It has been a long standing joke that a lot of top domainers have come from BC, Canada. And in particular, the Vancouver area.
Yun Ye acquired the bulk of his domain portfolio while living in Vancouver. His portfolio eventually sold to Marchex in a low 9 figure deal. Today, Marchex is worth only somewhat more than double what they paid for Ye's portfolio (which might make them a good buy). But that's another topic.
Frank Schilling lives in the Caymans now, but got started in domaining while living in Vancouver.
Kevin Ham, who was profiled in Business 2.0 magazine as the man who owns the Internet, also lives in Vancouver. He might be the most successful domainer ever.
In the Okanagan area of BC is another top domainer who keeps a fairly low profile, but owns many great names and also mentored Frank Schilling early in his domaining career. Too bad we haven't seen a profile on this person yet, maybe DNJournal will get his story one day.
Now, in an article that might explain this, BC Business magazine suggests that the climate of Vancouver has something to do with higher creativity and entrepreneurship.
"There are creative and smart business people in every region of Canada. But after working on three national business programs, I have to say, there must be something in the air in B.C. And if someone could figure out how to bottle and export that, the entire country would be Lotusland."
Link to article:
http://bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/business-sense/2008/02/01/something-air
I think it has something to do with the rich diversity of people, geography, culture and communities in BC. When you live in an area that is a melting pot of culture you tend to be able to look outside your own box more readily which allows you to be more open to revolutionary and disruptive opportunities.
ReplyDeleteI felt so strongly that this was the case that I registered BCdomainmasters.com when I first got into domaining. I always have wanted to find a way to pay tribute to some of the founders of the industry. I have been so busy following their lead that it remains undeveloped while I snap up more real estate...