Within a few weeks of being hired into the CIA, I realized I wanted to work for myself, unchained by office drama and cubicle warfare. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I was going to make it happen. At the time, I had my own eBay business on the side where I sold items on consignment, and I was dabbling in manufacturing lotions and other natural products, while selling some of my own items also. I was amazed at what people would buy. I once sold some empty bottles to a buyer. I also used to sell beach sand. The internet and the digital world was such a blessing to me, and I knew, even while working at the Agency, that what I truly wanted to do was work on my own, and that the internet would eventually save me from the cubicle doldrums.
It was during one of my many assignments at Headquarters that I met a fascinating guy. He knew so much about technology and he also had made some money in the past doing something I had never really thought of; he sold domain names. Similar to real estate flipping, he would buy domain names and then resell them in sometimes very lucrative deals. It was amazing, and I wanted in on it.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Andrew Rosener, Founder and CEO of MediaOptions.com. Andrew is a globally recognized authority in domain name investment and brokerage, widely regarded as the foremost dealmaker in digital real estate. He has facilitated over $800 million in domain sales, including high-profile transactions such as X.com to Elon Musk, Zoom.com to Zoom, Prime.com and Podcast.com to Amazon, Galaxy.com to Galaxy Digital, as well as thousands of others.
After college, while working for a company in the seafood import/export business, Andrew Rosener had visited Mallorca, Spain and learned about Iberico ham – a very special ham that at the time was the most expensive meat in the world. He considered importing it until he found out it was banned in the U.S. He instead registered some related domain names. Years later he sold one of the domains for thousands of dollars and a leg of the ham. This was when he realized that domains had meaningful value and that they could be resold. That’s when he decided to start domain investing. He admits that he made plenty of mistakes in the beginning when he started investing heavily into domains, but then as he became successful buying and selling his own domains, he realized that he could be successful selling other people’s domains as well.
Andrew was instrumental in the acquisition of X.com by Elon Musk from PayPal and it was a great professional achievement, as the deal is considered one of the most significant in domain brokering history due to the strategic value and brand recognition of X.com and the fact that it is a one-character .com domain name.
So how do you come up with a domain name that will sell?
Andrew uses a combination of market trends, industry analysis, and anticipation of brand needs. He focuses on exact match keyword domains and high-value, memorable names that have significant brand potential or utility. He favors .com domains over all others, as it is the clear leader on the internet, although he does buy, sell, and broker other extensions. His methodology also involves his own domain valuation method – the “Rosener Equation” – which helps in valuing domains based on actual data and various factors like search traffic, memorability, relevance, and potential business use.
Andrew Rosener’s company, MediaOptions, employs a personalized approach in domain name selling. They leverage their extensive network for private sales, often using stealth acquisition methods for buyers and special direct contact for sellers, along with highly skilled negotiation tactics to ensure the best results for their clients. When I described my experience in domain name investing and how lucrative I had seen it be, Andrew explained that domain name investing can still be lucrative, but that the market has evolved. With more competition and saturation in certain segments, success now often requires strategic foresight, patience, and intricate knowledge of the space. The high-value domain market remains profitable for those with the right assets and connections, but it’s less of a “gold rush” scenario than in the early internet days. However, overall he said the market is far more secure and value is more certain than in the past, but with less risk comes lower returns. That said, Andrew is not sure you can find another industry that still has so much opportunity and such high margins.
Andrew is also involved in digital asset management, which naturally evolved from domain investing and domain brokerage. Domains themselves are digital assets, so understanding the value and importance of domains led him to broader asset management, especially with the rise of digital currencies and NFTs. He was somewhat early into cryptocurrency, with his earliest investment in Bitcoin in 2011, and he has done a lot of research to develop a broad understanding of the technology and related markets. Andrew explained that the difference between Bitcoin and crypto, in his opinion, is two things:
1) Proof of Work consensus is a highly underrated breakthrough in science and technology. It takes something virtual and anchors it in the real physical world through bitcoin mining. Andrew believes that this is a massive development and has immense implications for humanity and our evolution to the digital age. In short, our current growth at any cost economic model is a house of cards and by definition unsustainable. The global economy ultimately has a limiting factor which is real goods and services which can’t be printed out of thin air. However, we measure and value these goods and services in fiat currency that is infinite and can be printed out of thin air. Bitcoin is the bridge that is forcing the limiting factor of resources (which can be measured in its lowest common denominator, which is energy) to the virtual world and forcing true value to all goods and services as people and institutions come to understand the opportunity cost of capital allocation. This will slowly erode waste.
2) Immaculate conception. Because there is no known founder, no centralized entity of control and because the origin story is truly immaculate, there is no conflict of interest. This is a huge difference from every other “crypto” currency.
Andrew does not believe that any other crypto project has proven that it has any value or utility beyond Bitcoin. He mentions the only exception being stablecoins, which simplify digital commerce and increase the sophistication and efficiency of financial markets.
Now that my mind is spinning, I would like to go back to Andrew’s analogy of domain names being digital land or digital real estate. As commerce moves from brick and mortar business to the digital economy, so does the value of commercial real estate implode and accrue directly to the digital land (domain names). As AI develops and software development and most other aspects of building a business today become commoditized, the only way to stand out, differentiate and create a defensible moat around a business is going to be brand. In the digital economy, the fastest growing and largest economy on Earth, brand is synonymous with domain names. Andrew Rosener believes we are on the cusp of domain name values escalating by an order of magnitude and many founders and entrepreneurs agree with his thesis.
If you would like to learn more about Andrew Rosener and MediaOptions, please visit mediaoptions.com.
