Tynan on Tech

As part of the research for my PC World story, “Meet the Whiz Kids: 10 Overachievers Under 21,” I sent questions to Matt Wegrzyn, founder of domain parking site Bodis.com and a successful “domainer” (buyer and seller of domain names) in his own right. Matt started domaining two years ago when he was 17. Turns out he had a lot to say. Check it out:

TOT: What inspired you to start Bodis? (And where does the name come from?)

The way I started Bodis was very unrealistic. Before I began Bodis, I was a very active domainer that not only bought/sold domain names, but also parked them for revenue. And I remember having a low earning day on one of my biggest revenue earners. At the same time, I noticed people complaining on how their parked domain earnings have been declining on one of the domain forums. So I posted a thread for the hell of it, that I’m going to create a parking program. The funny (and very unrealistic) part about this was that I never even intended to start a parking program because I knew it would be a lot of work, and I barely knew where to start. I just wanted to see the people’s reactions. So I wake up the next day, I browse the domain forum, and I see that my thread has already like 20-30 responses. And people were saying things such as “excellent idea!”, “truly amazing”, “I can’t wait!”. I just didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t just tell the people “Wait – I was kidding”. So what did I do? Actually for a few days I didn’t do anything, but then I got myself organized and began working on the next big thing – Bodis.com. And I KNEW two things when I started – No investors, and no giving up. I knew I’d invest all that money I have ever earned from domaining into this parking program, and so I did…

The name Bodis.com originally had no meaning behind it. I tried creating meanings, but all of the combinations I’ve came up with had domains already not available and were for sale for way too much. So I hit the domain marketplaces on the Internet, and I found m gem – Bodis. I liked it, reminded me of Bodog.com Online Casino. Bodis sounded nice, didn’t sound weird, I believed (and still do) that it has its own interesting sound to it. But the actual name has no meaning whatsoever! Then we had a very helpful domainer come to us and create us a few meanings around the word. One of them that I personally liked was “Best of Domain Internet Services”. Honestly, I haven’t marketed us as that EVER before, and we don’t think we are the Best, so for now – I am still holding off on it until we get just a little better.

TOT: Are you doing what you saw yourself doing as a small child? Are you living your dream? Or has your career path been more serendipitous?

Wow – Even Dictionary.com didn’t find the meaning for that last thing that you have spelled out there. =) Yes, I am doing what I thought I’d be doing. I started in the IT world when I was 10 – this was about the age I was quite good with HTML. When I was 15 I knew Coldfusion inside-out, and well, I knew I’d at least become a web developer. And I did, and I still am. Although, with web development itself, you are limiting yourself. In my opinion, developers have the biggest advantage. They can easily start their own company, sell their own software, develop their own code. And there’s always something that you can develop that is not out there. Without web development I wouldn’t be where I am today. And, even today, as a CEO of my own company, I have also developed both the current Bodis, and the new Bodis that we are soon releasing in late March / early April. There’s nothing better than knowing your own service/product inside-out – literally.

I don’t think I am yet living my dream. I certainly would have the chance to if I’d never have posted that thread on the domain forum for starting a parking program. Sure, I could’ve probably invested all I had and retired – but once I saw the crowd response to my thread, I was even more excited. And I know that once Bodis gets bigger and better, I’ll be very happy for doing what I did for the community and for myself. Plus, it’s always good to have a goal.

TOT: What’s a typical day like?

Well let’s see – I am answering these questions right now at 3:30 am. A typical day probably starts at 10 am for me and lasts until 5 am. There’s just too much to do in order to sleep. I feel like I need to work every hour possible on the weekdays in order for this company to be successful. I know that if I continue putting as much work into it as I am right now, then in 2-3 months from now I’ll have so much free time I won’t even know what to do with it. Actually, tonight I won’t even sleep. I’m going straight to work at 5 am and I’ll probably be back home at 3 pm instead and then have some rest. I won’t feel my body, but it’ll help me get a lot more work done. I know that this is my main advantage against my competitors. Their CEOs have a typical 8 hours of work per day, minus 1 hour lunch, minus 1 hour this and that. How can they do better than me if I have 19 hour days? They can’t. And I feel like I am already catching up. And hopefully in a few months all of this hard work will pay off well.

