I now unfortunately also remember June 22nd as the day that Chris Schefler committed suicide. Chris founded the world’s first web hosting company, WebCom.com. My Dad first told me about WebCom, (already a WebCom customer and noticed that they were located in Santa Cruz where I was living at the time) and suggested I register “jorma.com” through them. I soon had an account, and was working for WebCom about six months later. Over seven years later… here I am now working from home in Bellingham… still working for WebCom. As far as dot.com jobs go, I often feel like I am setting a new record for length of employment.

WebCom has been about the best job I could have asked for. I started working there in 1998, right in the middle of the big dot.com boom. The relaxed atmosphere in our Santa Cruz office was pretty typical of other dot.com companies of its day. The big exception with WebCom was that, unlike other dot.com companies of that era, we offered a great service, had a legitimate business model and made money. Chris (and WebCom co-founder Thomas Leavitt) did an excellent job of hiring some great people when starting out, who then went on to find/hire other like-minded employees.

WebCom maintained a staff of about 25 employees, who were pretty much all laid back and a joy to work with. Within the office it was definitely a “relaxed atmosphere“, and it sometimes felt more like you were hanging out with friends instead of being at work. At least once a month the whole company would go out for lunch, as well as the occasional trip to the Santa Cruz boardwalk, sailing on the bay, or some other recreational outing. There was even a “fun committee” that was created to organize these types of activities. We always maintained a good work ethic and were professional with our customers, but also managed to have fun doing it. Chris sold WebCom to Verio in February of 1999 for $8 million, and left shortly afterwards. Being owned by Verio was a little different feeling than being a small independent company, but they pretty much just left us alone and we kept things going as we had been. As the dot.com bubble burst we suffered numerous rounds of lay-offs, until Verio finally decided to close the Santa Cruz facility in 2002 and keep only three employees on… myself being one of them. With the office closed I now had one of those “work from home” jobs you hear about people having. It felt about the equivalent of being the winner from that Survivor tv show. After Chris left WebCom I would still bump into him around Santa Cruz, and he would tell me a little about his latest exploits of snowboarding, traveling, etc. He was always pretty reserved, and I never felt like I knew him too well, but we would always chat and I would fill him in on WebCom and he would tell me about his lastest trips. Hearing of his suicide was a huge shock. Here was a good looking, 37 year old guy, with a lot of money and free time… who decides to kill himself. It left a lot unanswered questions. It was also about 3 months before my dad died of cancer, so I was already consumed with thoughts of death and passing. I found out later that Chris suffered from a bi-polar illness. That explained a lot about some of his reclusiveness around the office, as well as his decision to end his life. Sad stuff… hope you are in a better place Chris…. wish I could thank you in person for all you have given me. WebCom is over 10 years old now, and I still continue to hear praises from customers of what a great company WebCom is. - Jorma June 16th, 2005

Some pix from snowboarding the Shuksan Arm in the Mt Baker Backcountry.