Mag regrets Count Me In CEO story, says it went to press before scandal

Talk about bad timing. The latest issue of Seattle Business Monthly features a cover story on Count Me In Chief Executive Terry Drayton, whose Bellevue company has been at the center of a scandal for failing to pay more than 20 youth sports programs across the country. 

The profile -- titled "Startup Survivor" and featuring tips from the Internet veteran -- went to press before the problems at Count Me In were reported on this blog and other publications. So it doesn't include any details about the controversy that Drayton and his company now face.

"When we completed the Terry Drayton article and sent it to the printer back around Thanksgiving, we had no idea that Drayton or Count Me In were facing problems," editor Jeff Bond tells me in an e-mail.

The cover, now making its way to newsstands, shows Drayton looking relaxed in a fleece pullover and jeans, smiling at the camera with a friendly gleam in his eye. "Startup veteran Terry Drayton on how tech firms can survive in 2009," the cover reads.

Ironically enough, the blurb immediately below that is a promo for the magazine's legal guide.

TechFlash reported on the problems at the company Dec. 8, following reports in the Anchorage Daily News. The Montclair United soccer club's lawsuit against Count Me In was filed in U.S. District Court on Nov. 10.

By the time of the first media reports, Bond said, it was too late to pull the profile. "It was the difficulty of timing for us," Bond said, adding that he wished Drayton would have been more "straightforward" about some of the issues his companies were facing. Bond said he's already heard from some subscribers about the inopportune timing of the cover story.

Bond has since published an explanation on the magazine's Web site, writing that "we deeply regret this situation and plan to follow the story of Count Me In until it is resolved."

Still, for a monthly print publication that relies on subscriptions and newsstand sales, the cover story is embarrassing, to say the least. The magazine started arriving at businesses and homes this week, and it's scheduled to hit newsstands in the coming days.

Reporter Jeff Meisner has attempted to reach out to Drayton, with the executive providing an email response in which he says the media reports about Count Me In only tell a "fraction of the story." 

"On legal advice we've not commented on any of the stories so far other than letting everyone know that we are doing everything possible to resolve the situation. Anyone who knows me at all knows that is the only way I operate. What is out there so far is very disappointing and only a fraction of the story. As you know my style is to speak my mind without holding anything back so not talking to the press to correct their inaccuracies and mischaracterizations has been very difficult for me. I've spent my career building a great reputation and will fight hard to keep it."

To be clear, the story doesn't completely turn a blind eye to the challenges Drayton and his companies have been facing. For example, the piece refers to the layoff of one-third of the staff at Arena Group, the parent company of Count Me In.

Drayton told Meisner that he "was in tears" about those cutbacks.

The profile is well-written and sheds some interesting light on Drayton, the outspoken Canadian entrepreneur and former HomeGrocer.com CEO, whom Meisner says "never saw the end of the tech bubble coming."

Drayton also takes the opportunity to slam the former HomeGrocer.com executives who took over from him as "stupefying idiots,"  even going so far as to blame Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers for forcing him to hire Mary Alice Taylor, whom he describes as a "unmitigated disaster."

In another ironic twist, Drayton alludes to the tough venture market and the Entellium wire fraud case -- noting that the troubles made it harder for him to raise $10 million for the Arena Group and Count Me In.

"It sucks beyond all comprehension,” Drayton says of the VC environment in the interview. “All the venture capitalists are moving very slowly to fund new deals. And this Entellium mess is making everyone move even more slowly. The timing for us raising money couldn’t be worse.”

UPDATE: Seattle Business Monthly has posted the full story and sidebar on its Web site.