Heroes in Business - Bob Parsons, Founder of GoDaddy, former U.S. Marine, Serial Entrepreneur and Philanthropist. bobparsons.com.

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Don't miss Eliances Heroes Show with David Cogan as he interviews Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy and CEO of YAM Worldwide. The billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist shares his journey from revolutionizing domain registration to his latest ventures. Tune in for an inspiring conversation! eliances.com bobparsons.com

Welcome back to alliances heroes. We're heroes in business aligned. To be part of our super community and find out more about alliances, visit www.alliances.com. That's right. Welcome back to the show. By the way, thank you for the feedback that I continue to have when I had on guest,

Doddy Pepper from the CBS sports, former LPGA pro who won two major golf championships. Well, I'm so excited today. First of all, I got to share a little secret with you. I have been wanting to have our next guest on the show for probably the past four years when we started this whole show and have done thousands of interviews.

And that's how long it's taken to finally have him on the show. And are you ready for this? We have with us the founder of GoDaddy, serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, US Marine, the one and only Bob Parsons. And you can reach him at bobparsons.com. Welcome to the show, Bob. It's an honor to have you on. Well, I'm thrilled to be here, David. So thank you so much.

Appreciate the intro. So there's so much to talk about. We've got limited time. So I first want to get, just jump into it. Go, daddy. How in the world did you come up with that, that everybody knows? Well, it was just like the blind world finding an acorn,

which one of those things, I had started a, sold my first business, Parsons Technology. I, let's see here, I had 40,000 in it, sold it for 64 million, then got divorced, not my idea, my wife's, then wife, and so that cut that in half. And so when I was my non-compete with Intuit was up, and their non-compete was I couldn't work. Well, I didn't think I'd have a problem with it, but I did. You know what I mean? I'm always so, I'm a worker B, ready to get to where the action is. So what happened was, I figured, well, I'd take my 36 million and I would have a group of very smart people, and we try a number of things

on the internet. And this is back in in 96. And whatever worked, you know, if something didn't work, we quit doing it. Something didn't work, we, you know, that'd be what we did. That only thing we got any traction out of was building websites. But the product was building websites back then is you were limited to what you could actually do. You know, you didn't have anything that would would deliver the product without your involvement. In essence, you couldn't make money while you're sleeping. So what we did is we went to work to write a program that we called Website Complete,

became Website Tonight. I don't know what GoDaddy calls it now, but where an individual could build their own website. And it got to be pretty good. And what we learned is that every website, of course, needs a domain name. We tried to sell domain names for other companies. That didn't work. So we decided to become a domain name registrar. That took us a year and about a million bucks in fees.

And after we got that done, we launched it. And that was about in the year 2000. And didn't work at first. I was ready to close the company down because I was broke. You know, I used to measure the company, you know, the way, you know, I'm just a blue collar knucklehead from East Baltimore. So, you know, I got a way to do everything, but it's not the typical way.

So what I would do is I would measure it by how much cash I had left. So when I first started it, I'd say, well, I'm not gonna worry about this company until I get down to 30 million. Bang, 30 million. And then it was 25, Then it was 20. And then it was 16. Then it was 14, 12, 10, down to 6 million. And I decided, didn't tell anybody, always keep my own counsel, that I'd shut it down while I had some cash. Well, I went to Hawaii by myself to decide how I pay the employees, how I'd sell the assets, how I pay creditors, and then what I

do after that. And everything was moving along. But the more I was there, the more I felt like, man, I don't want to close this thing down. Don't want to do it. Right. So, um, the epiphany happened guy parking my car, happy guys, throwing keys up in the air. I mean, guy probably has nothing. He's parking cars.

You know, he might be the richest guy in the world, but I doubt it. And so when, when, when he's, he's doing that, I'm thinking, now, this guy has nothing. And he is happy as a lark. I've got 6 million and I'm miserable. What's wrong with his picture? And it was at that time I decided to go back, strap myself to the mast. And if the company didn't succeed and the ship sunk, I'd go down with it. So I went back, didn't do a thing different,

never told anybody what I was thinking, what I almost did. And a few months later, the dot-com crash happened. And we were one of the few companies that were paying our bills. And so, I mean, the severity of this, every week somebody we were doing business with just vanished. I mean, I mean, we would get our checks returned to it. It was the craziest thing. So this, as this went on, and we had our, you know, our low prices on domain names, and our advertising where we couldn't buy it before,

had people standing in line to give it to me. And so the company then started to take off. And then in October of that year, we became cashflow positive, never missed a month since, wound up making $3 billion on the deal. Incredible, incredible. There's a story. Now the thing is, Bob, you know, not only being the founder of GoDaddy,

you own one of the country's largest Harley Davidson dealerships, which is right by me, and you're CEO, founder of YAMM Worldwide. You also do everything from golf, real estate, finance, marketing, innovation marketing innovation philanthropy golf. I mean, how do you keep track of it all? One is too many to keep track of. You've got multiple enterprises. Oh brother, it's a good memory.

