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Antony Van Couvering fired as CEO of Minds + Machines

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Van Couvering out, Hall in as CEO.

Minds + MachinesMinds + Machines co-founder Antony Van Couvering has been ousted as CEO of the company by its board. He will be replaced by Toby Hall, who was named Chief Marketing Officer of the company just last month after working as a marketing consultant for the company.

Hall was worked for years with companies publicly traded on the London AIM exchange. Minds + Machines trades as MMX on the AIM.

In a press release issued today, the company wrote:

The Group is currently making the transition from asset gatherer to monetisation of its leading portfolio of top-level domains; the Board believes a change of leadership will assist in this process.

In a blog post on CircleID, Van Couvering wrote about the firing and dropped hints about what his difference of opinion with the company might have been. I also spoke with Hall this morning. A big difference seems to have been Van Couvering’s goal of going direct to consumers instead of through registrars.

“We are a registry business and we have to work in partnership with our distribution partners, which are our registrars primarily,” said Hall.

“When everyone is whiteboarding business plans, everyone has good visions. But if your vision alienates your distributions partners, that’s not great business. What we’re about now is being a great business.”

Both Van Couvering and co-founder Fred Kreuger wanted to bring new TLDs direct-to-consumers. Krueger even wanted to offer website development tools to end users. Krueger was ousted from the company last year. Starting late last year, Minds + Machines started changing its messaging about going direct to consumers, and at least paid lip service to working more through the registrar channel. You can listen to Van Couvering discussing this on DNW Podcast #54.

“We are recognizing who our customers are,” Hall said. “It’s not the end user. Our customers are the registrars, and we need to understand everything we need to do to best help our partners reach the end consumer.”

Update: Van Couvering submitted this response to this story:

In case anyone is interested, I definitely did and do not propose that any new gTLD alienate its registrars or any other part of its channel. The opposite is the case; I’ve been pushing for stronger engagement with the channel since early last year. A quick poll of major registrars, aftermarket partners, and other players will confirm that. I did say, once, more than a year ago, that if registrars wouldn’t sell names then we would find other ways, but that’s very different from spurning them — more like frustration at our traction at the time. I won’t re-hash the whys and wherefores of my getting fired, but that particular story line needs to be corrected.

Hall also discussed Minds + Machines’ need to be global.

“We have to recognize we’re in a global industry, we’re very keen on being global and that’s not just about having geo domains,” he said. “It’s recognizing that the market for our existing portfolio is global in scope and setting ourselves up to best service them.”

Based on Van Couvering’s blog post, a secondary difference might have been his desire to continue acquiring top level domains as opposed to shorter-term monetization of the existing portfolio.

Van Couvering has been a proponent of new top level domain names for well over a decade and has been personally working on pushing them to reality for just as long. He has been one of the most passionate people I’ve met when it comes to believing in the promise of new top level domain names and grinding out the long delays at ICANN as they came to reality. I recall meeting with him in 2009 as the SedoPro Partner Forum in Key West. At the time, he was already a frustrated new TLD applicant, hopeful that ICANN would soon push new TLDs forward. He had to wait much longer. Depending on his non-compete agreements, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him involved with a new TLD registry in some way in the future.

This story was updated with additional information after speaking with Toby Hall.

Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines – DNW Podcast #54

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Minds + Machines’ CEO returns to the podcast to talk about new domain names.

Domain Name Wire podcastNew top level domain name company Minds + Machines CEO Antony Van Couvering is back on the podcast this week. He discusses what’s happening with new top level domain names and how his company is responding. He also explains how people can partner with Minds + Machines, either to help sell domain names to communities or to develop a premium domain name into a web destination.

Also: Scooping corporate plans, Frank Schilling and Rightside, 4 letter domains, and Google Domains.

Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, or click play below or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)

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New TLDs & Minds + Machines with Antony Van Couvering – DNW Podcast #10

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A discussion about new top level domain names.

Domain Name Wire podcastAntony Van Couvering, founder and CEO of new TLD company Minds + Machines, shares his thoughts on new top level domain names on this week’s podcast.

We discuss registry pricing of premium domains, niche TLDs, domain name registration channels and more. It’s an enlightening discussion with the founder of one of the largest new TLD companies.

Also: Two warnings for domain name owners, the Dark Side of Domain Parking, and a quick review of the top 5 domain name news stories from last month. Plus, listen to learn how to win a free Coffee.Club subscription.

Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, or click play below or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:53 — 41.2MB) | Embed

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.London’s unique “SunPriorityRush” period ends tomorrow

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Tomorrow is a key deadline for .London domain names.

dot-london-2

The .London domain name is launching, and it’s very different from previous domain name launches.

