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Epik Holdings, Inc., announced that it has hired Joseph Peterson as director of operations.
This is something that came as a pleasant surprise! Epik is a company that is truly investing in the domain name industry and hiring someone with the integrity and expertise of Joseph Peterson will help them grow even faster.
Congratulations to both Joseph Peterson and Epik!
Joseph Peterson will oversee process improvements, manage customer relations, coordinate outreach, advise the company and its clients on strategy, and pursue new development initiatives related to naming, online presence, and the domain market.
“What most impresses me about Epik is the team’s readiness to innovate,” said Peterson. “Here we have a global company with talent spanning Brazil, Europe, and North America; yet they’re surprisingly nimble. And while most of the domain industry is resting on its laurels, Epik management believes they have a mandate to reshape the entire field. And why not? It’s time. We have emerging markets to bring online, new domain use cases to explore, a longstanding consumer awareness gap to close, and a wealth of digital brands awaiting the right owner. There’s much to be done. I’m excited to work once more as part of a team – in particular, to explore new ways to pair names with projects, boost liquidity for domain investors, and broaden participation in the domain market overall. Epik and I were already traveling in the same direction. It just makes sense to get there together.”
Peterson comes to Epik with 6 years of professional experience in the domain industry, encompassing market analysis, branding consultancy, domain portfolio management, buyer-side brokerage, and software projects, in addition to prolific writing. Prior to discovering domain names, Peterson was a submarine officer in the U.S. Navy, serving for 8 years.
Commenting on this latest hire, Rob Monster said:
“I am beyond delighted to welcome Joseph into the fast-growing Epik team as Director of Operations. This appointment comes during a time of accelerating global growth. Long-time industry observers may recognize Joseph for his sharp intellect, keen wit, and strong opinions, mainly as a result of his work as blogger on Domain Name Wire and through prolific commentary across industry blogs. However, through personal discussion, I have also come to know Joseph as a visionary with a strategic mind, very high attention to detail, a prolific work ethic, and uncompromising personal and professional integrity. I look forward to partnering with Joseph to do amazing things.”
This announcement arrives on the heels of Epik’s latest acquisition, the marketplace and auction platform Undeveloped.com announced earlier this month. This was a 4 million Euro acquisition.
It was also recently reported that Epik CEO, Rob Monster, would also be spearheading a new domain-based project for cities called Smart Web in partnership with DigitalTown and operators of descriptive TLD registries.
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It has a locality feature to it, as I believe he was
Local to Seattle, lots of talent in that area, but with so many great tech companies hq there, so is completion, and new hn1 visa rules make it hard to get new talent.
Actually, I have been away from Seattle for a few years. In Portland then Santa Fe, for example. Just didn’t bother updating old profiles.
Epik is a lot less geographically confined than most companies. Internally, the team works closely with one another; but we’re spread all over the planet. Within the last hour, I’ve spoken to colleagues in Europe, Brazil, Russia, as well as various cities in the USA. Undeveloped is based in Amsterdam, for instance.
Wish you all the best… in your new endeavor Joseph..
Congrats, Joseph and Epik.
Congrats to Joseph and Rob!
Exciting times for everyone.
Good luck.
all I know is Uniregistry is toast. when will Michael Cyger take all his videos with the uniregistry mentions in them like he did with Adam Dicker. we shall see. …QUICK BREAK FROM OUR SPONSOR .. UNIREGISTRY WITH THEIR 3000% PRICE HIKES THE HIGHERST IN THE INDUSTRY REGISTRER YOUR NEW GTLD WITH THEM TODAY. THAT WOULD MAKE A GREAT AUDIO AD FOR HIS SHERPA SHOW I THINK.
LOL
@the Truth,
“Uniregistry is toast”
I wouldn’t go that far. Personally I chose not to do business with DomainNameSales (Uniregistry) years ago because, in my own case, management worked hard to lose my trust. The incident I’m alluding to is old news, and I won’t rehash it here. Mor recently, it’s true that – like most people – I’m frustrated and disappointed by the sudden extreme price hikes in Unregistry’s own nTLDs. That decision damaged those some promising domains, actually.
Uniregistry won’t vanish. And it’s a good thing to have more competition. Uniregistry has introduced some good features over the years. Doesn’t mean I’d ever do business with them again myself. But people aren’t wrong for choosing whatever registrar they like best. There are several good options apart from Uniregitry. GoDaddy is better in some respects.
Epik will do better with companies like Uniregistry, GoDaddy, to outperform. It’s not too hard to imagine better solutions than exist today. And I think Epik will bring some of those to market before other companies get out of the gate.
I’ll put it this way. When Adam Dicker squats on his toilet what comes out and drops to the bottom of the bowl is UNIREGISTRY. I think so.
Congrats Joseph! Never met him, but love his writing and comments. Also, is Joseph Peterson the guy who Andrew Rossner threatened?