I don't forget a thing. Oh, there you go. Well, good. I mean, I am where and I have a team of really great people. So we have like seven companies make up our power sports brand. It might be eight now. That's run by a very good individual named Gina Mora. Our real estate, we own probably a billion dollars

in shopping centers in the valley, Arizona Valley, the sun. And I got a guy named Dan Dahl, he runs that, he's excellent. And I mean, and that's the way it goes. I mean, really good people. Now what I do, I spend my time where I call where the war is being fought. And that's where we have the biggest opportunities. And right now it's with our golf company. And I'm pretty excited about the way things are shaping up with that thing. So off we

go. Fantastic. So does this make you a better golf player by owning a golf company, a better motorcycle rider by owning a motorcycle company? Well, you know, you would think that. But, you know, let's talk, you know, riding motorcycles like riding a bike, you know, when you're using your head, you know, you're always okay. And if you especially get on something different, you take a few laps around the track to get used to it, then you're good to go. With golf, you know, I do my best, David.

Excellent. Well, we're gonna talk about your book here in a minute because you're watching, listening to me, David Cogan, host of the alliances hero show make sure that you go to alliances.com that's Eliancs.com as you know, it's the only place where entrepreneurs line we have with us again Bob Parsons go daddy founders serial entrepreneur philanthropist a US Marine and again We're going to talk about his book, Fire in the Hole, the Untold Story of Traumatic Life and Explosive Success.

So Bob, what was the whole thing of coming out with the book? Why? Well, you know, I've had over the years, I've had people tell me time and again and again, you know, you need to write a book. You've had so many incredible things happen to you. Like for example, when I grew up, I didn't get a lot of attention from anybody. And so I even had to tie my shoes, teach myself how to tie my shoes. And I started with little knots and so forth. And then over time, I finally figured out a way to do it, which is unlike any other

way you'll see on the planet. But it works for me and I've got two bows and all that sort of stuff. But I started with nothing, less than nothing. and was able to make $3 billion. I was terrible in school, terrible. I failed the fifth grade. I was going to fail. I wasn't going to graduate high school. But I joined the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War with two buddies of mine back in 1968.

We took and went to boot camp, came back. One of my buddies was stabbed to death. It's in East Baltimore. You know, he never even made Vietnam. My other buddy, he lost both his legs and one of his arms when he was in the thick of combat, tried to throw a hand grenade back that was thrown at him and it didn't get the job done. I was wounded,

I lasted a month, and I mean it was, combat was pretty thick then. And so anyhow, the book talks about all my, you know, my significant experiences over there, coming home with PTSD, you know, how PTSD was a double edged sword. You know, it helped me focus, you know, and I liked working by myself because I just didn't feel like I wanted to be, you know, much around groups of people. And the other thing is, I had a flash temper, depression, crying when nobody's around. Man, it was tough. And so anyhow, I overcome that

and talk about how I did that. And the deal is, man, if I can make it, David, man, anybody ought to be able to make it. And this book, Fire in the Hole, tells you exactly how I did it. Yeah, and I wanna ask you a question about that too, is in regards to worry. You know, everybody worries about something

and you mentioned something in your book about worry. I mean, heck, I worry that I'm going to make sure, you know, that I do the best possible job interviewing you, right? People just naturally worry. How do you talk about what you mentioned in your book about worry? And how does someone kind of overcome that, especially with you? And thank you again for serving our country. Thank you again for serving our country. Well, my pleasure. You know, worry is, to me, is a beast. You know, it accomplishes nothing. It's debilitating. It usually you worry about stuff. And like a week or a day or a month from the time you were sweating it,

turns out to be not a problem at all. And so one of my gifts is I just don't worry. I do the best I can about whatever I'm dealing with, and then off I go. And I think you can teach yourself not to worry but you got to work on it like anything, you know, it's It's uh, you know something that's learned, you know, I learned it when I was a kid and My my parents would go through all sorts of

crazy ass stuff and you know, I For example, I failed the fifth grade. I failed the fifth grade. But the nun told three guys, didn't give us report cards. And so she says to us, she goes, you three, you wait for me. I'm going to take the rest of the club out, the rest of the class out. They're all holding their report cards like they're Academy Awards.

