Domain Strategies, Inc. is proud to present E-File.com for sale. E-File.com is a tremendous generic domain for the tax return and business filing industries. The US, State and Local governments all utilize and encourage some e-filing system for a wide variety of business, tax return and financial dealings. Click here to learn more about E-File.com and then contact us to discuss acquiring this property.

Alerts.com is an emerging start-up that is combining a category-defining domain name with an easy to use personal information management (PIM) platform to help people find, create and manage alerts. It is capable of sending reminders and notifications to help them keep up to date, save time and be more organized.

Click here to read about how we’ve assembled the team, vision and financing to bring Alerts.com to the precipice of a major business launch.

John Maffei, Scott Fasser and Natalie Grinblatt assume leadership positions with Domain Strategies, Inc.

SEATTLE, Washington. April 15, 2008 – Domain Strategies, a Monster Venture Partners company and a leader in building successful businesses on premium domains like Healthcare.com, Patents.com, Alerts.com and Wifi.com, is pleased to announce the appointment of Scott Fasser to President and Chief Operating Officer of Domain Strategies, and Natalie Grinblatt to EVP Corporate Development of Domain Strategies. The company also procured the domain name Wifi.com and appointed John Maffei to the position of CEO of Wifi.com.

Scott Fasser, former EVP for Corporate Development, was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer of Domain Strategies, Inc. Scott has over 16 years experience in building successful businesses.  Prior to joining Domain Strategies, Fasser led the development of the paid search and SEO programs for RealNetworks through his consulting company, Brand Digital, and is considered an authority in SEM, Website Development & Optimization, Traffic Acquisition, Customer Retention and Developer Relations.  Scott received his MBA from the University of Washington and BA from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Fasser’s role of EVP for Corporate Development has been filled by Natalie Grinblatt an executive and co-founder of IDNoptions, LLC.  Grinblatt, a key director at some of the world’s leading business schools including the University of Michigan where she helped the school climb from a number 11 ranking to a number 2 ranking; Cornell University where its ranking jumped from number 18 to number 7 and where both she and her team were cited and recognized as outstanding contributors and leaders to the school, and Arizona State University where she served as Assistant Dean of Graduate Management Programs. Upon leaving that post, Grinblatt co-founded IDNoptions which went on to build one of the worlds largest IDN portfolio, IDN consulting, and IDN business development enterprises.  Grinblatt emphasizes that, “the synergies between Domain Strategies and IDNoptions are ideal to help escalate both organizations in enabling entrepreneurs around the globe to accelerate development of premium domains into first-class enterprises.”

Domain Strategies also named John Maffei as CEO of Wifi.com.  Before joining Wifi.com, John Maffei was President of the ZAM Content Network, an online gaming network with more than 15 million unique visits monthly. Prior to joining ZAM, Mr. Maffei led Microsoft’s efforts to license Xbox 360 video content from major entertainment companies including Warner Bros., Buena Vista Pictures (Disney), Lions Gate, 20th Century Fox and NBC Universal. Throughout his decade-long tenure at Microsoft, Maffei held senior marketing and business development positions within the Windows Media and the Platform Strategy divisions where he negotiated strategic business agreements with influential corporate partners including Sony and Vodafone. He was also the founder and chief executive of RocketPipe, Inc., a developer of broadcast messaging and direct marketing software for content-driven online commerce sites. John received his MBA from the University of Washington and a BA from Colgate.

Rob Monster is Chairman and Founder of Domain Strategies as well as Managing Partner of Monster Venture Partners. “Our ability to build great companies on category-defining domain names is first and foremost predicated on our ability to assemble the best teams. The model for rapid value creation is proven and now we aim to accelerate the pace of development across a much larger set of high potential domain properties in verticals that we believe are ripe for innovation. These hires are critical to that objective. ” said Mr. Monster.

Scott Fasser and John Maffei will be based in the company’s Bellevue offices. Natalie Grinblatt will initially be located in Phoenix, co-located with IDN Options, which Monster Venture Partners backed in early 2008.

