1. In 2006, I co-founded an employment website for the Greater China region. That company didn’t succeed and was shut down four years later.
The domain, which we stupidly had administered by our web development company, was neglected and ultimately expired from Network Solutions around 3.5 years ago. I wanted to relaunch the site, so I researched how to gain ownership of the domain again once it dropped.
This led me to NameJet, where all the expired inventory from NetSol is being auctioned. At NameJet, I learned about the domain name aftermarket, drops, and auctions. That month, I won the auction for the NewChinaCareer.com domain name but also started bidding on several others that caught my eye. I was hooked right away.
2. I don't get emotionally attached to domains for my investment portfolio. But occasionally, you manage to acquire a name that really resonates with you or a term that has sentimental or nostalgic value. Some examples of these are MovingUp.com, which I acquired early on and resonated with me in my journey as a domain name investor. More recently, I managed to pick up PlantParent.com—a name I like because, well, I love plants!
3. $25,000 is the most I've spent on a single domain so far.
4. $82,000 is my biggest sale so far.
5. I start my day looking after the kids, who are eight and two, making them breakfast and prepping them for the day. I also walk our dog. She's old now (17 years old), so it's a short stroll these days. Then, I usually sit down for an hour to review emails and customer support tickets for Efty. I don't have a set routine for the rest of the day. If the weather is nice, I may spend a few hours in the garden or run first. I spent many years in sales and business development, during which my days were dominated by a calendar full of meetings. These days, I usually say no to calls and meetings unless they are with the team at Efty. As a result, my calendar is pretty much empty these days, so there's little distraction. I usually go to our office for a few hours, where I work on Efty Pay and my NameRockstar business. I work out every day; on days I do not run, I go to the gym to do calisthenics or weights. I love to follow that up with a nap when I can, and if I am lucky, I wake up to a domain sale
Most days, I am back home somewhere in the afternoon to spend more time with the kids or help out with cooking. Once the kids are in bed, I often work for another 2 or 3 hours, then I go to bed between ten and eleven.
6. I would be bored quickly if I only had an investment portfolio to manage. I was a founder of a job board business before, and when that adventure ended, Lionel, my co-founder, and I were looking for the right idea to start a business. We’re long-time friends and thought that building a business together would be a great “excuse” to travel and see each other more often since I moved from the Netherlands to Hong Kong several years earlier. So when I came up with the idea for Efty, Lionel hopped on a plane to Hong Kong right away, and a few months later, we launched an early beta of Efty. Sometimes folks think it's easy what we do with Efty - "it's just a landing page," etc - It took many years and a massive investment of time and resources before Lionel and I could pay ourselves a salary from the business and bring on more people such as Patrick Kosterman who joined as our CTO and has taken ownership of building our Efty Pay We have seen many competitors of Efty come and go over the years. Turns out it is not that easy.
