WEBVTT - Bob Parsons 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.880 And so the next day we told all the troops 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.440 we're going to name the company GoDaddy dot com. And 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:09.520 they go, that's a terrible dame. Why would you ever 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.159 name a company that you know, we hate it? You 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.720 know so well, the deal was, we never found the 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:19.480 better name, and it's stuck. Yeah, And that was the 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:30.360 extent of my market research. Hi, my name is Bob Parsons, 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.559 and I'm here to tell you I'm the CEO of 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.599 PxC dot com and I want to remind you that 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:40.680 PxC nobody makes golf clubs the way we do. Harrian. 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.680 Hi everybody, and welcome to your favorite podcast and mine, 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.520 Off the Beat. This is your host, Brian Baumgartner. Today 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.400 we're gonna go way off the beat. Even for Off 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:04.959 the Beat, We're going off the beat outside of our 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:09.160 usual wheelhouse of factors and athletes. Today I am speaking 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:13.480 to an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and well, my good buddy, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.559 Bob Parsons. If you don't know Bob, Bob is many 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:22.160 many things. He's a great golfer, a decorated Vietnam veteran, 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:27.520 a motorcycle daddy, and yes he is a psychedelic crusader. 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:30.520 Oh and by the way, the founder of some little 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.440 companies you may have heard of, like Go Daddy and 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:40.280 p XG. Now Bob is well, Bob is literally one 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:45.160 in a billion because he's he's the first billionaire that 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:49.000 we've had here on the podcast. Not not that anyone's counting, 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.920 because I don't I don't think I could count that high. Yes, 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.240 you're gonna love Bob. He's a riot, he is sharp 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:58.840 as attack, and I think this conversation is going to 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.440 be in the wild sixths sas category with maybe just 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.600 a hint of trouble. But just in case, buckle up. 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:18.680 Everybody here is Bob Parsons. Bubble and Squeak. I love 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:20.360 it Bubble and Squeak. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:20.680 I know. 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:23.840 Bubble and Squeak. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:28.280 I cook it every month, left over from the ninety before. 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.240 Hi, Bob, how are you doing there? Buddy? All right? 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.120 How are you good? Good? I'm you know, I've been 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:46.680 getting ready for this podcast. 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.520 Have you have you done so much work? 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.560 Well? No, no, I haven't done any fucking work. But 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:56.040 what I've what I've done is I've drank some rum okay, 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.400 and I had some potato chips. And that gives me 0:02:58.520 --> 0:02:59.560 the voice of an angel. 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.040 You're You're like me, Bob. You and I both we 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:10.079 have the voice of an angel. How how have you been? 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:10.839 Are you doing well? 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:13.320 Bryan? If I was any better, i'd be you baby. 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:15.840 Yeah, that's about right. That's kind of what I think 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.560 about when I think about you, just almost like me. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.000 There you go, there you go. 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.280 I actually did do some work in preparing for this 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.280 podcast on you. I want to talk a little bit 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:32.639 about your growing up. You have said over time that 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.520 you grew up your parents were gamblers. Is that right? 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:38.840 Yeah? They were, and they weren't very good. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:44.200 At what what What kind of impact did that have 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:46.480 on you? Were you aware at the time that they 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:48.200 were gambling and not very good at it? 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.440 Oh? Yeah, yeah I was. I was, well, you know, 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.440 at the time, I wasn't really aware of how very 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.240 bad at it they were, but you know, I knew 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.400 that knew they were gamblers. Uh Like you know, my mother, 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:04.280 for example, I learned how to read fraction. I learned 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.320 how to you know, learned about fractions from her teaching 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:11.440 me how to read the racing form, you know, And 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.200 I remember, as clear as it was yesterday, her showing 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:20.000 me that eighth is really a bigger number than the sixteenth. 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.040 Right, right, that's true. Do you think that that in 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.919 any way later in life is what helped your decision 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.760 to get into accounting and finance. Is there a correlation? 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:33.800 You know? 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.000 I you know, I would like to say there was, 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.440 but there wasn't. I mean, the way I got to 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.600 be into accounting was I got to go to the 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:49.600 University of Baltimore by a program they offered to veterans. 