From the Daily Board Show, 8 February 2000:
The Business of Business is Business Corner: According to the Secretary of State of Delaware, RootsWeb.com, Inc. filed for incorporation on May 28, 1999 in the state of Delaware. The CEO is Robert Tillman. Their registered agent in Delaware is The Corporation Trust Company [HTTP://www.cchlis.com/]. Their corporate file number in Delaware is #3048050. They are a "general corporation" and their total authorized stock is 20 million shares of common stock, with a current $0 par value. Yes, that is twenty MILLION shares. If Brian can sell it for even one dollar a share, he's got a lot of money, even assuming that Karen and old school chum Bob Tillman each have sizable chunks of stock [but not as much as Brian, I'll bet]. They could also be using a portion of the booty as stock options for their employees, in lieu of part or all of their salaries, and of course RW employee Margaret Olson mentioned recently that RW now has "investors". Stock is of no value unless you sell it or trade it for other stock with value.
Where's Waldo? Corner: Info from Dun and Bradstreet's web page [www.dnb.com] indicates that Root$web has one main office, in Sausalito, and two branch locations, both in Frazier Park, CA: Headquarters: 14 Sunshine Ave., Sausalito, CA Branch 1: 2125 Birchwood, Frazier Park, CA Branch 2: Teton Way, Frazier Park, CA
Root$web's mailing address according to the CA Secretary of State is at 650 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA, although the agent for service of process [Robert Tillman] is at the Sausalito address above.
GenSoc, on the other hand gives a mailing address of PO Box 2797, Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA, and its agent of process [Brian Leverich] is at 2121 Birchwood Wy, Frazier Park, CA [which must be right next door to Root$web's second branch office; what a coincidence.]
[For those of you interested in geography, Sausalito is slightly north of San Francisco, just the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Palo Alto is about 30 miles south of the city, maybe an hour on a good day. Its the home of Stanford University, Bob Tillman's alma mater. Palos Verdes Peninsula is south and a bit west of Los Angeles, not too far from the beach, and IIRC its some pretty ritzy real estate. Frazier Park is north of LA on I5 quite a bit, near the area known as the Grapevine, up in the mountains. Rootsweb and GenSoc are, literally, all over the map.]
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From the Daily Board Show, 9 Feb 2000:
As you will recall, yesterday the DBS reported on an interesting and extensive set of addresses that are associated in some way or other with RootsWeb.com, Inc. and/or GenSoc.org, Inc.
We have since learned that the address listed with the California Secretary of State as the mailing address for RootsWeb.com, Inc. [650 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA], is the address of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Attorneys at Law. [http://www.wsgr.com]
WSGR is a 40 year old firm with over 600 attorneys, and four branch offices, in Palo Alto, Austin TX, Kirkland WA, and Reston VA. They describe themselves as "the leading law firm representing technology companies at all stages of their growth, as well as the investment banks and venture capital firms that finance them." They have an impressive list of clients, including [but not limited to] Apple Computers, Disney Online, 3com, Sun Microsystems, InfoSeek, TicketMaster Online, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Dean Stanley Witter, The Home Depot, etc. The firm also lists as clients about 35 venture capital groups. RootsWeb.com, Inc. is not currently listed as a client, but there is no indication that the client list at http://www.wsgr.com/clients/index.htm is exhaustive.
One of their clients is The Learning Company, which owns Broderbund and Genealogy.com, both of which advertise on RootsWeb.com, Inc. As some of you may recall, Broderbund bought out Palladium, which was RootsWeb's first corporate sponsor and the purveyor of the first commercial advertisement ever seen on RootsWeb's pages.
An anonymous correspondent has informed the DBS that Mr. J. Casey McGlynn is the WSGR partner who handles RootsWeb.com, Inc.'s account with the firm. According to his profile, he heads "one of the largest new venture practices at the firm" and specializes in "the organization, funding and corporate representation of companies in the information technology and life sciences industries." He also "assists emerging growth companies to meet their financing needs through introductions to an extensive network of angel investors, financiers, venture capitalists, corporate partners and investment bankers" and has experience "representing dozens of companies that have made successful initial public offerings and secondary offerings." [If you'd like to read more about Mr. McGlynn, his web page is at: http://www.wsgr.com/attorneys/bio.asp?Empl=127]
The DBS has also learned that RootsWeb.com, Inc. has recently worked with Greg Martin, an Associate with Redpoint Ventures, a Los Angeles venture capital firm. Prior to joining Redpoint, Mr. Martin worked with an "Angel Investor" in southern CA who focused on internet investments. During this time, one of his clients was RootsWeb.com, Inc.
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Indications are that RootsWeb is apparently preparing for a public offering or a buyout. Whichever it is, the hard work of a lot of dedicated volunteers could end up making Brian, Karen, and Bob very rich indeed.
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