MIXERGY – Aug 6 – Gary Kremen got Jobs.com, Autos.com, Housing.com,
Sex.com and other domains for free by recognizing that the internet
would be a powerful business platform long before there was even a fee
for acquiring domain names.
Q: You were one of the first people to get domains, right?
A: Yeah. I guess sometimes luck is good. It’s better than being smart. I just was earlier than others.
Q: You bought Match.com for how much? My research says for $ 2,400.
A: That’s an accurate statement. What I bought more of was the email addresses. I saw the value of email addresses. I started noticing, in the early ’90s, more women on email and I said, “Hmm. I wonder if I could convince those. women to get their pictures scanned as an attachment at Kinkos and I could sell access to them.” Just like the 900 numbers. That was the genesis of the idea. I was doing a lot of dating using the 900 numbers in the newspapers. I met a programmer and I said, “I want you to build an email-based dating service. I had an implementation of that running in 1994 and it was growing. Then we were forced to sell it.
Q: Why? Tell me a little about that.
A: I raised some Angel money first in early ’95. Later, I raised venture capital and I think they saw the content and got embarrassed. Venture firms have limited partners who are conservative institutions and people were a lot conservative back then.
Q: What happened at the end of Match.com?
A: The board, over my objections, decided to sell the Match business unit for $7M to a company called SendIt. SendIt, nine months later, sold it to Citysearch/Ticketmaster/IAC for ~$15M. One of the things that we created was this idea of web pages that change based on who you are and web pages that change based on a database. We got an issued patent for that.
Q: What drove you? What was the drive that just kept you going when there’s so many setbacks here in your history from Sex.com being taken away from you to Match.com being sold for a penny?
A: I think it was an older desire and a continuing desire to prove myself. Now I am less driven. Until recently, I would never, ever hire a married person.
Q: Frankly, when you are a single person and it’s your only thing in life, you’re so much more productive than when you’re married. Aren’t you?
A: I would never hire a developer who has a girlfriend or smells good. If they have time for a girlfriend, to go to concerts, they’re not focused on the PHP.
Q: What was your most successful hit?
A: After I left Match, I co-founded a company called Net Angels with two guys. We merged that with a company called Firefly and sold it to Microsoft. Then I made some small investments and started company called Resonate, that went public.
Q: What are the big lessons you've learned?
A: I would’ve done some more early exits if I could have, even if I would have left a bunch of money on the table.
Q: One of the things I admire the most are these brilliant ideas. Is that just a gift or is there a system? Is there something you could teach us from that?
A: It’s a curse. It’s not a gift. Everyone has ideas. Implementation is a different thing.
Q: Last advice for entrepreneurs out there?
A: Don’t give up. I think a lot of people are close and they give up their ideas. They give up. Go get the free book “Patent It Yourself.” I can’t speak enough about that. Harder in the software world, but if you’re thinking of a physical thing, good thing to do on your own. You can do it pretty cheaply.
Q: So, what’s coming up next for yo?
A: I am thinking a lot about the energy space. A lot bigger than the Internet. I got some investments already.
FULL INTERVIEW @ MIXERGY