Daina Burnes & Morgan Linton's Bold Metrics Scores Massive Win With Men's Wearhouse

For the past 7 years, veteran domain investor Morgan Linton has been splitting his time between the domain world and the start up world. In the latter, Morgan, as CRO, has been working side by side with Daina Burnes on an innovative new fashion based company called Bold Metrics that CEO Daina dreamed up back in 2014 (one we wrote about in 2016). The idea was so good the dynamic duo quickly  accumulated more than $1 million in capital investment, with billionaire Mark Cuban among the first to get on board.

By using a comprehensive set of machine learning and A.I technologies to accurately predict customer body measurements, Bold Metrics promised to help apparel brands unlock the power of body data to reduce their ecommerce returns, improve sustainability, and optimize operations. They have been tirelessly improving their processes (their technology can above 92% accuracy in garment fit) and adding customers ever since with the grand slam home run finally coming this week.

As Esquire Magazine's Singapore edition just reported, Tailored Brands Inc., who operates more than 650 Men's Wearhouse and Jos A Bank men's clothing stores, has adopted Contactless Fit tech developed by Bold Metrics. During the global pandemic more people than ever were ordering clothes online. That made Bold Metrics's already attractive solution a true no-brainer. 

The technology works for both men and women so this is likely just the first of many big wins to come for Daina and Morgan, and all who know them well tell you it could not happen to two nicer and more deserving people!

Morgan Linton
CRO, Bold Metrics

Below: This screen shot of the Men's Wearhouse/Bold Metrics experience on an Ipad shows how easy it is for a customer to enter a few data points that will assure a near perfect fit.

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Another Blockbuster for Kate Buckley! Buckley Media Group Closes 7-Figure Sale of eBike.com 

Buckley Media Group, one of the world’s top boutique premium domain name brokerages, has just closed another blockbuster sale. The firm, founded by CEO Kate Buckley, brokered a $1,008,900 sale of the domain name eBike.com to Robert Bosch GmbH. Bosch operates Bosch eBike Systems as well as COBI.Bike. 

Kate has closed so many marquee sales over the years she is practically a permanent resident in the upper reaches of our domain charts. With eBike.com, Buckley Media now has one of five biggest domain sales reported so far this year (we will be adding it to our YTD Top 100 Chart when do our next bi-weekly domain sales report July 7).

Ms. Buckley said, “eBike.com was created in 1998 and purchased by my client, Legendary Names, Inc., at auction in 2018. They approached Buckley Media after receiving several unsolicited offers to acquire the domain name. Legendary Names researched brokerages who were known for achieving legendary results with domain names and ultimately signed with Buckley Media."

A statement from Legendary Names said, "When our partner Reza Sardeha from DAN pointed us 

Kate Buckley
Founder & CEO, Buckley Media Group

to the opportunity of acquiring ebike.com in an expired domains auction, he stated: ‘that's a domain worth $400K sitting right there.’ And it would've indeed been a $400K sale if it wasn't for Kate's persistence and vision, chasing high-quality buyers and not letting the domain go for less than what it's truly worth: one million dollars. Well done, Kate!” The ROI Kate achieved on this sale is especially remarkable as Legendary paid just $71,938 to win the expired name auction for eBike.com at DropCatch in February 2018!

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Entrepreneur With the Best Startup Idea Will Win Big in Pitch.Tech Competition Backed By Radix and Startup Grind

With well over 1,000 new gTLDs now available it is very hard to stand out in the crowd. It takes a lot of marketing money, persistence and fresh ideas to break through the clutter. Radix has been one of the most consistently successful registry operators on that front and the Pitch.tech competition that is currently underway, is a great example of how they keep beating the odds. 

To help promote their .Tech TLD (one of nine Radix operates), they teamed up with the world's biggest startup community, Startup Grind, to create a "pitch competition" for idea-stage entrepreneurs that will give the winner $10,000 in equity-free funding and over $100,000 in startup benefits through Startup Grind. 

Every competitor submitted their pitch on a video, with each video then hosted on a pitch.tech subdomain - for example, the link to Arbol's 3-minute pitch for their idea (a platform that enables low income students to get financial support from online sponsors) 

is www.arbol.pitch.tech. Startup Grind members in over 600 local chapters in more than 125 countries around the globe view the pitches and vote for their favorites. Chapter level voting ends today (June 18, 2021) with the top vote getters moving on to the Chapter Finals next week. The winners from the Chapter Finals (to be announced June 28) then advance to Grand Finals voting June 29 - July 5 that will determine which entrepreneur has the best start up idea.

This is the kind of win-win initiative that helps everyone grow. .Tech gets more attention for their industry defining TLD, Startup Grind adds more members who can benefit from the boundless resources they offer startup entrepreneurs, and the competition's winners take home cash and valuable resources that will help turn their great idea into a reality. Everyone that entered also wins, gaining pitch experience and seeing techniques others used to move their ideas forward. 

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Veteran Domain Industry Exec Jebidiah Burnett Joins Above.com's New Managed Domain Portfolio Service

There is news on two fronts from Above.com today. On one hand, the company is announcing a new Above.com Managed Domain Portfolio Service that is designed to make it easier than ever for domain investors to maximize their domain traffic revenues. On the other, in a sign of the importance Above is placing on the new offering, they have brought veteran domain executive Jebidiah Burnett on board as the newest member of the company's management team. 

