The Dubai Desert Classic has become one of the more high-profile events on the DP World Tour, using a strategy of luring top professional golfers through lucrative guaranteed appearance fees.
The website for the event — which was won in 2022 by Viktor Hovland — lists Slync.io as the current corporate naming sponsor. The San Francisco-based logistics technology company took over after Omega’s 12-year run with the event concluded in 2021.
Slync.io is a firm that, according to its releases, combines industry expertise, software solutions and digital platforms to solve challenges in global logistics.
But while the CEO of the upstart firm has been enjoying the good life — complete with an appearance in the recent JP McManus Pro-Am and a membership at the expensive Vaquero Golf Club near Dallas — the almost 100 employees of the company have had long gaps without paychecks, according to a shocking story on Forbes.com.
From the story:
Over the past 18 months, while his company was running out of money and struggling to raise funding or attract new customers, Kirchner had bought a private jet valued at $15 million, joined an exclusive Texas country club, purchased luxury cars, invested in a European tech startup and attempted to buy the English football team Derby County.
According to Forbes, Kirchner had been selling TVs for Best Buy just a few years ago, but his rocket-like rise to a perceived perch atop the tech world allowed for a newfound lifestyle that included the membership at Vaquero, which is ranked as one of the best private courses in Texas, according to Golfweek’s Best’s state-by-state list.
The initiation at the club, which includes a Tom Fazio-designed course, is $175,000 with annual dues over $15,000, according to one report.
Slync also became aligned with pro golfers, and the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League.
From the Forbes piece:
With the Goldman-led cash infusion, Kirchner sought to parlay his love of golf—and sport more broadly—into a business focus of Slync. Even though there seemed to be little correlation between a logistics tech company and the PGA, Slync began sponsoring professional players like Justin Rose and Albane Valenzuela. The company signed a multimillion-dollar sponsorship agreement with the NHL ice hockey team Dallas Stars. Kirchner told employees the sponsorships were part of the company’s new go-to-market strategy. “Execs don’t buy software from websites,” one employee recalled Kirchner…
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