Heroes in Business - Jeffrey Gabriel, CoFounder of Saw.com, Guinness world record sale Sex URL 13MM

Episode Date: April 18, 2023

Jeffrey Gabriel, CoFounder of Saw, domain brokerage firm that has helped many startups get their ideal domain name, Guinness World Record sale Sex URL 13MM is interviewed by David Cogan famous host Heroes Show and Founder Eliances entrepreneur community.  

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. All right, that's right. And welcome back to it. I'm so excited. Thanks, too, for the feedback we continue to have. When I head on, that's right, when I I head on the co-founder of Pandora. So make sure that you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com. The only place where entrepreneurs are aligned. All right. So what does a poker.org, sex.com,

and many other single domain names that you would recognize have to do with our next episode well we have with us are you ready for this jeffrey gabriel co-founder of saw.com now they're a domain brokerage firm that has helped many startups get their ideal domain name and we're talking about guinness book of world's, where he had the sale of sex.com for $13 million. So Jeffrey, like how was that when you found out that, you know, one of your listed domains sold and broke the world record? That was a really great story and interesting one. You know, that name was actually owned by a company that was in bankruptcy, and we were really under the gun to get it sold. And it took a considerable amount of work and selling into the adult industry. It's not as easy to get into and find the right contacts because a lot of people don't like to advertise that they're, you know, they're part of

that. So it was a lot of work. It was a great sale. You know, that was a number of years ago now, but still an exciting one. And then you have the record for the highest.org, poker.org. Yeah, that was a big, big sale too. Again, that was an older one too, you know, and, you know, gambling is always something that's always going to have demand and be something that's highly sought after online. And the gambling domains continue to sell at high amounts on a regular basis. And your company has now done, what, over $500 million in domain name sales? Collectively, our team has done over $500 million in sales. We've sold domains more recently, like AI.com and M1.com.

And the shorter and the more specific it is, the more expensive it can be. Are there any single like letter domain names that are for sale or have been for sale? Like how do people acquire those? Well, if you wanted to get a single letter.com, there was only a couple that were actually ever released. But the usually the shortest domains that are available are two letters or two numbers or a letter and a number. And those are all taken. And bare minimum, those are worth at least a half a million dollars or three hundred fifty thousand dollars apiece. And then going up into the multi multi millions. If not millions. Yeah. Now that you've been in this type of industry, are there people that are like locking in, investing in domains to someday be able to sell them, sitting on them?

Like what's your view on it? How do you make, how does someone make money on it? Okay. So there's different facets to the business that I work in. And there are the many investors who invest in domains that have portfolios of five domains. And then I actually worked for somebody that owned over 360,000 domain names and I managed his domain portfolio. And just like any stocks or real estate, owning domain names can be something very similar. And during the time of ownership, you have people that visit those names and you can put advertising on the domains and it can create revenue while you're owning the names and then you can sell them based on many different factors and domains can sell for a couple hundred dollars tens of

thousands of dollars or millions and i mean when you were growing up there wasn't even right the thing of domain names i would take you know around that, around that time. And now here you are, you know, you've got one of the most recognized places of selling domain names. Yeah, I mean, for me, I really got into the business in about 2010. And prior to that, I know a little bit about domains. But you know, when I was in college back in the very early 2000s was the tech boom. And that's when you know, when I was in college back in the very early 2000s was the tech boom. And that's when, you know, the domains really started to take off. But then it kind of collapsed in 2002 and 2009. And previously in the mid 90s was another time when, you know, domains really started getting going.

And then they what was happening was they were actually free to register for a period of time. And then they required that you had to pay. So a lot of people let some drop or expire. And then people came back into the market and started buying up a lot of the domain names that were very valuable. But then the market crashed in 2002. And then there was another massive kind of letting go of domains. And that's where a new crop of domain investors came in. One of them being the person, his name's Frank Schilling, who I used to work for.