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:52.760 Now keep in mind, I failed the fifth grade and 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.960 I wasn't much better any other year. You know. The 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.800 only reason I graduated high schools because I joined the 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.000 Marine Corps was going to Vietnam, and my teachers took 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.960 pity on me. Right, So, I mean, my grades were 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.799 nothing to really write home about. So I was working 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:10.960 as a laborer at a steel mill, and I've seen 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:15.400 this at the University of Baltimore did for veterans. They said, look, you, 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.360 you know, as long as you've graduated or have a 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.080 GED and if you don't have a g D, we'll 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:25.640 help you get one. Right, you know, you know that's 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:28.160 all you need. Your grades don't matter, you don't have 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.920 to take any entrance exams, and you go on to 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.000 GI Bill Well to me, that's what I did. So 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:36.480 I went over. I went over there and I went 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.719 into the registrar's office and said, you know, I want 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:40.560 to go to college, and he goes, well, what do 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.040 you want to major in? And I didn't even know 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:44.920 you needed a major to go to Nobody in my 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:46.800 family ever went to college. I just thought you went 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.880 to college, right, So I then went He says, you 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.080 go see his counselor. While I went to see this guy, 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:55.520 and there was a line down the hall, ran another 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.200 hall around. If i'd have waited for this guy still 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.320 be waiting to see him, right. So I went back 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:03.680 and I said, I said to the guy at a registrar, 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.159 I said, anyway, I can pick my major, and goes sure, 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.840 here's a book of majors. I opened it up. First 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.800 major in the book was accounting, and I asked him 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.800 I said, uh, what is this? And he goes, what's 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.080 the county? He goes, well, are you good at Are 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.800 you good at math? I said yeah, reasonably, I guess, 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.520 goes anything and he goes, I have you interested in 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.320 a business? Said I am, and he goes, well, probably 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:34.040 should take accounting. So I did, and luckily it was 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.000 a fortuitous choice because I loved it, right, and and 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:41.680 I graduated Magna cumb claude with a degree in accounting. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.280 Yeah, so let me ask you, so, why do you 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.200 think that you were such a bad Was it? Was 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:50.360 it about applying yourself? 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:50.520 Like? 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:52.840 Why were you such a bad student? Almost failed the 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.520 fifth grade, barely graduate from high school? And then you 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:01.080 know you suddenly you're Magna cumbloude from UNI of Baltimore 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.000 in accounting, Like what what was that? What was the change? 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.160 Well, a couple of things. First of all, you know, 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.960 if I was a kid in school today, I'd be 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.160 pumped full riddling. That's first thing. Right. They used to 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.239 give me these yellow it's yellow number two Taykonda Rogan 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.120 pencils and I would chew them down, baby, inside an hour. 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:23.960 And then I have yellow paint all over my face. 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:29.720 I look like a rapid little beast, you know. And 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.680 then and then that stuff at home, things were like nuts. 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.160 So you know, it didn't make for me really focusing 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.400 on school. So I mean I just I managed to 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.960 squeak by. Now the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps focused 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:44.680 me and made all the difference. 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.280 Yeah, that's why I graduated and if you can't, you 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.360 can't see Bob right now, but he's wearing a shirt 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.400 on right now. This says US Marines attitude is everything. 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:59.080 I know. You're great love for the people, both passed 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.640 in service and and current service members. Your decision to 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.960 join was this because you didn't know what else to do? 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.880 Or did you have a particular passion and knew you 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:12.720 wanted to pursue that? In high school? 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:15.680 Very few things have I done because I have a 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.480 particular passion. I'll tell you that right now. I mean, 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:25.360 I've developed that after the fact. But in my senior 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:31.440 year I was I discovered alcohol and the opposite sex, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.760 and you know that really doesn't make you know, that 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.599 doesn't really get you ready for the teens list. So 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.920 so I was not doing well and I didn't think 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.360 I would even have enough grades to graduate. So I 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.760 had two guys come to me after gym class one 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:50.400 day and they asked me to say, what do you know, 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:52.680 what are you going to do after you graduate? I said, 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.200 I'll probably still be here, and I'll still be here. 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:58.320 I don't think I want to graduate, yea, So they said, 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:00.319 why don't you you want to go with us? We're 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.800 going to go talk to the Marine Corps recruiter. All 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.160 three of us wound up joining And now this is 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:11.640 in nineteen sixty eight, and in nineteen sixty eight, and 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.880 then in nineteen sixty nine. I'll give you by comparison 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:20.400 to war in Afghanistan, the casualty rate there one hundred 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:24.320 and fifty a week, both sides killed them wounded. All right, 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:26.719 one is too many. I'll tell you that right now. 