Directory >> Key People of the Domain Name Industry >> Entrepreneurs
The most prominent figures in the domain name industry are often pioneers who launched ventures in the 2000s or earlier, typically as web hosting providers. This includes the Indian billionaire brothers Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia who founded Directi, which still owns Radix, Masatoshi Kumagai, founder of GMO Internet, Octava Klaba, co-founder of OVHCloud, and Jonas Dhaenens, founder of Combell and CEO of team.blue.
Successes with similar profiles are also notable in the domain registration space, such as Richard Kirkendall, founder and CEO of Namecheap,Todd Han, who founded Dynadot in 2002 and Xavier Buck, co-founder of EuroDNS. ll remain active in the domain registration business today.
Others have switched to the NgTLD space, such as Ray King, who now focuses on Top Level Design, Jay Westerdal who sold DomainTools and now runs Top Level Spectrum, and Paul Stahura, founder of Enom and now with Identity Digital. The NgTLD sector also counts several new successful entrepreneurs, such as Daniel Negari who founded XYZ and owns 35 TLDs, or Lars Jensen with ShortDot.
And also: Aaron Grego
The domain trade business originated in the USA, and the vast majority of the best-known domain investors still reside there. Unlike in Europe, where domain investors are generally discreet and even tend to hide their identity, their American counterparts are often assertive and sometimes public figures. Storytelling is omnipresent, with the main message being that domain names are rare, high-potential assets whose value is increasing exponentially.
In the blockchain domains space, Nick Johnson founded the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and Matthew Gould, UnstoppableDomains. Fred Hsu, who co-founded Oversee.net, now invests in D3, a web 2.5 project.
Other : Colin Campbell, Filip Borcov,