I reached out to Antony Van Couvering with Minds + Machines to learn more about the .London launch. One key thing to note: the London Priority Period, which ends tomorrow, is actually open to everyone. People in London will get priority, but this is your first chance to claim domain names regardless of whether you have a direct connection to London.

DNW: .London is running a simultaneous sunrise/Londoner priority/Landrush phase that ends Thursday. Explain how this works and who gets priority over others if more than one person orders a domain name during this period.

Van Couvering: The idea is to give priority to people in London, but be open to everyone. To give Londoners priority over people from outside London, and to give people with rights to a name priority over those who don’t. Deciding what defines a Londoner is tricky, but certainly living in London counts. The way it works is that anyone can apply during the London Priority Period (April 29 – July 31, 2014), and then who gets a name is decided in the following order:

1. Sunrise registration (trumps everything)
2. If you live in London and your applied for-name either matches a trademark (if you’re a business or organization) *or* a variation of your personal name (if you’re applying as an individual)
3. If you live in London and your applied-for name doesn’t match either your trademark or your personal name
4. If you live outside of London, you have last priority

Both an applicant’s address and their claim of rights is validated by a dedicated team. That’s an expense, but one we think is well worth it. The full set of rules and validation criteria are available online (pdf).

The way the London Priority Period is set up that in the event that there is more than one application for the same domain name, priority goes to rights holders, then to Londoners, then to everyone else.

DNW: Because of their status as “world cities”, a lot of people will compare .NYC and .London. .NYC is taking a different approach than .London with regards to who can register domain names. .NYC will always be closed to anyone outside of New York City; .London is open to everyone (after the initial priority for Londoners). Why did .London decide to take this approach?

Van Couvering: Precisely because what makes a Londoner is not simply geography. If someone is born in London, is he or she a Londoner? What if they work in London? Furthermore, London is a global city and is open to people from all over the world. All of this is reflected in the rules — priority to people who live in London, but open to everyone.

DNW: What has been the biggest surprise during this first phase?

Van Couvering: How quickly the word got around. When I travel to London, and I mention what I do, I frequently hear “Oh, I heard about that!” from taxi drivers, waiters, people in pubs. Probably this has something to do with the great pioneers we’ve lined up, which are a mix of well-known brands (Fortnum & Mason, London Symphony Orchestra, West Ham United) and smaller businesses (The Commitments show in the West End, or the All Stars Collective, a group of accomplished musicians). A full list of the .london pioneers is here.

We’ve seen a really great distribution of applications across all walks of London life, and we’re excited that this is going to be one of the larger TLDs without resorting to huge discounting or buying up our own names, as has been rumored in other TLDs. It looks as if .london is really being embraced by the people who live there. To me, that’s success.

DNW: What is your goal for .London registrations a year from now?

Van Couvering: The goal is to have .london be the first choice for a domain name for anyone or any business with a connection to London. We think that’s achievable.

Minds + Machines nixes Priority Reservation System after registrars complain

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Registrars complained to ICANN’s compliance department about program.

Minds + MachinesMinds + Machines has nixed its Priority Reservation System for new top level domain names after registrars questioned aspects of the program.

The program allowed customers to reserve domain names ahead of launch. Unlike typical pre-registrations, customers were guaranteed they’d get the domain name after sunrise since it was a program run by the registry, not registrars.

Some registrars cried afoul via the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG). They weren’t necessarily upset about the program itself, which let registrars take priority orders as well. The problem, in the eyes of registrars, was that Minds + Machines launched the program before registrars could sign agreements with the registry. This gave M + M a head start and was unfair to registrars, they argued.

Minds + Machines is now converting orders under the program to landrush orders. Customers can still get the domain name, assuming no one else places a landrush order on the domain name. In that case, it will go to auction.

Antony Van Couvering, CEO of Minds + Machines, released this statement to Domain Name Wire:

The Compliance Department at ICANN needs to look at every complaint, and so when some of our registrar competitors complained about our Priority Reservation program, they reached out to us for information, which we provided. They asked us to make some changes, which we did. We expect any inconvenience to our customers to be minimal, and to ICANN’s credit this was a major concern for them as well. We expect the vast majority of our Priority Reservation period to be allocated to the customers who applied for them, and any Priority Reservation customer who does not get the name they applied for will receive a full refund. This won’t have any impact on our business, and we are satisfied with ICANN’s assurances that they will strive to prevent the misuse of their compliance function for anti-competitive purposes.

This shows some of the tension that can occur with vertical integration between registry and registrar.

I suspect that the changes aren’t just in response to the RrSG complaint. ICANN has been cracking down on registries earmarking or selling domain names ahead of sunrise. ICANN has raised this issue with other registries, including .xyz and .club. Both registries canceled auctions held prior to sunrise.