One of the most prestigious publications in the world, the Financial Times out of London just published a huge cover story on Frank Schilling
“Tucked inside a nondescript building on Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, a stone’s throw from the island’s largest and glitziest hotels, Frank Schilling’s home feels a bit like the Batcave. ”
“A lift leads to a large intercom-protected gate, which reveals a pair of oversized double doors that open into a huge marble-covered entrance passage.””
“We refer to it as ‘the house’ even though it’s technically a condo,” says Schilling, the owner of Uniregistry – a top-level web domain name registry – as we walk through an endless maze of rooms. “”
“A name that gets 20 visits today will get 18 tomorrow and 22 yesterday, but it will never get 300 unless something changes,” says Schilling.
“In technology circles, names are derided as overly simplistic. You’re just a speculator if you have names. There’s no technology there. After everything burns down though, the names still have value.”
“Only 1% the population owns a domain name – some own more than one. I have hundreds of thousands of domain names, and I’m one man. I’m betting that there might be interest for 2 or 3 per cent of people to have them. Somebody has to make those names for the residents of the future. There aren’t enough good ones in the spaces that are already held.”
Schilling likens the growth of the web domain industry to the westward expansion of settlers in the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“New York will still be there which is .com, .org, .net, and they’ll be worth more than ever, but somebody’s got to live in LA. Somebody has to live in Houston, Seattle, Portland and all these great cities in the west.”
He likes to compare domain names to electricity. “Everyone takes for granted that you put the prong in the wall and the current comes out, but somebody has to make that magic behind the curtain firing a turbine generation plant.” It seems Schilling is more than happy to be that man behind the curtain.
Great article, it is amazing how many of these early adopters came from one geographical area, why was Frank so eager to leave Vancouver, which is voted one of the top cities in the world?
Nice feature. I like the Cayman digs, especially the view & library. I didn’t know FS was a fellow American Film Institute grad. Heck, we probably missed being in the same class/program by a yr or 2. I may be moving from the Tropics to Vancouver — too much sailing, fishing, and tennis. I need to get the sun off my Irish fair skin.
Great piece. Loved the part about “his son and daughter, 8 and 9, and their adopted son Acro”
Shane – I’d be honored to have two great fathers. Thanks for the laugh.
Acro 🙂
And I was worried about Frank. I saw that he flew coach when he flew in to Namescon but after seeing his digs in the piece I feel better. Also excited about the two guestrooms as Acro and I can visit at the same time
Hello MHB,
This is a great article on its face. The real face behind Franks success is his vast .COM portfolio that he has leveraged in his benefit to sell his current manifesto. The smart money knows the fastest way forward, reverts back to the .COM channels superior market penetration dominance. Congratulations Frank !
Gratefully Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
@richard: do you really wonder why? its because canadians pay out the ass in taxes while there are none in the caymans. i’ve always looked up to frank but its pretty hard to emulate his success in this day and age.
I like Frank analogies.
In the late 90’s I likened .com to 800 numbers with 888, 877, 866 whatever as a very very distant also ran like .net and ,org – practically worthless.
Today I call comcast business using a 877 – and have no problem with it.
Point being Frank and a few other are way ahead of a curve they will make a bunch of dough at – it is just not for me.
its a no-brainer that regardless if gtlds take off or not, the registries will make a lot of money. anyone with access to the kind of money required to start one, should of. its like printing money. even running failed gtlds lke biz and mobi are good money makers for the registry.
Everyone knows the money is in gaming the auction for the GTLD’s, all you had to do was go after the big keywords, and step aside. Why is it when domains go into a GTLD auction, the losing parties do not get to split the proceeds?
Great PR for the industry from the very best domain business ambassador.