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Escrow.com adds regulatory compliance officer

by — Services 3 Comments

Fereba Ashufta

Escrow company popular in the domain industry hires compliance officer from HSBC.

Escrow.com has hired a compliance offer to handle its Anti Money Laundering Compliance Program and other regulatory issues.

Fereba Ashufta joins Escrow.com from HSBC, where she was a Regional Regulatory Compliance Officer.

Escrow.com is a popular escrow service for many types of transactions but much of its business is with domain names. It has amped up its know your customer (KYC) processes in recent years, requiring both buyers and sellers to provide proof of identification.

The company says Ashufta will be in charge of its Anti Money Laundering Compliance Program as well as the company’s regulatory relationships and obligations.

“As a market-leading escrow service provider across the United States and further afield, regulatory oversight plays an essential role in our business and the assurance we continue to offer to our customers and marketplace partners,” said Jackson Elsegood, General Manager of Escrow.com

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Austin.com appears to have sold

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

Domain name is in escrow at Escrow.com.

Austin.com is in escrow at Escrow.com.

The Austin.com domain name appears to have sold and might be on a payment plan.

iEstates, LLC purchased the domain name in 2012 but put it up for sale earlier this year. An October 4 DomainTools Whois record shows the domain was in escrow at Escrow.com. The domain was transferred from Moniker to GoDaddy at that time.

The Whois record still shows Escrow.com, suggesting that the domain name is on a payment plan or other sort of arrangement that will require Escrow.com to hold the domain in escrow.

iEstates declined to comment.

I searched the site for clues about who might now own the site but the terms of service and management information haven’t changed since before October. New content continues to be published.

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Michael Cyger sells Brew.com to BuyMeACoffee.com team.

by — Domain Sales 10 Comments

Michael Cyger sells Brew.com in cash and equity deal.

Left to Right: Jackson Elsegood (Escrow.com), Madhavan Ramakrishnan (Brew.com), Jijo Sunny (Brew.com), Michael Cyger, Brian Tharp (Escrow.com).

Michael Cyger of DNAcademy has sold the domain name Brew.com to the team behind BuyMeACoffee.com, which is a sort of tip-a-creator service. Here’s co-founder Jijo Sunny mentioning the acquisition on Twitter:

Cyger had been using BuyMeACoffee on his website. As Sunny describes it, a deal quickly transpired from there:

It started with a cold email. Guess what? He was using BuyMeACoffee on his blog, and was excited to hear about what we’re building next. Within 2w, we signed the deal at @Escrowcom’s SF office. You’re a pleasure to work with @MichaelCyger!

Cyger told DNW:

I actually read about Buy Me A Coffee on HackerNews in February and thought their design and implementation was elegantly simple and beautiful. So I signed up for an account to check it out, and then integrated the Buy Me A Coffee button on the public blog of DNAcademy to see how it worked. So far, about 10 people — who are not subscribed to DNAcademy as students — but who appreciate the content I produce — have purchased me a cup of coffee, which I like much more than displaying programmatic ads because it’s cleaner, creates a more direct relationship with readers, and earns more revenue per reader.

While financial terms were not disclosed, Cyger expects the deal to eventually be worth seven figures after the company gains traction. He will join Brew’s Advisory Board.

Cyger met up with the BuyMeACoffee team at Escrow.com’s office to complete the deal (see photo).

The company will not rebrand its BuyMeACoffee.com service as Brew.com. Instead, it’s launching a new site on Brew.com using what it has learned running BuyMeACoffee. Based on Sunny’s tweets, it seems like it will be a type of Patreon service, perhaps providing people with an ad-free subscription to content.

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Escrow.com adds “Escrow Offer” service

by — Services 6 Comments

New tool lets buyers make an offer on your domain.

Online escrow company Escrow.com has added a new feature it calls “Escrow Offer“.

The feature enables potential buyers to click a button on your website and make an offer. This is opposed to making a buy now purchase. If a deal is reached, the closing is handled through Escrow.com.

When a buyer clicks the listing’s Make Offer button, it sets up a negotiation between the prospective buyer and seller. The buyer is sent to a form where they submit the initial offer.

The seller is then informed via email. Both parties may view the negotiation history on the offer management page as well as accept, counter, or reject any offer or counteroffer made to them.

Multiple buyers may negotiate with a seller on a given listing during this time. When a seller accepts an offer, the buyer is guided through the payment process. When payment is secured by Escrow.com for the listing, the negotiation is formally closed.

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Checking in with Escrow.com – DNW Podcast #195

by — Podcasts 1 Comment

Jackson Elsegood provides an update on the domain market and Escrow.com’s service.

dnw-podcastEscrow.com has been in the news a lot over the past week thanks to its role as the escrow agent on several big deals. It handled the $3.5 million ICE.com deal, the $1 million snoring.com/sleeping.com deal and Crypto.com. Today I chat with Jackson Elsegood, GM of Escrow.com, to get his take on the market. We also discuss the progress the company has made on account verification and new features, as well as why the escrow business is challenging.

Also: Big domain sales, CentralNic to buy KeyDrive, and .best sells.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:38 — 18.2MB) | Embed

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

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