And I'll be back to deal with you. So she marches them out. Me, I don't wait around. I took off because I wanted a non-free summer is what I really wanted. So I took off and I ran all the way around a whole complex where the nun goes and passes the convent and lets the line go down and then it goes across the street and meets the parents.

Right? Well, my nun sister Brenda, I knew she was a very lazy nun. So she would never walk all the way down there with the class. So I was there against the wall. Sure enough, she didn't, she broke off and went back to crucify the unholy threesome, which was the threesome now.

So I go across the street, my father, my father's holding my brother's report card. And he asked me, he goes, where's your report card, Robert? And I said, dad's sister didn't give me one. And really she hadn't. And then he said, well, why not? And then this is when I fished a ridiculous lie out.

I said, well, this year, if you passed, you didn't get a report card. And he goes, let me get this straight. If you pass, you didn't get a report card. I goes, no, dad. He looks at me like a dog that heard a strange noise because he's holding my brother in the car. So he was a gambler.

So he was holding a race in form. He had a cigarette. He flicked the cigarette in the street. He goes, all right, whatever, get in the car. So I got in the car. And then same thing with my mother. My mother's going, I never heard of such a thing. So I said, Mom, call sister.

And she goes, I'm going to call that night. I said, well, if you feel better, you should. I knew she'd never call her. So I spent all summer sweating about failing to fifth grade and my parents finding out. And I knew I was on death row. So come the first day of school. And I mean, I didn't tell anybody, I know if I told like one of my buddies, be all over the place.

Yeah, sure. You know, one of those, well, you can't tell anybody. Right, right. Yeah. And before then, everybody's got it. So I'd taken, get in line with the sixth graders. I got the two guys that were with me when I failed. They're in the fifth grade line waving to me to come over. I'm going to do that and I'm not going to get, stay away from me.

Right. So anyhow, so the classes all went in and they go order with this youngest class first, like kindergarten, first grade, second, third, fourth, fifth, then sixth grade. And I mean, I am flying by the seat of my pants. So I march in with them. And the sister that year was Sister St. Thomas. She pulled me out of line and she held me against the wall. And I mean, her nose was an inch from mine. She said, sister Brenda told me what you did.

She told me you failed and you didn't wait for her. Wow. Then she says, she didn't know what to do. So she passed you. And I went, whoa. she passed you. And I went, whoa. And she said, if you give me any trouble this year, you're going right back to the fifth grade. I won't sister. And, you know, well, I did a better job. I didn't do that much of a better job, but I did a better job. And I remember when I gave my mother the report card, she's looking at it and she goes, well, this is nothing to be

proud of but at least at least you didn't fail and I like it when you get a report card. I go, so do I, mom. Right. That's a good thing. There you go. Right. Wonderful. Alright, we've got time for one more question here and I wanna do some snooping, Bob. We're gonna do some snooping. So, we're in your office right now. You've got a number of items behind We're gonna take a little bit of time for one more question here and I wanna do some snooping Bob. We're gonna do some snooping. So, we're in

your office right now. You've got a number of items behind you. What's something that you treasure the most or something that you would take from your office if you needed to? What would that be? Something here? Yep. Let me take a look.

You've got a couple statues in there. I see a number of books, a silver item. Can't wait. A number of books, yep. Smaller statues. Looks like some clear metal or glass sculpture. It's again audience. We've got a number of items that are in his office but I like I like the big Marine Corps book. The Marine Corps book. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Foundation and why why is that? Why would you pick that? Well, because everything else is interesting to me.

But I have a reverence for the Marine Corps that is pretty solid. One thing I didn't tell you, David, is everything I've ever accomplished I owe to the Marine Corps. Because they turned me, from an aimless kid, they turned me completely around. And I feel as though I own. Wonderful. You know, right along those lines, the Semper 5 Fund also goes by the name of the fun. I'm having a little celebration this May because my wife and I have over the years have reached the $100 million mark of donating to them.

Fantastic. Well, thank you, thank you. This has just been absolutely phenomenal. And thank you again, Bob Parson, GoDaddy founder, serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, U.S. Marine. Make sure you get his book, Fire in the Hole, The Untold Story of its Dramatic Life and Explosive Success. You can go to BobParson.com. This has been David Koven with the eight-year of its dramatic life and explosive success. You can go to BobParkins.com. This has been David Cobin with the Alliance of Juro Show.

Hey David, one last thing. Let's jump in here. You know, in this book, Far and the Whole, you know, from what I've told you, it sounds like a very serious book. And you know, in some parts it is, it is also laugh out loud morning.