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.000 When I listed in the Marine Corps, that number was 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:35.559 thirty two thousand, seven hundred a week. Yeah, so you know, 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.439 we didn't know. We didn't know that we were off 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.679 to have an adventure see foreign lands. So anyhow, when 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.959 I went ahead and managed to get accepted into the 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.200 Marine Corps, I showed my teachers my orders a report 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.760 to boot camp that August, and they all passed me. 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.319 Yeah, that's a lot of extra credit. 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:00.480 You know. 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:02.400 We used to get extra credit for I don't know, 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.320 reading a book or something. You got extra credit by 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:10.720 joining the Marine Corps. Wounded in Action while serving in Vietnam. 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:16.880 Recipient of the Combat Action Ribbon, Vietnam Gallantry Cross and 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.319 the Purple Heart. Is this the hardest thing you ever did? 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:26.120 You know, and in many respects I would say, yeah, yeah, 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:30.880 I mean it is. You know, being in in combat 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:37.600 is is very painful. The stuff you have to carry 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:43.000 is you know, very awkward and very heavy, which translates 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:48.600 to pain, and you get very little sleep to no sleep. 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:51.920 I mean, it's just I mean it is. It is 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.959 every aspect of it's uncomfortable. I remember laying in those 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.760 rice patties at night with mosquitoes even as fite, even 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.280 though we you know, we had repellent chewing the shit 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:04.920 out of me. And then it's grizzly. I mean it is. 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:10.280 It is grizzly, beyond your imagination. So it is not 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:14.280 a happy thing, that's for damn sure. But that's being 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:14.840 in combat. 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:18.319 Is it the thing that you're most proud of in 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:18.800 your life? 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:21.160 Yeah? I think so, I think so. 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:27.800 Yeah, you you come back. You were injured in action? Now, 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.160 is that is that why you left? 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.920 No? No, no, actually actually actually in the Army Navian 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.920 Air Force, if you were wounded you could opt out 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:41.440 of combat in the Marine Corps three times. Of course. 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.800 It is a fucking course, it is, of course, you know, 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.439 you know, the Army Davian Air Force, our tour was 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:50.280 twelve months Marine Corps thirteen months. Ow fucking course, it 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:56.480 is right, oh Jesus Christ. So so any anyhow, I 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:00.839 I I what happened with me? Where I was walking 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:04.680 on a point team one night and I was walking 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.880 second to the point man, a real high stepping guy. 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:10.880 He stepped over a tripwire. I mean he didn't see it. 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.959 It was pitch dark. He was just lucky. Well, I'm 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.640 not that high stepper. I hit the trip wire was 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:21.160 attached to a North Vietnamese hand grenade, which is best 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.079 I can determine. That thing blew and I mean it 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.959 tore up my legs and my left EBow, but it 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.959 wasn't a life threatening wound. So I was in the 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:35.440 hospital in Japan, was there recuperating for a couple of months. 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:38.960 And then when I healed up, when I was close 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.240 to healing up, I got orders back to the bush. 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:47.199 Baby God, yeah, my god. So on my way back 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.959 through a crazy series of events, get ready for this, 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.040 get ready for this, yere put the sea pelowin. 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:54.520 All right. 0:12:55.520 --> 0:13:00.720 I wound up in Marine Corps intelligence because my grades 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:02.640 and so forth, I was exactly the kind of guy 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:12.800 that was wow, and I was stationed on Okinawa and 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.680 and and what happened was I ran into a guy 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.840 on my last night there. Who I saved this guy's 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:24.199 life the first night in the bush helicopter with a 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:29.400 he was he was stunned from this guy being injured. 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.160 I mean, and and a matter of fact, chopper was 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.520 going to land on him. I've seen it. I ran push, push, 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.559 push push the chopper missus boats. We tripped over a 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.199 rice patty dyke in to that ship. But I saved 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:46.880 his ass and mine too, right. So uh, he was 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.679 wounded a couple of weeks later, and that was his 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:55.880 third wound. So he was stationed in intelligence and in Okinawa. 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.439 And I ran into him and he said, you know, 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.480 you saved my life. I get your station here, And 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.960 I said, yeah, okay, you know you hear so much 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.520 bullshit in the military. Right, So when I fell out 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:11.520 from my flight to Vietnam to go back to the 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.600 rightful company, I had order of station to meet Aaron 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.160 and okaw, we got it done. So, I mean, that's 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:22.400 how that happened. It was just the right time, baby. 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:24.280 Be in the right right place at the right time. 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.120 How how many years did you serve two well two. 