Gawker: valleywag, david hayden

David Hayden's Pacific Heights manse for sale after foreclosure

Jackson West — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:00:00 EDT

Serial entrepreneurial failure David Hayden has had his home transfered to boutique bank Robertson Stephens under a Sheriff's deed — which means that the property was seized to pay debts. The transfer is so new, realtor Bernadette V. Lamothe hasn't even had time to have the place properly staged judging by interior photos. It's now for sale for a mere $14.9 million through Sotheby's. Prospective buyers won't just get an opulent home with fantastic views, but a piece of San Francisco history.

The address has been a staple of local high society since at least 1922. It also pops up The Other Side: An Account of My Experiences with Psychic Phenomena, by James A. Pike — leading some credence to suggestions that the location may be cursed.

For instance, the place was owned and occupied by local shipping magnate John Traina and romance novelist wife Danielle Steele. But until 1981, Traina lived there with wife Diane "Dede" Traina — until, in a much-publicized series of divorces and weddings, Ms. Traina ended up with dairy magnate Al Wilsey and Mr. Traina ended up with Steel — leaving Wilsey's wife Pat Montandon in the lurch. Much of this was eventually recounted in Sean Wilsey's memoir Oh for the Glory of It All.

In 1989 the Traina-Steels put the house on the market for $5.5 million, and Hayden purchased the place in 1990. In the ensuing decade, Hayden managed to bury himself in up $38 million in debt tied to worthless Critical Path stock loaned by personal bankers and investment managers Robertson Stephens. By 2002 Hayden was accusing the bank of mismanaging his assets as the company moved to foreclose on the property while itself being put up for sale. Nonpayment of rent and taxes has since become a pattern of Hayden's.

I'm not sure which would be the more ill-starred investment — buying the possibly haunted house or investing in Hayden's latest venture, a resort community for the ultra-rich.

A familiar name has cropped up on California's...

Owen Thomas — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:24:52 EDT

A familiar name has cropped up on California's new list of deadbeat taxpayers: David Hayden, who owes the state. He owes $2.7 million in state taxes, making him one of the Bay Area's top tax debtors. Could this be the same Hayden whose up-and-down startup career has put him in massive debt to his bankers? Seems likely, given this Hayden's Mill Valley address. [California Franchise Tax Board]

The Valley's unluckiest entrepreneur wants a vacation

Owen Thomas — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:28:58 EDT

How does David Hayden, the founder of Internet search engine Magellan, email-outsourcer Critical Path, and Jeteye, a blogging service, keep going? Last we'd checked, he may owe his bankers as much as $38 million — a debt he's disputing in court — and Jeteye's landlord was trying to collect on the rent. And yet Hayden is moving on to a new venture, according to a resume he's published on his Jeteye page. Archipelago Properties is a "private destination vacation club" — a sort of timeshare for the ultrarich. Hayden writes that he expects to close $40 million in financing by next January. Sounds like Hayden, a general contractor before he became an Internet entrepreneur and who bought grand homes in San Francisco and Sun Valley during the first boom, is at last getting back to a business he knows: real estate.