Inspiration came to Louis H. Borders back in 1997. The co-founder of the Borders bookstore chain was reportedly opening a package of Japanese spices and specialty foods he had ordered from a catalog when he realized that Internet-based commerce would never take off until someone figured out a way to deliver products to people’s homes simply and inexpensively, as he told Business Week at the time. Determined to do just that, Borders came up with the concept for Webvan, an Internet venture whose ambitious goal was to revolutionize the low-margin, intensely competitive grocery business. Armed with more than $122 million in initial funding from blue-chip companies such as CBS and Knight-Ridder and backing from top-notch Silicon Valley venture capital firms such as Benchmark Capital, Sequoia Capital and Softbank, Borders and his associates declared Webvan open for business in the San Francisco Bay area on June 2, 1999. “Webvan Group today set a new standard for Internet retailing,” the company declared.…