Domain Strategies, Inc. is proud to announce the representation of three premium domains for sale: DebitCard.com, Checking.com and CheckCard.com plus 8 additional domains listed below:

CheckCard.com

Checking.com

DebitCard.com

RetirementAccounts.com

RealEstateLending.com

InvestmentAccounts.com

HomeEquityLine.com

HomeEquity.com

CreditCardAccounts.com

CorporateBanking.com

CheckingAccounts.com

These domains are ultra-premium and compelling for the banking and financial services industry. More information coming via this blog, but if you have interest in the domains, please contact us to discuss.

This post is written by Rob and posted on the Monster Venture Partners site, but thought it would be appropriate to post here as well as finding the right person to run the domain business with our partner is critical to success. We have found that by hiring a great person and having them focus on the enterprise while assisting to expand vision (and of course fund the start-up costs) - we can develop a beta version of a business very quickly.

What I Look for in a Startup CEO by Rob Monster

With 18 ventures backed in the last 12 months, one would think that the rate-limiting factor for backing new startups is financial capital. In actual reality, this is not the case. A big idea, executed on a category-defining domain name, led by a stage-appropriate CEO, makes for a compelling early stage investment opportunity for which capital is usually available. The true rate-limiting factor for backing more startups is finding the leadership talent. And by leadership, first and foremost, I am talking about the CEO.

So, what do I look for in a startup CEO?

· Passionate, confident, tenacious, and goal-oriented. Passion, enthusiasm and confidence are highly contagious. You can only fake these things for a while. They love their work, and are driven to succeed, not just on a single venture, but have larger ambitions. They believe God put them on this earth with a purpose – even if they don’t quite know what that purpose happens to be.

· Genuine. A large part of genuine leadership comes from having character. Character comes from proving to yourself that you know who you are, what you are good at, what you enjoy, and what matters to you. The most effective leaders I have met are guided by a set of core values and principles. They know the difference between right and wrong, fair and unfair, and can navigate the gray areas in between.

· Adaptable. In short, we want to work with people who understand that “failure is not an option”. When results are not in line with expectations, a great CEO will figure out what is not working and adapt. This is often not just a function of “working harder”. It is often a function of listening to stakeholders — customers, investors, advisors, and employees – and then adapting in response to the data.

· Intelligent. CEOs need sufficient raw intellect so they can learn what they don’t know. Ideally, the CEO has domain expertise and can quickly formulate a vision for the company that has the potential of carving out a profitable niche that taps into a multi-billion dollar addressable market. To the extent that a CEO lacks domain expertise, the CEO needs to be able to recruit into his or her blind spots in order to be able to focus on areas of personal strength, while learning on the job.

· Ecosystem thinker: Monster Venture Partners is practicing a style of investing that I call “Ecosystem Investing”. It is different than Keiretsu investing in that the companies we back share a common architecture which extends across the core portfolio. The full scale of this common architecture is not yet fully apparent to the casual observer but the synergies are real and the consumer will be a primary beneficiary of a web experience is seamless. Sooner or later, the CEOs we back embrace this common architecture, often extending it.

· Demonstrates Integrity: Sooner or later, most people figure this out. Integrity is price of entry for any leader. An amazing thing happens if you focus on working with people that have high integrity. Everything becomes frictionless. Information is shared openly. Interests are aligned. Partnerships are built to last rather than for expediency. A CEO without integrity is a ticking time-bomb. It is like a deal with the devil. It rarely works out in the end.

· Tolerant, open-minded and prepared to deviate from convention. The crowd is not always right. The minority of today may be an early adopter, trendsetter or taste-maker. The kind of CEO we like to hire suspends judgment and instead forms a “working hypothesis”. Jean Ibrahim, an early boss and mentor at P&G taught me the principles of great consumer research. When analyzing consumer data, Jean would often tell me “first search for truth … and then use the data to explain truth.” Word to live by from Brother Ibrahim.

· Global-minded: Most of the opportunities we are interested in pursuing have a global component – whether it means global sourcing of inputs, or global distribution of products and services. A CEO may not have had global operating experience, but needs to be open to the idea and prepared to recalibrate how they develop products, how they hire, and how they go to market.

· Wired for productivity. Technology is a huge productivity booster. Blackberry, Skype, LinkedIn, Intelligent voicemail are tools for getting more done in less time. Most of our CEOs know what is in their inbox and process the important ones by the end of the day.

