Happy Birthday NavySEALs.com!

Yes this month is the 7th anniversary of NavySEALs.com as a company. We incorporated in October, 2001, one month after 911. Though the web site was live for several years prior to this (we actually went live in 1997), it was never a business, but rather a "side-project." After 911, it just seemed like NavySEALs.com deserved a more dedicated focus to represent the ideals of the Navy SEALs to the American public.

The beginning: As I rolled off active duty from SDVT-1 in March of 1996, I headed back to Coronado with my wife to continue working on my first start-up, the Coronado Brewing Company. CBC as we affectionately call it, was the first brewpub on the Island. I went on unemployment, and worked through the summer to build the building, and business, from scratch. We launched operations on August 31st, 1996 to great fanfare amongst the locals. The week before opening, we had the beer ready, but no license to operate, so we threw an open house beer bash for the whole town. Our beer was 8% alcohol by volume then, and I had some interesting phone calls from my SEAL buddies the next day. Ouch. Anyhow, back to NavySEALs.com...not one to ever just focus on one thing at a time...I was sitting around talking about the internet with our graphical artist and web developer Tom Raab. I felt that the net was going to explode (like that was any mystery), and figured that someone was going to put up a web site about the SEALs. I thought that it had better be a Team guy who does it, so that it is done right, and not the way Hollywood had presented the SEALs to the public. My Dad used to tell me "Mark, if you want something done right, you had better do it yourself!" Admittedly that is a negative world view, but it did propel me to acquire the domain name NavySEALs.com and ask Tom to partner with me to launch the web site.

The first version of the web site was custom coded by Tom. It had some cool features, like a "Comm Shack" where you would register for a radio frequency, then log onto that frequency to chat. It was full of content - I think I spent about 500 hours writing content for the site. This phase was interesting to say the least. I spent 3-4 hours an evening on email and chat answering all sorts of questions from recruits about the SEALs. My wife was not thrilled, so that could not continue. When we re-launched the site in 2000, we added robust forums and recruited volunteer moderators to help get the right info out to the public. Version two of the site was a cold fusion community platform, with an online store bolted on. After incorporating in 2001, our focus turned to e-commerce, as this was the primary revenue source to support the growing site, which had already consumed a fair amount on my own resources by that time.

The current version of the site was launched in July of 2007, utilizing open source, PHP-based software. It includes a social network, robust forums, content management system and an online store. It is vastly more complex than our first site. There are over 120,000 registered members, and a growing online coaching program, coupled with local training camps at our San Diego based training center. Another cool thing is that the Navy is working with us now to ensure that the recruiting information presented to the public is spot-on. This is great for us, because the recruiting requirements and nuances change almost weekly.

We have come a long way in the 7 years (11 year?) since our birth. We thank you for joining us and participating in the ride! We are excited to see what 2009 has in store for us!

Mark Divine,
Founder and Coach, NavySEALs.com