Mike Mann: Risk, Relentlessness, and the Long Game of .COM
Few figures have left a mark on the domain name industry as deep and as enduring as Mike Mann. His story is often told as a classic tale of improbable success: expelled from school, forced out of his home by the age of fifteen, and written off early as “practically the least likely to succeed.” Yet that difficult beginning became the forge in which Mann’s entrepreneurial temperament was formed. Decades later, he stands as one of the most influential domain investors in the world, having built,
scaled, and sold a long series of companies at the intersection of technology, data, and digital assets.
For many, Mann is synonymous with DomainMarket.com, a platform that has supplied premium domain names to companies across virtually every sector of the global economy. But his career reaches far beyond domaining alone. From developing early internet service businesses to building operating companies such as SEO.com and Phone.com, Mann has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to spot value ahead of the curve and to turn abstract digital property into scalable, revenue-
generating enterprises.
In an industry often split between speculation and development, Mann has comfortably inhabited both worlds. He has bought and sold domains by the hundreds of thousands, while selectively transforming a small number of names into full-fledged businesses with staff, infrastructure, and exit strategies. At the same time, he has remained outspoken about what he sees as the enduring fundamentals of the market, consistently arguing that the very best .com domains represent a unique “flight to quality” that newer extensions and experimental models have yet to match.
The Interview: “The best .Com is the only good long term bet.”
Question: Mike, thanks for joining us. It’s wonderful having you here today. Let’s start from the beginning – your beginnings. What a remarkable success story you have! I read somewhere that you once said that you were “practically the least likely to succeed” after being kicked out of school and home by 15. And yet, you went on to build and sell multiple companies, becoming one of the most successful figures in the domain industry. I wonder, like I guess many of our readers are: Looking back, how did those early struggles shape your appetite for risk and your approach to entrepreneurship?
Answer: I sold a small internet services company that I owned and was left with some great domains I had once used to try to attract customers. One of them was Menus(.com) which I sold for $25K. At that point I was hooked on the profit margin and digital nature of this business. I directed my associate on how to create software to optimize the domain speculation business, and then ended up buying and selling a huge number of domains as a result. We also patented the technology Whoisplus/NameFind.
(Q) One of your standout successes has been DomainMarket.com, which has supplied premium names to companies across industries. That growth didn’t happen overnight. Can you walk us through what you consider the key turning points in building DomainMarket into a powerhouse?
(A) It is mostly about the people I have hired to create unique software and data experiences and related user interfaces that we can leverage to speculate on domain names. And the incredible customer service and sales people that work with me. With that help I stay focused on studying large number of domains for purchase and sale; appraising each one and comparing it to the costs, and negotiating when necessary. Trying to always scale and accomplish more. I have built many companies and the end goal is to always sell them. https://www.mikemann.com/successes
(Q) The domain industry has evolved dramatically: new extensions, shifting search engine rules, and different valuation models. Some still insist .com is king, while others are betting on a more fragmented future. How do you see the next 5–10 years playing out for premium domains?
(A) The best .Com is the only good long term bet. The others have 1500 competitors so far, so no matter how good a few seem to be at the moment they have limited long term speculative value. They are too risky. .Com is the flight to quality that the others can never match. The best .Com have gone up in value every year for 25 years and will continue to do so. All of the best and smartest CEOs and marketing people use .Com (Ed. note: here you can find the Top 5 .COM Sales of Q2 2025).
“.Com is the flight to quality that the others can never match.”
(Q) Alongside your business ventures, you’ve invested heavily in philanthropy with projects like MakeChange. How do you balance that mission-driven work with the sharp business of domains and negotiations? Do you find that your charitable philosophy shapes how you approach deals?
(A) I just need to divide my time accordingly (not or sleep or party much). With charity and business, you need to be disciplined to not waste time or money or get scammed. Make sure you are following a rational scalable meaningful plan. And leveraging technology and great people to help.
(Q) We’re now seeing experiments that treat domains explicitly as financial assets. For example, Freename recently launched Domora, a “stock market of domains” where investors can hold and trade fractional ownership of premium names like stocks. What’s your take on this shift toward “domain finance”? Could fractionalized ownership be the next big thing for the domain industry?
(A) The jury is out. There are no case studies to support alternatives just yet. But I look forward to studying and experimenting.
(Q) Finally, if a young entrepreneur asked you how to get started in domains today, what would you tell them? What’s the single most important principle they should keep in mind to build something sustainable in such a competitive market?
(A) Only invest in the very best .com domains and make positive you are getting a low price so you can liquidate successfully if necessary and better yet make big profits and scale up [...].
(This is an excerpt from The Domain Standard. Download Issue #3 to read the full interview).
About the Author: Mike Mann (CEO of DomainMarket.com)
Mike is the founder of several successful, active, for-profit corporations. Three of these corporations were listed among the 2012 Inc 500 fastest-growing small companies in America : Phone.com, DomainMarket.com, and SEO.com.
Plus, he founded and operates AccurateAppraisals.com, as well as authored a book which can be found at MakeMillions.com. He also has a charitable fund, Make Change Trust! which you can read more about at MakeChange.com. His companies exchange resources, talent, and technologies in their never-ending quest to deliver innovative, profitable digital products and services. (Mike's website)