· Able to attract and retain talent. I have long believed that A-players hire A-players whereas B-players hire C-players. The first 20 people you hire are largely determinant of whether you win or lose. So, if you pick a B-player CEO, they will stack the team with mediocrity and you will lose. This is why most incubators fail. They spread the talent thin and too often settle for mediocre leadership. The results are entirely predictable if a course correction is not made early enough.

· Have a supportive home life. It helps to have a supportive partner and family. I read recently that a man’s most important job in life is to marry a good woman. Hallelujah. If you are married and want to see if you have a good spouse, do a startup. When the chips are down, you’ll get a pretty good sense. On the flipside, I strongly encourage married CEOs to make time for regular dates, and get-aways. In line with that directive, our CEOs also know that I am happy to pinch hit for them while they are off-grid, which is a primary reason why I often take the role of Chairman.

· Ask for help. Key contracts, key hires, and other key decisions are all good times to ask for advice. Most times, the advice comes in form of a suggestion, a document, an introduction, an anecdote or a (wee-hour) email. There are times when I am sure about something at which point, I will be emphatic on the direction I think a CEO should take. This is not the norm. Ultimately, the CEO is empowered to make his or her own decision. However, the CEO who ignores emphatic device, should explain the logic, share the data, or be right!

If you know of a great CEO, who is here to change the world, send them our way. We welcome the opportunity to match great leadership talent with great opportunities to reinvent entire industries.

Following on our recent announcement of our partnership and investment in IDNoptions, we ask the question, are you a proven or budding entrepreneur? Are you thinking about capturing the market of nearly 1.4 billion people in China? Through the Domain Strategies/IDNoptions partnership, we now have one of the largest portfolios of IDNs to develop. According to the March 14, 2008 Wall Street Journal article, “China reportedly has eclipsed the US with the largest internet-connected population”. Now is the time to build your business.

In October, 2006 the world opened up for our industry. As Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), it finally enabled the non-English speaking/writing world to search the internet in its own language on its own terms. A year later ICAAN, the worldwide nonprofit organization that regulates the Internet’s domain name system, launched its campaign to provide internationalized country code top-level domains (those that don’t use Latin Characters) according to CNet News.com. Why is this important for the Domain industry? It opens up quite literally a world of possibility that renews what could be considered a maturing industry.

Since IDNs are a new to the industry, even the old measurements do not apply. One can not track pay per click advertising or traffic yet (think the US circa 1997), but it’s coming if there is good content on the other end of the domain.

In Germany, six different entities own the domain for Munich. How is this possible? One owns the ASCII Munich.com, one owns Munich.de, one owns the Munchen without the umlaut with a .com, one owns the Munchen without an umlaut with a .de, one owns the IDN Munchen.de with the umlaut and finally the IDN Munchen.com with the umlaut. Who will win out? The IDNs with the best content on the other end because Germans will search in their own language for their city on their terms and whoever provides the best content on the other side of the domain will gain the traffic.

Phoenix, AZ- IDNoptions, LLCwww.idnoptions.com), a leader in International Domain Name (IDN) acquisition, announced today an investment and strategic partnership with Monster Venture Partners (MVP), LLC and Domain Strategies, Inc. to expand and develop an industry-leading portfolio of IDNs and to build businesses on those domains.

Steven Epstein, CEO of IDNoptions states that “the internet and mobile community are on the brink of an immense eruption in China”. With nearly 1.4 billion people in China, Epstein predicts over 40% of the Internet’s content will be conducted in Chinese by 2011. Epstein’s company enables organizations to establish and expand their brands in Asia. His concept was confirmed by some of the world’s most respected internet executives and China experts. His portfolio contains the Chinese equivalents of domains such as “greenbusiness.com, airlinereservations.com, and realestateloans.com.” There are over 2300 premium domains in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, and Arabic in the IDNoptions portfolio (www.idnoptions.com/blog/domains).

In October, 2006, browser technology made internet search for non-native English speakers easy. Epstein asks the question, “If the internet had been created in China, would you search for news using Chinese characters?” The use of IDNs has been widely implemented by the Chinese government, large Chinese Enterprises and Fortune 100 companies like Procter and Gamble, China (http://www.idnoptions.com/blog) and GE, China.

