This morning’s NamesCon sponsor spotlight is on Uniregistry. Vern Jurovich, Chief Operating Officer at Uniregistry, answered some questions about the company and the upcoming NamesCon domain industry conference.
NamesCon 2016 will take place at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas from January 10-13, 2016. Over 800 attendees have registered to attend, and 1,000 attendees are expected.
If you have any questions about Uniregistry, you are welcome to leave them for Vern in the comment section.
What is your company’s mandate, what sets you apart?
To help build the internet of tomorrow by providing new name endings, an intuitively simple way for people to sell their unused names, and the best tools for domain management in the simplest form. We provide delightful infrastructure, with no upsells and no noise.
Who benefits from your product or service?
Individuals and companies who are looking to buy unregistered and premium domain names for business and personal projects. Novices who find names confusing. People who are new to naming. Anyone in charge of managing domain names and selling surplus domain names.
What factors have contributed to your company’s growth and success?
A desire and passion to build a domain registrar, a brokerage, and a registry, in the simplest form possible. All of our products were built for registrants by registrants who thought there was a better way.
What’s the story behind how your company was founded?
Our founder Frank Schilling started with one domain name and parlayed that single registration into a naming empire. Frank looked at the landscape of tools available for registration and management of domain names. He kept waiting for large companies to come and innovate in the space, and when nobody came he decided to create the team to do it himself. The adventure, the passion, and the journey to creating a registry is the stuff of reality TV. It has inspired unbridled devotion and Frank’s passion has inspired people inside the company to dream even bigger than he has. The product of that passion is today’s Uniregistry.
How would you define your company strategy and vision?
Tools that work, so you don’t have to. Creating simple tools that make everyone managing names an expert. Powerful elegant infrastructure that liberates domain name registrants from the status quo.
What major milestones has your company accomplished?
In less than 2 years, we have built an industry-leading registrar with over 1 million domains under management. We have launched 25 new name endings at our registry, and are near the completion of integrating our domain brokerage and escrow platform into our registrar. We plan to reach 10 million customers in 5 years.
How will your company engage attendees at the upcoming NamesCon?
Uniregistry is the Platinum sponsor at NamesCon 2016. You can find us on the exhibition floor in our corner booth and in our lounge. We’ll be hosting 4 days of workshops in the Uniregistry Market Room. We’re sponsoring and attending both the Women in Domaining dinner and the Waternight fundraiser, and hosting our own after-hours party at one of Vegas’ hottest clubs on Monday night. And then there are the speeches: Uniregistry’s CEO/Founder Frank Schilling will be giving a keynote speech on Monday and revealing the new Uniregistry Market to customers new and old, and both our VP of Sales for DomainNameSales (soon to be Uniregistry Market) Jeff Gabriel and our Director of Registry Business Operations Amanda Fessenden will both be presenting.
Can you tell us about your first time at NamesCon and what you got out of it?
The first NamesCon was like a breath of fresh air. It broke the shackles from the narrow cliquey east coast conferences that started it all. NamesCon brought something a domain conference hadn’t seen since the heyday of parking: real domainers. Other domain name conferences had exhibitors exhibiting to other exhibitors. NamesCon brought the entrepreneurs, the small and medium domainers, and gave them great value for little money. Frank Schilling wanted Uniregistry to be a big part of that dynamic and to help it grow.
What was one of the most memorable sessions or keynotes at a previous NamesCon?
Frank’s keynote where he usually kicks off with the exact same joke every year. The auction which brings back memories and a bidding pace not seen since the mid-2000’s
How has NamesCon helped your company achieve its goals?
It is the premier industry conference for everyone to come together to learn, grow, and innovate.
What are your thoughts on the new TLDs?
We are extremely bullish, based on nothing but real registration numbers and renewals. Uniregistry will become profitable on new name endings alone.
What are you most looking forward to at the upcoming conference?
Reconnecting with industry colleagues and customers, learning about amazing new services and products coming to market, the direction of the industry, and, of course, sharing our DNS migration into Uniregistry.
Where can attendees find out more about your company, product or services while at NamesCon?
You can find out more about Uniregistry and our services at our booth in the exhibition hall; in the Uniregistry Market Room which will have workshops Sunday through Wednesday on the best ways to use all of our products and services; and our Founder/CEO Frank Schilling will be giving a keynote speech on Monday with some great surprises and a very big surprise reveal. And both our VP of Sales for DomainNameSales (soon to be the Uniregistry Market) Jeff Gabriel and our Director of Registry Business Operations Amanda Fessenden will be presenting.
If you have a company representative speaking at NamesCon, is there anything you can share about what to expect during your session or keynote?
Founder/CEO Frank Schilling will be giving his keynote speech on Monday, and both Director of Registry Business Operations Amanda Fessenden and VP of Sales for DomainNameSales (soon to be Uniregistry Market) Jeff Gabriel will be presenting.