Excellent. And again, you're watching, listening to me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. We've got a unique domain name. That's alliances.com, E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com because we have with us Jeffrey Gabriel, co-founder of Saw.com, S-A-W.com. How easy is that to remember? Domain brokerage firm that has helped many startups get their ideal domain name. Make sure that you go to Saw.com. They hold a number of world records, including this record sale of Sex.com and Poker.org and many others in that. All right, so when we go to your website and stuff, we could sort, we could pick.

You've got, what, a lot of single word domain names for sale, right? Yeah, we represent about 150,000 domains that we have for sale that you can visit and it has our for sale lander on it, which we call, it's like a sign that a realtor puts on their property. But we also have relationships with many other vendors, which gives us access to

tens of millions of domain names that we can help our customers acquire, which we do on a pretty regular basis. So again, go ahead. Yeah, you're like in the land business. You're selling land, but you're selling, I mean, that's cool. Yeah, I totally sell air, you know You're selling land, but you're selling, I mean, that's cool. Yeah, I totally sell air, you know, but this land, if you really think about it, in some cases, is more valuable than owning, you know, a storefront in Times Square, because you're limited by the number of people that can possibly walk past your storefront. You know, how valuable is amazon.com to Amazon? I mean, it is the heart

and soul of the business. And companies realize that, and they're trying to purchase domains that are short, easy to spell, easy to remember, and they either sound positive and exciting or are very descriptive to the service that they're offering. For example, hosting.com would be perfect for a hosting company, right? It's very descriptive, easy to spell. You know exactly what they're offering. You look at weather.com. A lot of people use that service. Even if the weather report was inaccurate almost every single day, it would be probably considered the number one source for weather reporting in the United States. It almost has an unfair competitive advantage. And that's how powerful some of these domain names can be for the right business,

if it's used correctly. Now, what if someone wants to go about buying a domain that they can't find that happens to be for sale? I mean, what kind of secrets can you share about that? I think that a lot of people who go about it on their own, it's very similar to, you know, if you're trying to buy and sell property on your own without that much experience. I would certainly read up on it and try to understand, potentially try to figure out the history on it. You can go to a company called archive.org and you can actually type in the domain name and you can go back and see what was on the name 10 years ago, 15 years ago, which is an exciting thing. And it'll help you understand that, you know, perhaps the company that owns it today had a product on it or a service. I like to check what's called the MX records on the domain name. So that tells me if there's email set up on the domain, because just

because if you go to a domain name, and there's if there's nothing there, it doesn't mean they're not using it, there could be a full system going on behind it. You know, they could be using it for email or other services that you just don't know about. And you're really going to look at the going market and what names like this might sell for and make a reasonable offer. However, you can find a way to contact them that makes sense. I have a lot of people that approach me to help them buy a domain name from a business that is in business and it's working. And they're offering, you know, $1,000 or $2,000. And even if the domain is worth $2,000, how much work would it take for you to move off of your company domain and all of the branding you've done and all of the work you've done and even

moving and migrating email and everything else? It's such a pain that your time is worth something too. And you have to put that into consideration, especially now that the internet is really getting a lot more populated, kind of like land. It's not as easy to find that oceanfront property these days that hasn't been developed or doesn't already have a house on it. You have to knock it down or you have to move it, right? Right, right. And then, Jeffrey, I know that your site too does appraisals and stuff. How does it determine what it's worth? Well, we look at many different metrics. The first thing that we look at is really the extension. So.com is really the gold standard and it really goes down from there. When you look at extensions like.net or.org, I mean, I really think the easiest way to appraise a domain name is no matter what the domain is, appraise it like

it's a.com and then try to make a percentage value backwards. So the value of a.net or a.org compared to a.com is about five or 10%% of the value, pretty much no matter what. There's always exceptions to the rule. And then from there, we look at the category, right? And you look at what kind of goods or services or what does the domain mean. And depending on that, that means a lot. So for example, a domain like suntan lotion, that's a seasonal domain. and if you look at a thing called trends Google comm or Google Trends you will see the search volume go like this based on the seasons right but if you look at something like