Many of our readers already know Jebidiah well. Over the past decade he has been a key player in domain brokerage and account management with several top registries and registrars including Enom, Donuts Inc. and GoDaddy. With the Above Managed Domain Portfolio Service  Burnett will use his expertise to connect top domain investors with increased revenue opportunities aimed at boosting their payouts. He will also help identify new growth opportunities for Above.com’s registrar and brokerage service.  

Jebidiah Burnett
Above.com
Managed Domain Portfolio Service

Warmuz added, “Since the soft launch of Above’s Managed Domain Portfolio Service, Above.com clients using this option have experienced initial revenue increases as high as 40% on top of continued month-over-month growth.”  Much of this revenue growth is attributed to traffic sold on Above.com’s Maximizer, which provides domain investors with an exclusive source of premium advertisers, performance marketers and established brands to bid on their domain traffic. These pre-screened advertisers come from Trellian Direct Search Network, which is Above.com’s own exclusive, premium ad network.

“So far, we are seeing high levels of interest for this service for a variety of reasons. Some clients would prefer to focus on selling domains, yet own traffic domains that could at least pay for themselves and then some if managed properly. Another example would be those who are running other businesses and just do not have the time to consistently make sure their domains are going to the highest paying monetization channels.”

For more information on the Above Managed Portfolio Service, David passed the baton back to Jebidiah who will be the point man in providing a full overview of the service and a review of your portfolio. You can email him [email protected].  

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Brannans.com Books $1.25 Million Sale of Meme.com in One of Year's Biggest Sales to Date

The Meme.com domain name has  been sold in a private, confidential transaction for $1,250,000. Brannans.com represented the seller under an exclusive agreement and partnered with buyer representative Dotkeeper and Escrow.com to facilitate the transaction that closed in May.

Brannans CEO David Clements said, "I congratulate both the buyer and seller. The seller had the foresight to maintain the domain asset and trusted the process — allowing us time to find the right buyer at the right time. The business that acquired 

Meme.com now has a powerful, brandable domain to drive their business forward. We could not be happier for everyone involved.”  The Meme.com sale is the latest example of how valuable top tier domain names are as business assets in our  digital age, serving as both virtual real estate and corporate brand. The Meme.com domain has been registered and in use by the original registrant since 1996.

This is the fourth verified seven-figure sale reported so far this year. We will be adding it to our YTD Top 100 Sales Chart and our bi-weekly Top 20 Sales Chart when our next domain sales report comes out June 23.  

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ROTD Will Run a Unique Domain Liquidation Auction With Bidding to Start at $2.5 Million

Update: By court order this auction has been rescheduled for Wednesday, June 16 at 1pm US Eastern time.

RightOfTheDot (ROTD) will be conducting a a unique online auction on Thursday (June 10, 2021) at 1PM U.S. Eastern Daylight Time - a court ordered liquidation of The Income Store. Over 3,000 domain names (including more than 200 revenue generating websites), intellectual property, computers and office equipment will be offered as a single lot with bidding to start at $2,500,000.

The Income Store was a business that purchased and built revenue-generating websites for investors. The company made the Inc Magazine Top 5000 in 6 out of 7 years before the roof caved in on them. They were charged with paying older investors with funds derived from new investors, a tactic that caught the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who then forced the company into receivership.

Interested parties will be required to sign a non-disclosure and non-affiliation agreement to participate in the auction. Bidders will also have to make a $50,000 deposit that will be held in escrow and refunded unless the bidder is the winning bidder. Once approved, bidders will be given access to the complete list of domain names, websites and other financial and intellectual property information included in the auction sale. Additional information can be found at http://www.incomestorereceivership.com/. 

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.COM Registrations Grew 5% in the Past Year But Verisign Reports Total Regs Down Due to New gTLD Slide

Verisign (the administrator of the .com and .net TLDs) has released their latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief covering the 1st quarter of 2021. The quarter ended with 363.5 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs) worldwide, a slight decrease of less than 1% from both the previous quarter and the same point one year ago when then total was 366.8 million.

All of the decline in total registrations came from non .com categories, especially new gTLDs. That category plummeted over 29% year over year, losing 9.5 million registrations to land at 22.8 million at the end of 1Q-2021. That number is also a 12% drop from the previous quarter. 

ccTLDs also slipped but much less precipitously. Total country code TLD registrations edged down less than 1% (0.6% to be exact) to 156.5 million from the same point a year ago. They were off 1.5% from the previous quarter.

In contrast, the .coms continued to grow despite competition from hundreds of other TLDs. At the end of 1Q-2021 there were 154.6 million .coms registered, a healthy 5% increase from the 147.3 million registered at the same point last year. The .coms added 2.8 million domains in the most recent quarter, a 1.8% rise from the end of 4Q-2020. Meanwhile, Verisign's .net has remained unchanged with approximately 13.4 million registrations on the books, the same number we saw at the end of the last quarter as well as year over year.

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