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:32.440 Right you left. You talked about going to the University 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.560 of Baltimore and finding something that you were really good 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:41.120 in numbers and accounting and business. Your first business was 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.920 selling a home accounting program, money Counts. Now this is 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.000 before there were computers at home. 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.520 Well this is this is right at the beginning of 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:53.280 it up. 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.480 Beginning of home computers. Did you use a computer with it? Yeah, 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:58.160 of course I did. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.560 Of course I did. You know what I did? Was 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:06.320 I developed when I was in It was nineteen seventy five. 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:11.360 Keep in mindy IBM computer wasn't released until nineteen. 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.800 Eighty, right, That's what I was thinking. So I was. 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.400 I was working in accounting for this leasing company, Commercial 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:23.040 Credit Leasing, and they would send me different places to 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.840 just schedule the asset cities leasing companies they wanted to buy. 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:32.440 So they sent me to Redwood City, California and company 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.400 that did exotic cars. I scheduled it, and when I 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.440 was done, I had twelve hours left to kill between 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:43.000 when my flight was and the current time. So I 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:47.400 wound up on Stanford campus and I was like bookstores. 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.760 I went to a bookstore and I bought a book 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:54.600 on programming in the Basic computer language. And I started 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.360 reading it while I was waiting for the flight, and 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.600 read all the salient points, and I wrote my first 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:05.320 computer program, won a flight. And it just so happened 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:10.600 that in my office we were owned by a company 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.360 called Control Data, which was one of the first computer companies, okay, 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.360 and we had a terminal, a dumb terminal looked like 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.920 a teletype machine. There weren't even monitors then, and it 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:25.120 happened to run this basic computer language. And so I 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.800 finally got my program running. And then I started doing 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.560 that programming all the time if I could to make 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:38.120 my job easier. And when Apple two E was out 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:42.960 two C was out, bought one of those. And then 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.840 I bought an IBM PC, and unlike a lot of people, 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.280 if I wanted it to do something, I wrote the 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.800 code and I also studied the internals, and I got 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.200 to be really good at it. And so when I 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:01.400 wrote a home computer program, and in nineteen eighty four, 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:05.040 I decided to try selling it. That's the genesis of that. 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:10.720 Wow, that's unbelievable, Bob. Did you get any Did you 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.119 have any in the military. You didn't. There was no 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.159 math or finance anything that you got there, right, this 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.440 was all the University of Baltimore and your own big brain. 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.359 Yeah exactly. I mean in the military, I mean, you know, 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:25.600 in the Marine Corps. I'm pretty much surprised they weren't 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:33.840 using stone tablets. So what I got out it was 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:34.920 all manual. Baby. 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:42.640 Yeh, that's incredible. You sold Parsons technology to into it. Well, 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.399 first off, do you think it was the idea that 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:50.159 you had fulfilling a specific need or the way that 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.440 your programs operated that made you such a big success 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.159 growing it from really a small business into this multimillion 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:57.800 dollar company. 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.080 Well, you know, it was first of all, you know, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:04.960 I wasn't even thinking about filling a need. I was 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.520 thinking about feeling a need for me for keep track 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.160 of my own finances. Okay, So that's how I wrote 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.320 that program called Money Counts. And it got to be 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.399 good because it was the only double entry system. Everything 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.400 else was single entry and you know, a little half 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.640 assed and so forth back at that time, and so anyhow, 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.159 so you know, first of all, it was it was 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:30.080 pretty good. It took me three years to learn how 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.320 to sell it, a lot of false starts, but I 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.520 put a total of forty thousand dollars into business, and 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:40.840 I wound up selling it for sixty four million. 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.480 Yeah, that's that's a pretty good return on that investment. 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:49.760 What's what's harder, bob making the product or getting people 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:50.240 to buy it? 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.200 I would say both. It's like it's like the angeline 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:58.280 in the gasoline. You know what's more important? 0:18:59.280 --> 0:18:59.399 Right? 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:02.720 Well, I mean, you know today it would be the 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.159 engine or the electric assuming they ever fucking sell one 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:08.720 in them. Right. 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:29.600 You retired a few for a few years after that 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:33.840 sixty four million dollar sale? Why why not stay retired? 