Yes, that’s one of the guys Andrew Rosener has threatened with his life and perpetual blacklisting from the domain name business….guess that didn’t work! Andrew Rosener has been smoking too much weed for a while, he gets aggressive too quickly and is quite paranoid people are always against him.
But, I think that’s a great addition to Epik’s team because as we all know from reading his answers, Joseph Peterson is knowledgable and thorough…maybe too thorough at times. Congrats to both.
@Reuben — Thanks for your enthusiastic support. As you can begin to see, we are humbly going about the business of assembling a global team comprised of high impact guys who will do the right thing even when nobody is looking. Joseph is such a guy. In addition, Joseph is also bringing fresh eyes and new ideas at a time when the Undeveloped assets are being integrated and our mobile app is about to released to the world. Good timing for Joseph. Great timing for Epik.
@Dale – I have spoken to Andrew a couple of times in the last month. I am hopeful that the industry will see a new and improved Andrew emerge. While he likely remain a cowboy, as he calls himself, I have a hunch that the industry will see a kinder, friendlier Andrew emerge before too long. Let’s face it, the industry is better off for having him. So rather than shun him for an occasional lapse of judgement in a fit of over-caffeinated enthusiasm, I say let’s all just work on helping him become the kinder, gentler version. Worst case we institute the old coin jar method and have him add a quarter every time he drops an F-bomb somewhere on the record. 🙂
I think he said he would kick his teeth in, his comments are still live in one article here somewhere. He quickly retracted, and was sent packing back to exile in panama.
@Luc Adkins,
Drew has his excesses. So do I. And his bad days. So do I. Without excusing that sort of thing, I was happy to put it behind me.
This is a small industry. Too small to divide into warring factions. MediaOptions does a lot of good by raising the bar on sale prices, educating mainstream audiences about the value of domains, and habituating end users to appropriate retail prices. Indirectly, that benefits a lot of people.
Undoubtedly, Rosener will be a jerk to somebody online again in the future. We know that. He knows that. It’s not a good thing. But it’s as likely as tornados messing up the midwest once in awhile. And when it happens again, people like me will criticize the behavior again.
But I’m not going to banish or badmouth Andrew Rosener. People come with pros and cons. Over the years, I’ve bought domains from him; and he’s sold domains for me. And there are FAR more objectionable things happening in the world than 1 loose cannon once or twice a year.
In the immortal words of the 70s band War:
“La, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la
Why can’t we be friends
Why can’t we be friends
Why can’t we be friends
Why can’t we be friends
I seen ya around for a long long time
I really remember you when you drank my wine
Why can’t we be friends”
etc.
Congrats Joesph, Epik is killing it. I am moving my domains from Uniregistry to Epik now which it seems everyone else in the industry is doing to. Epik is everything Uniregistry had hoped to be.
f–k Andrew Rosener. he has a worse rep than Adam Dicker I think. I would rather buy sleazy domain names from Dicker and transfer them to uniregistry.asshat registry for $90,000,000 a year than do biz with Rosener.
Well, the truth wins in the end. Sometimes the truth hurts, and consequences follow. People learn from those consequences or they don’t. Some people have to learn this stuff the hard way. Epik is committed to proving to the industry that it pays to be good. And to that end, if you think we can do better, just let Joseph or I know. We have become decent listeners and are looking forward to helping the domain industry to raise the bar on professionalism and integrity. Blogs like this one certainly do their part to remind folks that there is no shortcut to long-term success. Do the right thing and eventually people will notice. Do the wrong thing often enough and you will eventually face the court of public opinion. I appreciate that Konstantinos allows such discourse and that nobody gets a free pass.
Well said Epik has been quietly operating under the lime light for a while, always innovating, good escrow, and lease program in place there already. One stop shopping.
Hello Robert,
As you know Joseph Peterson has always been a breath of fresh air in the domaining Industry, which of late has Pushed the S.E.M. Advocacy supporters Industry OVER Domainers best interests. Domainers have been lied to at an extreme level by the S.E.M. Industry base whose propoganda grip is being exposed for the S.E.M. Ponzi Platform rip off that lies underneath their media polished veneer of missperception. JAS 3/22/17
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist) (Domain Master ) http://www.UseBiz.com
Congrats to Joseph and Epic!
Congrats, Joseph! Epik is lucky to have you.
Andrew Rossner threatened to knock Joseph Peterson teeth out. Holy shit, Rossner is a skinny ass dude, with a big mouth, and if he keeps doing that, somebody will take him down and shut him up real bad.
Congrats Joseph! Rossner on record threatened you, he is as dumb as he looks. You should of had one of your Navy Seal Buddies, make Andrew Rossner beg for mercy if he wanted any teeth or balls left
Quit talking about Rosener.
Congrats Joseph ! well deserved.
Epic, great choice !
Cheers