Interview with Doron Vermaat of Efty and DnGeek

IT.com

domainking131

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Staff member
1) How did you get involved in domaining ?

I co-founded an employment website for the Greater China region in 2006. That company didn’t make it and was shut down four years later.

The domain, which was administered by a web development company, was neglected and ultimately expired from Network Solutions around 3.5 years ago. I wanted to relaunch the site so I did some research to find out how to gain ownership of the domain again once it would drop.

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) What were you doing before you started in the industry ?


I mainly worked for internet startups related to the recruitment industry. First in the Netherlands for a site which grew into the country’s largest employment website and since 2006 in Hong Kong where I first ran my own employment website (NewChinaCareer.com), followed by a job with an executive search firm where I headhunted senior staff for media companies.

Most recently I’ve been responsible for global business development at Recruit.net which is one of Asia’s leading job-search engines powering more than 2 million job searches per day.

3) How did Efty come about ?


When I was investing in domain names for about a year I noticed that it was getting more and more difficult to stay organized, track renewals, expenses and calculate my P&L.

At the same time, I also started looking for a platform to help me better showcase and sell my names by use of good looking For-Sale landing pages rather them populating them with pay-per-click ads that hardly made me any money.

I also felt it was insane to pay commissions on sales when they happened through direct navigation (when a buyer types in your domain name directly in their browser). When I found there was no solution on the market to help you manage, track AND sell your domains without paying commissions I knew there was an opportunity and the idea for Efty was born.

I reached out to long-time friend Lionel Petitiaux and we started working on Efty in November 2013. Six months later we rolled out our beta and about one year ago we announced paid plans.

4) How are things going with Efty ?


Like a rocket. We’ve had thousands of domain name investors sign up for the service since we launched our beta and we currently see 1 out of 3 new users that signs up for a free trial subscribe to one of our affordable plans.

We constantly keep improving and adding new features based on user feedback such as Google Analytics integration and your own custom marketplace and we have a ton of cool stuff in the pipeline for the coming months.

5) What kind of domains do you invest in ?


Brandables! I love to buy domains with the end-user in mind and envision how a start-up, product or service can be built and branded around a name.

During the first couple of years I invested a lot in invented names (or made-up pronounceables as you like to call them) but the last year or so I have shifted my focus almost exclusively to keyword brandables.

Some of my favourite names in my portfolio (which can be found atwww.namerockstar.com) include MovingUp.com, StarTalent.com and BadMonkey.com. I also own a large number of domains related to the recruitment and staffing industries and speculated a bit on the Chinese market last year by buying and selling 4L, 5N and 6N.

6) You detail your sales and display a level of transparency that most don’t. Do you find that helps you build your brand at DNGeek.com ?


I do. When Lionel first came to Hong Kong to work with me on Efty he brought me a copy of Rework by Basecamp founder Jason Fried as a gift. This book has had a great influence on how I approach work and run my companies.

In his book, Jason writes “All companies have customers. Lucky companies have fans. But the most fortunate companies have audiences”.

Jason Fried and other entrepreneurs such as Joel Gascoigne (CEO @ Buffer) both managed to build a large following, grow their audience and promote their companies by sharing their journey and being very transparent with their readers/customers.



The complete interview is published on TLDinvestors
 

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