I've already mentioned hosting hosting is a pretty steady growing search volume right or if you look at the term app you will see the word app has been growing. But if you compare that to software, you'll see that it's going down. So we look at things like that. And then we also when it comes to names that don't really have meaning, but sound exciting, like fierce.com, which is a domain we have for sale, you know, you need to look at other brandable style domains and look at comparable sales that makes sense to the value of that name. Now, you've been in this business so long. And again, you can go to saw.com. We're talking with Jeffrey Gabriel, co-founder of saw.com. They list domain names,

Guinness Book of World Records, sex.com, poker.org and others. What has surprised you most in about the industry and tie that into is, is what surprised you most with the domain name that you sold that you were like, well, you know, I couldn't believe it went for that price. Okay. Well, the first question, the most surprising thing about our industry is, and I can go on on a totally separate interview about this on what's called web three domains. Web three is a whole new namespace of domains that are not approved by ICANN, which is the governing body of the internet. It's actually an entirely new internet that's out there. And the attrition rate of these new Web3 domains, which are on entirely different extensions,

is exponentially faster than how fast.com, net or org picked up. I mean, it is exponentially faster than how fast.com, Net or Org picked up. I mean, it is exponentially faster. So seeing that grow in an entirely new namespace has been pretty surprising over the last two years for me to see that. And it's going to be interesting to see what people do with these Web3 domains. Amazing. But still, you think.com? I mean, what does your crystal ball tell you? Without a doubt, dot com is going to be king for a very long time. I mean,

the best analogy I can give you is, and maybe because I'm American and I'm a little, you know, I'm a proud American with my flag back here, but, you know, there are currencies in the world that are worth more than the U.S. dollar. But if you are in a foreign land and you need to get out for whatever purpose, I think the currency of choice would probably be $100 bills that you want to have to get yourself out of it. And I think because the world understands and sees the value of that currency and knows they can use it anywhere, kind of like a stick of gold. Dotcom is understood universally in all countries, and there's no changing that.

And it's going to take a very, very long time for that to change. Now, you go to countries like Canada, you see on the side of buses.ca, well, that's what's called a ccTLD, and that's acceptable in their culture. But.com is as well. You go to the United Kingdom, you see.co.uk or.uk all over the place, and you also see.com mixed in. You don't see.us in the UK. You don't see a lot of that. think with web three domains, in order to become extremely mainstream, once Google Chrome or Safari actually allow those domains to resolve in their browsers or some of these other leading browsers without an extension, that will validate their existence. And that's when you'll see web three domains really take off. And it's going to get really interesting if they do, but it hasn't

happened yet. Great, great. Well, we've got time for one more question. I think this is important too, is you've been very successful in your career, very successful of what you're doing now, making a mark in that. What kind of secrets or advice do you have really for young children out there, right? Trying to figure out like, what are we going to do? You know, we're moving up this ladder of education and early high school and stuff. Like, you know, you found your niche, you found what you enjoy, clearly have a passion for it. What kind of advice can you share with them? Well, first and foremost, I'd like to say I was not the best student in the world. And, you know, I got in some trouble as a kid. I think my problem was my mouth. I had trouble with talking all the time.

I never did any, like, drugs or anything bad like that. But I just wasn't a great student. And I wasn't, and I think my biggest problem was I just norms, that get through it, get the piece of paper, get your college degree, you know, and really just try to get through it with the grades you need to get. And but life goes on. And it's a lot, you know, there's a lot more to come. And don't worry if you don't fit those normal standards that that the school system is telling you or the box you have to fit in. I would also say that there is nothing in life that comes easy. And I laugh at these people who come up with these like life hacks and, you know, Tim Ferriss with his

20-hour work week, you know, if you think you're going to hit your goals by half-assing it, you're not going to get there. And you're going to fall down seven times, and you're going to get up eight, and you just don't give up, and you're going to dust yourself off and keep going, and you're going to learn from the mistakes that you make. I also really believe in the fact that you need to surround yourself with great people, people that are going through the similar trials and tribulations that you are, people who genuinely care about when you fall on your face and they were there to listen and help you pick yourself up, not care about that. You'll start to see the people who genuinely care about you and those that can give you the advice to help you move on. And so I have some wonderful friends.