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:39.120 Well? First, you know, I like you. I like golf. Okay, Right, 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:44.200 So I had a year where I couldn't Yeah, better, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.719 maybe a little more than a year, but I had 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.119 a year where I couldn't do anything. And I mean, 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:54.239 this agreement not to compete was I couldn't do anything, right, 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.560 shine a pair of shoes, and you know they had 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:58.920 a whole back, I'd forfeit it and so forth. It 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:03.120 was stupid. So so any anyhow, so what I did 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.800 was I started playing golf, and I moved to Arizona, 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.200 and I was and you know, if you're playing every day, 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:12.560 you know the only guys you're going to play with. 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:17.439 Are the guys that are retired, right, I mean long retired, right, 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.640 And so I mean I'm like at the time, I'm 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.639 forty five years old and I'm playing with all these 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.440 old men every day. And see, Brian, I got to 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.840 learn certain things about him. There's a when when a 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:35.240 guy reaches a certain age, right, he's like a super senior. 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.880 He starts dressing in strange ways. You know, they look 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.720 like they look like they look like flags from other countries. 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:49.000 It's like, what the fuck? You know, for Christmas, I'm 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:54.280 going to get you a mirror. But that's but that's 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:59.040 what they do, right, So uh, I you know, I 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:04.040 and at night, I wanted to be back in the game, right, 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.240 So that that's why I came out of retirement. 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:11.080 You come out of retirement and you you started this 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:16.200 little business called go Daddy. I read that you wanted 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:21.080 to call it Big Daddy. A warning to listeners out there, 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.760 don't go to big daddy dot com. That's very, very 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.480 different than go Daddy. It was formerly known as Joe 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:33.760 Macs Industries. You do domain web hosting became the largest 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:37.600 in the world. What was it about this company? What 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.159 what did you see before anybody else saw it. 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:42.680 Well, well here's here's you what I did. You know, 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:45.720 when when I first started, I had I had a 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:46.280 lot of money. 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:46.600 I had. 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:50.200 I had like thirty six million dollars and I thought, well, 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:52.879 you know what, I know the Internet is going to 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:55.200 be the thing, so I need to find a way 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.359 to turn a buck on the internet. So so what 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:02.600 I did. I hired a number of very intelligent people 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.480 and we tried a bunch of different things, and what 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:09.159 the idea was, if it didn't work, we quit doing it, 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.760 and if it did, then we keep doing it. That's 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:17.119 called a search fund. Very difficult way to make money. So, 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.280 I mean, we did a number of things. None of 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:23.480 them worked, but the only thing that gained traction was 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:29.160 we were doing websites for people and that worked. I mean, 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:33.200 that made money. So we had a number of people 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:35.640 ask us, do you have a product that I could 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:38.240 use where I could do my own website, And that 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.440 was the idea that came up with the genesis of 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:45.880 our product, website complete so people would do their own website. 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.800 Passed nineteen dollars and you know that sort of thing. Well, 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.359 the problem was, it was a couple of problems The 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:56.760 first problem was there was so much noise from the 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:01.240 dot com boom that people didn't see us right and 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.960 and and the second the second thing was the name 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:09.879 Joe Max Technology. This kind of was very forgettable. So 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:13.680 me and my right hand person, a lady by the 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:17.399 name of Barbara Rectorman, we went to work and to 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:20.399 come up with a new name. And so after about 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:23.920 three days and nights, one of us says, how about 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:29.439 big Daddy taken? How about fat Daddy taken? And then 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:33.080 I remember to go command from AOL used to be 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:36.080 and type go disc go that, and I typed in 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:41.960 go Daddy available. So Brian, we bought it as a joke. 0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:46.000 And and so the next day we told all the 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:49.840 troops We're going to name the company GoDaddy dot com. 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:53.160 And they go, that's a terrible fucking name. Why would 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:55.840 you ever name a company that you know? We hate it? 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:59.600 You know? So well, the deal was, we never found 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:01.240 the better name, and it's stuck. 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:02.080 It stuck. 0:24:02.760 --> 0:24:04.920 Yeah, And that was the extent of my market research. 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:08.399 The name cost me nine bucks. 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:12.159 That's smart though I never thought. I never put that 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.360 connection together because it was with the with the old AOL, 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:19.240 which of course everybody had, and you know, initially, I 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:23.320 mean that was my first email account and access to 0:24:23.400 --> 0:24:27.320 the internet, of course was AOL that's very very smart. 0:24:28.720 --> 0:24:33.000