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Line 45: + − − − − As successful as he turned out to be, Ostrofsky said the real brain in the family was a sibling who also happened to be the person who led him to domains. "My older sister Keri was the smart one," Ostrofsky said. She was really “book” smart - top 10 in her graduating class, Stanford MBA and Harvard PhD. She went on to become a college professor where I went to school - the University of Texas. When I went to visit her in 1994 to speak to her class about Entrepreneurship, she showed me this new thing she was researching called “The Internet.” After a few moments, the first thing I asked her was “how do you get one of those names?," Ostrofsky recalled. − − "I went home and started buying domain names – I think it was $70 for two years to register each name. I thought and thought and came to realize that the four best names in my world were in the newspaper each day - news, weather, sports and business. The first three were − − − already being used by firms with sites devoted to those topics. The fourth, Business.com, was owned by Business Systems International, a firm in the UK that sold business telephone systems. I − contacted the owner and over a two-week period, we agreed I could but the domain for $75,000. The day before the purchase, he bumped the price to $150,000. I went to my dad for advice and he said “do you have the $150k?” My business was successful so yes, I had it in the bank. He said “which is better for you, to have the money in the bank or to own that name?” − Business.com - Sold for $150,000, Then $7.5 Million, Then $345 Million - Here's the Full Story Straight from the Horse's Mouth − − You already know that Ostofsky wound up buying the domain, but you don't know the background on why it was worth $150,000 to him at a time (1994) when domain names were still an unknown quantity in the business world. Ostrofsky explained. "I was the owner of a firm I founded that owned magazines and trade shows in the deregulated telecom space. After learning about domain names I started another firm called iNAMES.com to register domain names for clients that needed to protect their brand outside of the U.S. I went to my very close personal − friend and fraternity brother from UT, Pinky Brand (a heck of a nice guy who now runs sales for .Mobi) and said “Pinky, why don’t you come join me at this firm I have started - it’s really an interesting concept. I’m busy with my publishing firm but we can get a small staff together and you can run this firm in some extra space in my office." − "Pinky came onboard and our first three clients were, and I’m not kidding you, McDonalds, Harley Davidson and AOL! The goal of the firm was to register their domain names in foreign countries so cyber squatters could not take those names," Ostrofsky said. − − "We were looking for ways to get the word out about iNames.com and I was just about to buy Business.com. So I though "why not marry the two concepts?" So we dropped a press release saying iNames.com represented “an unidentified buyer” in the purchase of the domain name Business.com from the firm in Europe. That buyer was me. We paid $150,000, the most money
no edit summary
His sister Keri inspired him to join the domain industry. His sister became a professor at University of Texas after completing PhD from Harvard. In 1994, Marc went to speak to his sister's class about business and she showed him the "Internet". He came home and searched domain names. After some search he decided to buy business.com. He consulted his father and bought the domain Business.com for $150K.