And it's not because they have a lot of money that makes them wonderful. It's all walks of life that I have friends that genuinely care about my well-being and my success and the goals that I'm trying to reach. And they're willing to help me if I ask them for a favor without asking anything in return. And I think you really, I think a young person or anyone in business should really think about that in a lot of ways. And the thing is also, and what I did in my early career was, is I used the resources of the people around me. So I was actually speaking to a friend about this last night. And I was saying that what I'm really interested in seeing what happens is with these recent college graduates and even my own kids who are nine and five, when they enter the working world, there potentially will not be those opportunities where you go to an office and you sit next to a 50, I call them like a grizzled old man back then. I'm almost 50 now. So I'm sitting next to

a grizzled old guy like me and I can sit there and we're just talking. And that's where I learned so much was talking to people who are in the working world for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, and just picking their brains and asking that you don't get that when you're working virtually. And if you're young and in your 20s, you're not going to have that, that those nuances, you're not going to create those relationships, you go over some drinks, and people loosen up and tell you, you know what, Jeff, you're really not good at this. Or I can't believe you said that. That was unprofessional or whatever.

But you're not getting those lessons and it's going to be very hard to ramp up. So you're going to have to work even harder. You have to focus. So, you know, that would really be my answer to young people. And I think to any kind of salesperson or entrepreneur, you've got to put in the time. kind of salesperson or entrepreneur, you got to put in the time, you know, you got to keep your eye on the prize and, you know, you got to fail and you're going to learn from those failures and you're going to dust yourself off and you need to go with it. Okay. And as an entrepreneur starting my own business, I realized that you got to keep your eye on the prize. The goal for me was to make domain sales, to bring in revenue, you know, and to build a site that

our site's a total work in progress, or trying to make it better every day in our business, our processes even better every day. But you can get totally distracted and busy work. And you can be tired at the end of the day, because you think you did so much. But when you look at it, I didn't do anything to make money. I didn't do anything to sell names. It's all busy work. It's all bullshit. And that doesn't pay the bills. And that doesn't get you closer to what you want to do. And you got to be honest with yourself about that. And then I'm sorry I'm going on about this, but don't be afraid to delegate.

And I think for myself, I've had that problem with letting go. But you got to realize that with the proper training and you know making sure you're monitoring it but anyone can really do a lot of the things you're doing so you can move on to the things that you're great at and you have to admit to yourself certain things you're not very good with right and so like laughably I tried to handle my own QuickBooks because you know it's QuickBooks anyone can do QuickBooks. Well, when it came time for taxes, my accountant was like, this is a mess.

What are you doing? You need to get a bookkeeper immediately, right? And so, you know, I know that I'm happy I figured this out before I became a CPA, right? I'm not the person you want to do the books, but you might want me on a sales call or you might want me to help you build a sales team or you might want me to help you work on, you know, email campaigns and things like that that convert. So, you know, I know what I can do. I know my limitations and I focus on those. And that, and that has worked the best for me and for the people I work with, the great people I've surrounded with that I work with and, you know, in bringing in these opportunities in sales.

Well said, well said. Well, Jeffrey, you help startups get the ideal domain name or upgrade to one that better suits their businesses. That's a hero. Make sure you check out Jeffrey Gabriel, co-founder, go to saw.com. They are the ones that hold the records. They can help you find or sell your domain name.

Thank you again, Jeffrey, for being here. It's been an honor and a pleasure to have you today. I'm honored myself. Thank you very much.