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My domain industry-sponsored Pan Mass Challenge kit arrived a couple of days ago, and I took it for a short spin yesterday evening. I think it looks great, and it raised quite a bit of money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Thank you again to all of the companies (listed below) whose logos are featured on the jersey and shorts.

Domain industry attorney John Berryhill let me know me is now able to ride in this year’s PMC. John is getting a bit of a late start on fundraising, but I bet he will hit his $8,500 fundraising goal.

John and I will both wear our industry sponsored jersey and shorts as we train for August’s ride, and we will also wear them on the ride.

2023  domain industry PMC kit sponsors (in ABC order):

• Above.com
• Afterthought.com
• Alan Dunn
• Bitcasino.io
• Bobbleheads.com
• Buckley Media
• Digimedia
• DropCatch.com
• Embrace.com
• Evergreen.com
• GoDaddy
• Hilco Digital Assets
• IT.com
• Media Options 
• Odys Global
• Paradise.com 
• Premium Traffic Ltd.
• Rank Theory 
• Sportsbet.io
• Telepathy
• XYZ Registry

I’ve read quite a bit about Squadhelp and its domain name marketplace. I like what I can see they are doing, and I enjoy reading the insights shared on Twitter by CEO Darpan Munjal. I also trust Hilco Digital’s Andrew Miller, and if his company is backing Squadhelp, I like their chances of continued growth.

In particular, I like that the Squadhelp target audience seems to be people and businesses looking for a brand name rather than people who are simply looking for a domain name. Domain registrars and domain sales platforms compete for customers searching for domain names, and I like that Squadhelp seems to primarily target people who are seeking out a brand identity – and a domain name is a big part of that.

If you’re a SEO/SEM expert with some domain industry experience, Name.com just posted a job opening on LinkedIn that may be appealing to you. Name.com is looking to hire a Growth Marketing Strategist, Digital Acquisition (SEO/SEM). This is a hybrid work opportunity at the Denver, Colorado-based company owned by Identity Digital.

Here’s an excerpt about the opening with details about what the person hired for this role will do:

The domain investment community is relatively small and most of the main participants know each other. There’s a collegial feel among many of us who have known each other for years. Mike Sullivan posted a tweet last week about competition amongst domain investors:

You aren’t in competition with other domainers. Consider yourself part of a team that can help and support each other.

— Mike Sullivan (@Sullys_Blog) May 20, 2022

I wholeheartedly disagree with Mike’s tweet (in a friendly way).

TechCrunch reported on the $95 million Series A funding round of a company called Finally. Originally, the company was known as Back Office, and it used the BackOffice.CO domain name for its business. Along with the rebrand to Finally, the company is using Finally.com for its website.

It is unclear to me when Finally.com was acquired by the company that is using it. At the moment, Finally.com is registered under Whois privacy at GoDaddy.

Paul Nicks, who has been a Vice President and GM of the Aftermarket at GoDaddy has been promoted. His new position is President of the Domain division at the publicly traded company. He will still oversee the groups that matter most to domain investors. It is unclear to me who has taken his role at the company.

Paul has been one of the main point people for all things impacting domain investors at GoDaddy. He has also been an advocate within the company for domain investors.

One noticeable change is Paul’s appearance on the GoDaddy corporate leadership page on the GoDaddy website.

Congratulations to Paul on the well-deserved promotion.