(Interact with Mike on GeoDomainer.com)

Mike is Chairman and Founder of WashingtonVC, a private equity group whose portfolio of companies share resources, talent and technologies to deliver innovative digital products and services.

In ‘94 he founded Internet Interstate, which he sold to Verio in ‘97. In ‘98, he founded BuyDomains.com, the world’s largest secondary market for domain names, and sold majority interest to Highland Capital and Summit Partners in 2005, along with the “Seeq.com” search engine portal. Mike has sold more domains on the secondary market than anyone in the world.

Between ‘98 and ‘01, he served as the founding Chairman of ByteBack.org (501c3), which operates free computer training centers serving inner-city communities.

Mike is the Founder and Chairman of Grassroots.org (501c3), a global network providing free services to nonprofits and promoting social action. He also manages Make Change! Trust, a charitable fund that supports select 501c3 organizations. You can view GrassRoots.org and MakeChangeTrust.org to learn more.

(SMO) You have been involved in the domain industry for quite some time. How did it all start?

(MM) In 1998 I sold menus.com for 25K which I had been paying a $50/yr. registration for, so I found the profit margin intriguing and decided to buy and sell as many as possible, leveraging innovative technology and talent to assist.

(SMO) You were one of the first individuals in the domain industry to set up a sales platform to sell your own domains. Additionally, your team developed new technology in which you applied for patents. When did you realize you were on to a winning business plan with buydomains.com?

(MM) Day one.

(SMO) Having a large portfolio for sale, was it easy to spot enduser and investor trends in the domain industry thru purchases? How did this help you in acquiring additional domains?

(MM) We ran detailed statistical analysis on everything and only bet on the best ones dollar for dollar. Some sold at such high margins that it made up for the minority duds which were bought in buying frenzies.

(SMO) With such a large portfolio, you surely owned some outstanding geo domains for sale. How was the market for geo domain sales thru your experience?

(MM) While we sold some in the normal course of business, that had not been my specialty until recently, now we own much of the African country .coms and some others.

(SMO) How did you place value on geo domains in your portfolio? How big of a demand was there for geo domains, if any?

(MM) Each name price was based on detailed technical analysis with human insight added. We measured demand the same way.
(SMO) As a seasoned domain investor who has seen trends come and go, what role do you think geo domains will play as the internet and consumer behavior continues to evolve?

(MM) Geo is a broad powerful category encompassing cities, states, countries, and localities,each group being permanently powerful in its own right. Aggregating a consistentportfolio within one group or the other, and applying best web and marketing practicesover a long duration should be the ultimate way to monetize them, anything less will yield less.

(SMO) Do you still own any great geo domains, and if so, can you name a few and your plans for them?

(MM) Angola.com, NorthernIreland.com, BaltimoreWashington.com, VaticanCity.com, and many more, please see DomainMarket.com. The plan is tobuild carefully, in detail, one at a time, or sell to big bidders. Or keep forever and let values rise until my daughter’s retirement.

(SMO) Do you have any future plans in reentering the domain industry as a service provider?

(MM) We are already deep into some powerful things in the US and internationally since my “noncompete” expired. DomainMarket.com will be the base of our future activity.

See MikeMann.com and WashingtonVC.com to see how we add value to super premium domains (we build companies like Phone.com, Software.com, SEO.com, HappyBirthday.com.)

We will also launch the world’s most profitable parking platform in the future using tools and ideas so far unseen by the public, and without competition to date. Last but not least we will replicate the BuyDomains buy/sell/optimize model that I developed long ago, but only using the world’s best names, as opposed to huge numbers of good and great names like BD does.

(SMO) Why do you think everything has gone from a global concept to a local concept on the internet? Do you think the local concept has always existed, but never made it in the mainstream as global did, until recently?

(MM) We learned years ago to make the most impact we had to “personalize, customize, and LOCALIZE” each web experience, that is still the best way to go. Please see my free ebook which explains a lot of my theories in detail.

(SMO) There are thousands of domain investors who are always looking for advice from proven professionals such as yourself. Do you have any advice that you are willing to share for those old and new investors in the domain industry? Do you have any advice on the evolving geo domain industry?

(MM) The best advice is to only invest in the best .com domains since they will stand the test of time, and will be “flights to quality” in turbulent economic times. Also just buy the ones you take to heart, that you want to build a perpetual, powerful business on top of. And use the most modern best practices borrowed or hired from a myriad of the most profitable web people you can find.

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