TOT: Where do you see yourself in 10 or 20 years? Do you think you’ll be doing the same thing?

I do not see myself doing the same thing in 10 years. At least not directly. Meaning, I am quite sure I’ll just be at my office 2 days a week for a few hours to check if everything is running smoothly. And also, maybe I won’t be in domain parking anymore, maybe it will evolve into something bigger and broader “Internet Advertising” or “Search Advertising”. I don’t see myself working too hard after 1 more year from now. As a matter of fact, I have it written down, by 2009 I must work normal, no more night working, no more all-nighters. And by 2010, I plan on showing up only a few hours per week. And it’s not because I will lose dedication. I believe with all the hard work I am putting in right now, there won’t even be a need for me to show up 2 years from now. Everything will be cut-out. This is at least the plan. Dedication is key.

TOT: What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far? What challenges do you anticipate?

I like the word obstacles ;). We had big ones, and we have big ones, and will always have them in the future as well. When we first released Bodis, we were letting members apply, but were not yet accepting applications. Why? Because we didn’t even have a feed from any ad providers. Was that some risky business. I just knew that if I went up to them as a domainer with a few typo domain names, there’s no way in the world someone unheard of as myself with such a small portfolio would even be considered for a feed from companies such as Yahoo or Google, or any of the small ad providers for that matter. So we released our website, and made sure we had somewhat of a convincing design for it done by a very highly-rated design firm. It worked! We told them we had 400 applicants, we listed some of the domain names in the application forms, and before you knew it, we signed a contract and went live.

Then we had problems with fraud. Luckily, within 2-3 months we reduced our rates from over 50% to nearly 0%. Now we have very high converting traffic according to our ad providers. But of course, we lost a TREMENDOUS amount of clients because of the fraud. And this was due to the fact that we didn’t know how to keep it under control so we had to remove some of those that had traffic that looked like it was either low/medium converting. But we learned our lesson, and haven’t had any problems since.

And I’m sure we will have many more problems along the way. But there’s a solution for everything.

TOT: Do you feel like you’ve had to sacrifice what it typically means to be a kid to achieve what you’ve achieved? What has been the biggest sacrifice? What do you miss?

My biggest sacrifice has been my friends. I still see them and hang out with them every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But it’s just impossible to do that on the weekdays. At least not for now. I had a good and fun childhood. Always had time for everything somehow. There was a time when I was finishing off high school where I was spending a lot of time planning on how to make money, but once I came out and started Bodis, I am now spending a lot more time with everyone that I knew, which is great for me. I am balancing it somehow. And hopefully a few months from now, there will be a lot more time for me to relax and hang out on the weekdays. I may have not the best years from 15-18, but definitely have been great since I turned 18, and I’m looking forward to having the best years of my life 20 – 80…so…yeah. =)

TOT: What advice do you have for other young people who may be looking to follow a similar path?

Don’t let others bring you down. Stay dedicated. Do what you know best. Keep your chin up. Never give up. If you can follow all of these standard rules, then you’ll have a fun life one day. I know, my weekends are very fun. Especially if you have money – you’ll have VERY fun weekends. But, really – it will pay off at the end. Imagine if you spend the next 3, 4 years buried under researching, developing, doing what you know best and trying to succeed, and then the next 20-40 years, you don’t even have to worry about work, or stress, or paying off debts. I mean, you really get to live your life the way it is meant to be. Life is all about having that good fun, and you can’t do that if you don’t play your cards right early enough. I mean, it’s never too late, but the sooner the better in my opinion.

TOT: What else might you want to say to our readers?

To be successful, you must have a good degree of dedication and hard work. Nothing in the world comes easy. And in order to do that, you have to stay motivated. Try to keep yourself motivated at all times. Remember where you can be and what you can have a few years down the road. Personally, I do that with music. I love music. Music keeps me motivated and keeps me working hard. It pumps me up when I’m tired (right now at 4:20 am). So find something that motivates you, and stick to it.

Tags: bodis, domains, entrepreneur, teen millionaires, whiz kids

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