Domain Venture - Partners???

**clp11479** · 03-31-2008 03:12 PM

This concept is pretty straightforward, this post is to see if there is any serious interest out there about getting a group of people together...

So most people on this site are knowledgable about domain names and advertising. I frequently search sites like Sitepoint, Sedo, Afternic, etc... looking for quality domain names which you could purchase which would get direct navigation traffic , then put up a one page site that basically has some Google Adsense (or something comparable). The problem with my concept is that purchasing domain names that are quality enough is quite expensive and unless you have big bucks that you can spend and let sit for a while it is impossible to do.

What I am interested in doing is creating a group of people (found here at YE among anywhere else, it would be open to anyone) who would contribute anywhere from $250-$1,000 per person into the Group. We would create a simple password accessed website for us to gather/discuss domain names. For every dollar that you put into the project you get 1 vote. So as an example, if we collect $10,000 that would mean there are 10,000 votes (the reason I would cap each person's investment at $1,000 is so that no one person would have a majority share of the votes... or we could have no cap but the most number of votes you could have is 1,000). We would then discuss any domain names that fit the criteria we are looking for and we would vote on which one(s) to use the $10,000 to purchase. We purchase the domain(s) and put up the one pager of ads. We then sit back and wait for the passive ad income to come in. We use that ad income to purchase more domains and so on and so forth so that we can grow the portfolio.

This can be a very profitable business, this article really got me thinking about it:

Kevin Ham, the $300 million master of Web domains - June 1, 2007

This venture would only have legs if we got at a minimum $10,000 to invest I believe (based on what quality domain names sell for). I don't know what the best way to gather the initial investment would be, I know most people would not be comfortable with sending someone they don't know a check, so if anyone has a suggestion please feel free to mention it.

I have read a lot of posts of people on YE looking for a good idea and I think this is a great idea that most people would be able to afford, which could potentially reap nice profits if done correctly. And a nice quality of this venture would be it is not too time consuming so it would still allow those of us that are working on other projects to still work on them.

If anyone is interested please post or if anyone has questions feel free to ask.

**BusinessAdviser** · 03-31-2008 03:43 PM

Might you be soliciting investments in violation of SEC regulations?

**clp11479** · 03-31-2008 03:48 PM

not sure what you are talking about? i am not investing people's money for them, everyone is a partner in the company, decisions are made by all partners combined.

people cannot start a company together with their money? how does any partnership get formed them???

this is the problem with this site, there are more criticisms/negative comments/bashing then anything else.

**clp11479** · 03-31-2008 03:55 PM

and not for nothing, but maybe you should read the article about the website where fans pooled their money together to buy a professional sports team. i wonder if the SEC is after them too.

**BusinessAdviser** · 03-31-2008 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by clp11479

not sure what you are talking about? i am not investing people's money for them, everyone is a partner in the company, decisions are made by all partners combined.

people cannot start a company together with their money? how does any partnership get formed them???

this is the problem with this site, there are more criticisms/negative comments/bashing then anything else.

For starters, I am curious how my comment was a criticism, negative comment, or bashing.

Secondly, the SEC does in fact regulate the number and types of potential investors that you can approach about an investment opportunity, as well as the ways that you may approach them.

Are you aware of these regulations?

**clp11479** · 03-31-2008 04:59 PM

The SEC regulates stocks, Wall Street, and trading. SEC = Securities Exchange Commission. How this is related to an entrepreneur wanting to start a domain name business is beyond me as it would be a private company, not a publicly traded company. SEC has no bearing on private companies. If you can provide one link to the SEC trying to regulate an entrepreneur from starting a business I'd be very curious to see it.

**BusinessAdviser** · 03-31-2008 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by clp11479

The SEC regulates stocks, Wall Street, and trading. SEC = Securities Exchange Commission. How this is related to an entrepreneur wanting to start a domain name business is beyond me as it would be a private company, not a publicly traded company. SEC has no bearing on private companies. If you can provide one link to the SEC trying to regulate an entrepreneur from starting a business I'd be very curious to see it.

My mistake. It's the state, not the federal SEC, that will regulate. Check out Active Capital - The Evolution of Private Equity Investing : Entrepreneurs to get you started.

**clp11479** · 03-31-2008 05:35 PM

This would not be relevant to my proposal. My proposal is the same thing as a person getting funds from family/friends to start a business (which happens everyday and is not regulated nor illegal) or the same thing as a start up being funded by angel investors.

Private equity "investing" is different then private equity funding, but both of them do not pertain to my venture. I am not seeking funding, I am seeking partnerships.

**BusinessAdviser** · 03-31-2008 05:59 PM

I'm just not so sure, but good luck.

**Cameron** · 03-31-2008 06:41 PM

The SEC needs to worry about the financial markets cough cough bear stearns and countrywide isntead of YE.com

**RLorenzen** · 03-31-2008 07:04 PM

I don't see how this venture would violate state regulations. A few friends pooling their own cash together to start their own business would not violate any laws. That is simply a partnership. They are not starting a hedge fund, private equity firm or anything like that.

**Encrypted** · 03-31-2008 08:33 PM

I am also sick of hearing people talk about SEC on this site. I see someone make a comment about it in almost every thread. It has become a great annoyance to me. If we get in trouble that's our problem. Back the f*** off.

**RLorenzen** · 03-31-2008 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by Yusio

I am also sick of hearing people talk about SEC on this site. I see someone make a comment about it in almost every thread. It has become a great annoyance to me. If we get in trouble that's our problem. Back the f*** off.

Where did that come from? lol. What threads are you referring to? I don't remember seeing the SEC in many threads at all.

**Encrypted** · 03-31-2008 09:19 PM

Originally Posted by RLorenzen

Where did that come from? lol. What threads are you referring to? I don't remember seeing the SEC in many threads at all.

I'm not sure, rough day. lol. I wasn't really referring to SEC, well sorta, but I ment people bashing people in general. It's not just in YE, it's everywhere. The web is becoming one giant bunch of cowards. Everyone is either scamming, or being over cautious about scamming. I don't know of too many legit people on the web anymore. I personally have been ripped off around 3-4 times in the past few months. I'm slowly learning certain steps to take to avoid this, but although it protects me, it always drives away some potential business and business partners.