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Brent Oxley is an important part of the Internet's history. Back in 2002, Brent founded HostGator, a hosting company that quickly became one of the most popular hosting services in the world with Inc. Magazine ranking HostGator as 21st on its list of fastest growing companies in 2008. By 2012, Brent sold the company for $225 million.
In the last couple of years, Brent has become an active part of the domain industry, acquiring an incredible array of one-word .COM domains likely costing in excess of $10 million. Recently, Brent opted to list the majority of his domain names at the upcoming NamesCon auction. In this interview, we talk to Brent about his impressive portfolio and why he's opting to sell his names.
When did you first consider domain names as a viable form of investment?
How many domain names do you own now and could you name your favorite domain you own?
What is the largest offer you have rejected for an individual domain in your portfolio?
The NamesCon auction lists many of your domains. Why did you opt to list these names?
How many domains do you hope to sell through this auction?
Are you still bullish on domain names as an investment? Will you continue buying?
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This interview has been edited for clarity
Thanks to Brent for taking the time to answer these questions. For a full list of Brent's domain names that are listed in the upcoming NamesCon auction, you can download the text file below.
Hat tip to @Michael Cyger for the interview suggestion.
In the last couple of years, Brent has become an active part of the domain industry, acquiring an incredible array of one-word .COM domains likely costing in excess of $10 million. Recently, Brent opted to list the majority of his domain names at the upcoming NamesCon auction. In this interview, we talk to Brent about his impressive portfolio and why he's opting to sell his names.
When did you first consider domain names as a viable form of investment?
I originally purchased premium domain names with a goal of building brands & businesses around them. The first three premium names I bought were seohosting.com, gator.com, and launchpad.com. I built seohosting.com into a $2 million or so a year SEO hosting company before selling it to EIG along with Hostgator. The plan with gator.com was to re-brand hostgator.com to Gator, but, this never happened as a result of Hostgator’s sale to EIG.
Launchpad.com was used as Hostgator's domain registrar and was being positioned to be my Godaddy killer. This also never came to fruition as a result of Hostgator’s sale.
I then purchased help.com to build an all in one ticket, chat, and phone support suite that’s still currently under development. Assuming development doesn’t bankrupt me first Help should quickly become an industry leader to compete with Zendesk & Zopim.
I’d consider realty.com my first official domain investment with a multi-million dollar price tag back in April of 2015. I thought it was a scam at first when I saw how cheap it was, and instantly believed it could be a quick $5 million - $10 million+ flip. Instead of flipping it I decided to build a company around it with my partner Lance. I believe Realty.com could easily one day be worth billions of dollars if we execute the plan properly. We’re going to sell every city in America to real estate agents as an exclusive city for $300 - $10,000+ a month.
For example, if a realtor purchases the city of Houston, they’ll receive 100% of the traffic that searches for a home in Houston off of the realty.com website. This will be successful due to the realty.com name arguably being the best real estate domain name in the world. (assuming you factor out branding and technology) We’re set to launch sometime in June officially and hope to be onboarding realtors by the thousands at such time.
It wasn’t until March of 2017 that I began my spending spree with domain names, and have since amassed a $10 million portfolio. I just recently started actively selling my domain names and hope to net $1 million annually for it to be a viable business. I have no idea if this domaining experiment of mine is going to be successful or not, but considering a few deals I’ve done in the last few months, this little business experiment of mine is beginning to look very lucrative.
How many domain names do you own now and could you name your favorite domain you own?
I own 104 domain names today with my four favorites in order being realty.com, drone.com, broker.com, and bride.com.
What is the largest offer you have rejected for an individual domain in your portfolio?
I’ve turned down a $1.1 million offer on broker.com, and have turned down numerous $500,000+ offers on other names. The majority of my top names were acquired in the last year, and it wasn’t until the last few months I began accepting offers.
The NamesCon auction lists many of your domains. Why did you opt to list these names?
They were the bulk of my domain names that I didn’t have exclusives on and names that I'm not actively building a company around.
How many domains do you hope to sell through this auction?
I have no idea what to expect and don't want to get my hopes up. This will the first time I list any of my domains at auction with the exception of bride.com in the past. The bulk of them I believe may be priced on the higher side, but there’s a few such as drone.com that I’m already starting to have sellers remorse on anything shy of $2 million.
Are you still bullish on domain names as an investment? Will you continue buying?
I’m still very bullish on domain names but have started to pump the brakes. Domaining is still an experiment for me and after amassing a $10 million portfolio, it’s time I prove the business model before investing further. I plan to take 100% of the profits going forward to grow my portfolio, so time will tell where this adventure leads me.
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This interview has been edited for clarity
Thanks to Brent for taking the time to answer these questions. For a full list of Brent's domain names that are listed in the upcoming NamesCon auction, you can download the text file below.
Hat tip to @Michael Cyger for the interview suggestion.
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