Marc Ostrofsky
{{BLP sources|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox writer
|image =
|name = Marc Ostrofsky
|pseudonym =
|birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1961|10|28}}
|birth_place=
|death_date =
|death_place=
|occupation =Author, Entrepreneur, Investor
|genre = Nonfiction
|movement =
|notableworks=Get Rich Click
}}
Marc Ostrofsky is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, New York Times Best Selling Author and public speaker.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcc1HYzaRWk |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/dcc1HYzaRWk |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Marc Ostrofsky on The View - 7-8-11 discussing Amazing Smartphone Apps |publisher=YouTube |date=2011-07-09 |accessdate=2014-01-28}}{{cbignore}} He is the author of the books Get Rich Click!: The Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online,{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW5UZZHkZHA |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/gW5UZZHkZHA |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Marc Ostrofsky's first appearance on "The View" on ABC television was about how to make money on the internet |publisher=YouTube |date=2012-06-11 |accessdate=2014-01-28}}{{cbignore}} and Word of Mouse: 101+ trends using technology on How we Buy, Sell, Live, Learn, Work and Play!.{{cite web|url=http://video.foxnews.com/v/2668002979001/tech-trends-businesses-need-to-know-now/?playlist_id=931078471001 |title=Tech trends businesses need to know now |publisher=Fox News |date=2013-09-12 |accessdate=2014-01-28}} Get Rich Click was in the top ten of the lists of bestselling books compiled by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.{{Cite web| title=Bestsellers | url=http://www.getrichclick.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1-Bestseller-sheet-all.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110626224456/http://www.getrichclick.com:80/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1-Bestseller-sheet-all.pdf | archive-date=2011-06-26}}
Career
His career began developing companies for voice mail and voice processing, private pay phones, operator services, telecom reseller and VOIP, and prepaid telephone cards in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2006/august.htm |title=Inside iREIT: How a Startup Company Became an Industry Giant Almost Overnight |publisher=Dnjournal.com |date=2008-04-01 |accessdate=2014-01-28}}
Before writing his first book, Ostrofsky was a domain name investor.{{cite web|url=http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/1999/10/11/story3.html |title=Tech wildcatter sells company for $35 million |publisher=Houston Business Journal |date=1999-10-10 |accessdate=2014-01-28}} His venture capital firm has created a number of telecommunication, publishing and internet based companies, and he is the co-founder of hundreds of web properties.{{cite web|last=Sloan |first=Paul |url=https://money.cnn.com/2006/08/29/technology/nextbigforeign.biz2/index.htm |title=Next Big Thing: Internet real estate gets a foreign accent |publisher=CNN |date=2006-08-29 |accessdate=2014-01-28}} He was a co-founder of Internet REIT (iREIT) (also known as www.iREIT.com), which acquires, develops and sells internet traffic wholesale to Google for them to resell to others on a pay per click basis with partners Ross Perot and Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks.{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/2006/05/23/internet-reit-domain_cx_rr_0523cyber.html |title=Typo.com |work=Forbes |date= |accessdate=2014-01-28}}
In 1999 he sold the DNS domain Business.com $7.5 million to eCompanies, which was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for what was, at the time, the most expensive domain name ever sold in the world,{{cite web|url=http://www.4to40.com/recordbook/index.asp?id=359&category=human |title=Kids Portal for Parents - Site Map |publisher=4to40 |accessdate=2014-01-28 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203000505/http://www.4to40.com/recordbook/index.asp?id=359&category=human |archivedate=2014-02-03 }} Ostrofsky owned a stake in Business.com which was sold in 2008 for $345 million.{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSWNAS789220070726 |title=R.H. Donnelley to buy Business.com for $345 mln |publisher=Reuters |date= |accessdate=2014-01-28}} He coined the phrase "Domain names and web sites are the real estate of the Internet" when he bought Business.com for $150,000 in the mid 1990s, which had been the most money ever paid for a domain name at that time.{{Cite web | title=Bellevue Domain Roundtable to Address Explosive Growth Market of "Internet Real Estate" | url=http://www.circleid.com/posts/domain_roundtable_to_address_explosive_growth_of_internet_real_estate/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060127002743/http://www.circleid.com:80/posts/domain_roundtable_to_address_explosive_growth_of_internet_real_estate/ | access-date=2025-05-04 | archive-date=2006-01-27}}
Ostrofsky founded five high tech Internet and telecommunications magazines and a dozen technology trade shows,{{which|date=January 2014}} which were later sold to Advanstar Publishing for $8,000,000.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}} He later created and sold Multimedia Publishing Corporation (another firm holding magazines, trade shows and web sites) to Primedia for $35,000,000.{{cite web|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/1999/10/11/story3.html |title=Tech wildcatter sells company for $35 million |publisher=Houston Business Journal |date=1999-10-10 |accessdate=2014-01-28}}
Ostrofsky was the first outside investor in Blinds.com and a member of its board of directors. In 2014, Blinds.com was sold for over $200 Million+ to Home Depot,{{cite web|url=https://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20140123-912454.html |title=The Home Depot Acquires Blinds.com |publisher=Wall Street Journal |date=2014-01-23 |accessdate=2014-01-28}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dnjournal.com/lowdown.htm |title=The Lowdown from Domain Name Journal at |publisher=Dnjournal.com |date= |accessdate=2022-08-25}}
He currently owns the web sites Photographer.com, TechToys.com, APPortunity.com, MARCeting.com, LabGrownDiamonds.com, HeartDisease.com, BeautyProducts.com, Potshops.com and 200+ others.{{cite web |url=http://www.whois.sc/ |title=Home |website=whois.sc}}
He also founded www.idNames.com, an international domain name registry service that was sold to Network Solutions, and is now a division of VeriSign.{{cite web |url=http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/353381 |title= Network Solutions' idNames Launches Domain Associate Program|website=dc.internet.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050502103527/http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/353381 |archive-date=May 2, 2005}}
In 2001 Ostrofsky donated a sculpture to the City of Houston, Texas that now resides at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Terminal B, Houston, Texas.{{cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM5FR9 |title="Moonwalker", Houston, Texas, USA - Figurative Public Sculpture on |publisher=Waymarking.com |date= |accessdate=2014-01-28}}
Ostrofsky is a professional public speaker domestically and internationally on business, how to make money and entrepreneurship in the age of the internet. He was a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and was the original founder of the Internet Commerce Association (ICA).[http://www.dnjournal.com/newsletters/2007/january.htm DN Journal Newsletter] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220050934/http://dnjournal.com/newsletters/2007/january.htm |date=2016-12-20 }} January, 2007
References
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060613012529/http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/05/23/internet-reit-domain_cx_rr_0523cyber.html Forbes Interview]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070429151851/http://naming.com/assets/news/inc.html The Name Game] by Robert A Mamis, Inc. Magazine, May 15, 2000
- [http://www.teenbusinessforum.com/interviews/marc-ostrofsky-selling-business-com-and-how-to-get-rich-click-interview Teen Business Forum interview]
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Category:American computer businesspeople