"We made a decision that a client, or a supplier, that we were working with at the time called IntrustDomains based in Colorado Springs, they were providing software for
drop catching. So when the domain name expires you drop catch it. They were providing us with drop catching services. But their customer service was atrocious, and so I flew down to Colorado Springs, talked to Kenn Palm who’s the founder and owner, and I said, “Kenn, you guys are really, really bad at customer service. Why don’t you sell me your registrar and let me run that registrar?” And so he agreed, and he didn’t charge me a ton, and so we bought that company, and it came with a Russian development team. So this was 2011, I think. June 2011."
Transcript of Rob Monster's live Q&A following the Epik breach (mollywhite.net)