Starnet Worldwide Commercial Flooring Partnership ( Starnet ) was officially formed in 1992 , but its roots go back further . President and CEO , Mark Bischoff , outlines the company ’ s history : “ Starnet started as a group of members with a couple of manufacturers that wanted to get together to share best practices and have some fun . They would go on networking trips together , as an informal organization and operated this as Comspec through the 1980s . Then it became a formal organization called IMG-International Marketing Group , which began to develop products and draft formal agreements with supporting manufacturers . It was owned by three industry veterans , and they grew it to the point where they felt for the organization to succeed it needed to be owned by its members . The organization then adjusted its structure to form a legal cooperative . All the members benefit from the dividend generated by the goods and services they direct to supporting vendors and are also able to share the benefits of networking and knowledge sharing with their peers . In 1992 this was formalized , and the name was changed to Starnet .”