When Robert Monster, Founder and Chairman of Monster Venture Partners and Domain Strategies approached Epstein with the possibility to build companies with IDNs, Epstein embraced the idea. This was an outstanding opportunity to diversify and grow IDNoptions by globalizing the domain development model pioneered by Domain Strategies for major properties such as Healthcare.com, Patents.com and Alerts.com.

Monster emphasizes that “IDNoptions is in the right place at the right time. The partnership with Domain Strategies will allow these raw domains to evolve quickly into high value properties that can be of immense utility to Chinese internet users by leveraging Domain Strategies’ proven ability to secure top content as well as deliver this content in local languages.” Concurrent with the financial investment by MVP, Monster has agreed to assume the role of Chairman of IDNoptions.

Patrick Pun, Executive Vice President for Asia-Pacific of MVP also serves the IDNoptions team as Executive Vice President for Asia-Pacific. Pun says, “The timing is perfect for IDNoptions to build the bridge to link multinational firms and their products and services with the powerful Chinese market. Category-defining domains present a great competitive advantage for those organizations by having rapid access to diverse Chinese markets, in not only Mainland China but Hong Kong, Taiwan, and throughout the world.” Pun is based in Shanghai and will be running the Shanghai operations of IDNoptions.

IDNoptions, LLC

IDNoptions, LLC (www.idnoptions.com). Located in Phoenix, AZ with operations in Phoenix and Shanghai, IDNoptions holds over 2300 of the finest IDNs that it licenses with consultative services, sells, and develops into valuable businesses.

Domain Strategies, Inc

Domain Strategies (www.domainstrategies.com) is a pioneering leader in the field of internet domain development. The company partners with domain owners, visionary entrepreneurs and smart capital to unlock hidden value in high quality internet domain names.

Monster Venture Partners, LLC

Monster Venture Partners (www.monsterventurepartners.com), based in Seattle, is a new breed of early-stage venture capital. MVPs investment philosophy is to engage in a genuine hands-on partnership with founders to jointly create value for all stakeholders.

I admit that I am an addict.  I love board games.  My favorite game of all time is Monopoly and I would play it for hours with my brothers and now my stepsons.  Why bother with the deeds for Mediterranean and Baltic when you can buy Park Place and Boardwalk (I still play the original version, not the Dane Cook version or the Boingboing version)?  The strategy, as you know, is to build houses and then hotels and then bankrupt your competitors until you win the game (I am a bit softer on my stepsons then I was on my brothers).  With this in mind, after many years in educational administration, I became a domainer.  It is Monopoly that taught me the only way to win is to build (and I don’t need to bankrupt my competitors).  A great domain parked can be lucrative, a great domain built will be lucrative.  It’s the Boardwalk and Park Place with the hotels. Domain Strategies gives you the tools you need to put your hotels on your Boardwalk and Park Place.

I came across Eliot Silver’s blog today on his endeavor to build Lowell.com - a geodomain dedicated to all things in Lowell, Massachusetts (blog.lowell.com). I think it is a true expression of the steps and challenges inherent in creating a business that has both uniqueness and sustainability:

1. A solid, domain name (how good is Lowell.com for Lowell, Mass?).
2. Business planning that includes uniqueness, problem solving and revenue.
3. Resourcefulness in finding solutions to development problems (ala the business directory issue, payment issue, cart issues, etc.).
4. Consideration for adding value to the advertisers while keeping prices within reason.
5. Consideration of legal issues - specifically the thoughts around the logo and how it might look like someone elses.
6. Business partnerships - working with the photographer for example.
7. Planning for traffic generation via search engines. This is also better done at the beginning of a design than at the end when an SEO retro fit is in order.

So far, Eliot is on the right track and I wish him good luck and two pieces of additional advice:

1. The recommendations and links he offers on his blog should be tied to the affiliate programs of the various vendors so he could make some money on referrals.
2. He should look to partner with other cities in the region to either help them develop their sites or work to cross-promote their content to draw a bigger crowd.

Good luck Eliot, we’re pulling for you!

We’ve just posted our first case study on domain development. Patents.com is an excellent example of the value Domain Strategies can bring to a premium, category defining domain. By utilizing our international network of partners and relationships, Patents.com will be the premier destination for patent content in 15 languages. Click here to read the Patents.com case study.