posted on the SAILjazz forum, responding to this topic:

Re: Sam & Cheryl...any info...any comments? 2005-01-19 10:05:00 <Cheryl Boyle>

"Hayden,

Thanks for letting us know about this. Sam is probably a bit too
constrained and modest to answer this. I''m not.

There are a lot of questions in that Email... why did we leave SN? Why no
goodbyes? Why start SJ? In other words, what''s all this jazz about? There
are also some specific assumptions that I question.

Bob''s questions are understandable. Yet, he seems to be overlooking the
need for some discretion. One is not always free to say everything that
one might like to say. What I can say is that we left SN suddenly with no
time for goodbyes. I can also emphatically state that we did not profit
from SN in any way at the time of our departure, nor will we in the future.
Our departure was mutually agreed upon with the investors at SN. We simply
did not agree on a path forward and they felt the need to make a change.

Given our long history of personal involvement with all the lists, I can''t
understand how anyone who is an "old-timer" on one of the oldest lists could
possibly believe that we would simply walk away without so much as a
goodbye. These groups became our extended family as well... hanging with us
through personal and business ups and downs. I am disappointed that after
ten years someone would feel compelled to place some "burden of
notification" upon us.

As for the lists themselves... perhaps I am mistaken but I believe we
launched IP from a dead start. It grew because people participated, but it
also grew because we invested the personal time to nurture and support it
over countless technical problems, huge growth, flame wars and other issues.
No one pays you enough to work 18 hour days to keep a list server going when
bad stuff happens. You do it because you have a passion for the vision. I
know the sacrifices our family made and they appear to have been minimized
to a point I do not understand...

I also know that Sam''s involvement in the lists continued unabated for 10
years. Yes, he had some great people who helped. However, almost every
single initiative and improvement came from him. This past summer he
personally implemented the new software, spent weeks on the beta and
restructured the entire platform. Why do you think SJ came on-line so
fast... and already has significant improvements over the alternative?
Because the architect is sitting here!

We launched SJ because we believe in our own vision. We believe in building
community. We invested ten years in building SN. First as a community and
later as a retailer. In the course of that experience we learned some
valuable lessons.

Our goal is to have a vibrant community that caters to the special needs of
our audience. We do not see this as competitive with SN. We believe that
you can be a great retailer... or you can have a great community. We have
no desire to be a great retailer. We believe that you should continue to
buy from SN as long as they continue to provide great service and value.
They provide a much-needed alternative in the retail space.

For our part, we want to provide an independent community where people can
openly and honestly critique any and all suppliers, builders and even
retailers. Those that do well should be recognized. Those that don''t
should be warned.

Implicit in Bob''s post was the question, "why haven''t we posted a request
for support to the SN lists.?" That would be inappropriate in our mind. We
don''t have any such problem here. We very much appreciate the support and
participation of anyone who shares our vision. We are on a mission to
"Bring Sailors Together" and build a sustainable community that fulfills our
vision. We can only hope that a significant number of you share that
vision.

Regards,

Cheryl"
 
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