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The
domain industry's version of Crocodile
Dundee - Dan Warner has experienced both
adventures and misadventures in his life. |
While most of our
readers know Warner by name and many know him personally,
very few know about the remarkably circuitous
route that led the transplanted American to Australia
and eventually to a leadership role in an industry
that seems tailor made for his talents. We're
going to take you along on Warner's wild ride through a
hitch in the
Navy, stints as a carpenter,
a paramedic, a fireman, a software developer and a
pharmaceutical salesman - as well as traumatic experiences
that included a near fatal accident and a thieving
CFO who wound up in jail after destroying
Warner's multi-million dollar company and leaving Warner flat
broke. Whew! You might want to buckle your
seatbelt for this one. It has often been said that the
most successful people in the domain business know at least a little about a lot of
different things. The theory is that people like that are able to spot good domains names
in a far wider variety of categories than those who have
traveled a more |
| linear path. Warner's background, combined
with his voracious appetite for reading and a proven track
record make him Exhibit A for anyone wanting to
advance that argument. |
Warner's
story starts on July 15, 1966, the day he was born in
Cocoa Beach, Florida to proud parents Joseph
and Jacqueline Warner. Dan, the family's third child,
was a "space baby." His dad was a NASA
manager working on the Gemini program at nearby Cape
Canaveral while Jacqueline stayed home to take care of
the house and kids. "I grew up in a place and age where
anything was
possible – including going to the moon," Warner said.
"My father had an MBA back in the 60s from the
University of Iowa, which at that time was unheard of.
He was energetic, entrepreneurial, and constantly
reminded me that I could be anything I wanted to be." That
didn't mean that Warner was born with a silver spoon in his
mouth - far from it. "My first
home was a trailer in a trailer park," Warner recalled.
"Housing was difficult to find and my father was moved around
a lot in NASA, so trailers made sense even though, as small as I was, I remember it
being a fairly tight squeeze for a family of
five."
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Even after his father left
NASA the family stayed on the move and Dan eventually found
himself living about as far away from Florida as you could
get without leaving the country altogether. "I must have lived in more than 10
states – finally settling in Alaska of all
places," Warner said. "My father worked there on the pipeline as an electrician.
Tradesmen working on the pipeline made more money than most
jobs in the United States at that time so he took the job
and worked 60/10s - 60 hours a week, ten weeks at a time, with
sub zero temperatures in the Alaskan tundra." "My early childhood memories of the gypsy
lifestyle were probably what
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| led to my tendency to live
and travel throughout the world. I’m currently a
dual citizen of both the United States and Australia, and
have lived in Australia now for almost 20 years. I
average around six international trips each year,"
Warned noted. "The second outcome of my father’s example of
over
working himself – created a self determined drive to work
smarter, not harder, and try to live a balanced life at the
same time. I think I am reasonably good at the first
and horrible at the last," Warner mused. |
As
a domain industry executive, Warner has taken a more
"academic" approach to defining and solving
problems than most if not all of his peers. That is
something few of his high school teachers would have ever
predicted.
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Warner's
high school in Anchorage, Alaska |
"In
my early years my academic achievements were slight,"
Warner admitted. "I was frustrated and barely passed my
classes. Just about the time I settled in at a school
it was time to move again. In high school (at Anthony
J. Dimond High in Anchorage, Alaska) I received
“A’s” on the tests but failed to do the daily
work. I just didn’t see the point of continually repeating
the same problems once you learned the concepts."
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There
were some things that captured Warner's attention though.
"My five major interests were medicine, computers,
martial arts, travel, and cooking – a strange combination,"
Warner agreed. He credited his introduction to computers to
being in the right place at the right time. "Alaska |
| was
rich with tax dollars and they spent a great deal on hiring
teachers and supplying the schools with the best of
everything - one of which was a computer lab with 30
computers at a time when few schools had them. I took
classes in some basic programming, and traded computer games
with friends," he recalled.
Though
Warner said he spent a lot of time in his teen years driving
fast cars, chasing girls and trying to be "cool"
(and not necessarily excelling at any of those pursuits)
that period of his life also set him on the course he has
been on ever since. "I started my first business at 16,"
Warner said. "Daniel’s Catering was featured
in the local paper and made almost $20,000 in the
first month of trading during Christmas. A monster
was born – business junky extraordinaire! The first thing
I did was to go out and blow all my money on a bright red
sports car. Fiscal responsibility and 16 don’t really
go together," Warner laughed.
Even
so, Warner's entrepreneurial acumen was soon recognized as
he was elected State Vice President of a business club
called the Office Education Association. "It
sounds fairly nerdy and it was," Warner said. "The
main reason I joined it was they traveled interstate several
times a year, and it was 99% girls. You can decide
what my primary driver was! However I |
Warner
began devouring business
books as a teenager. Donald Trump's
The Art of the Deal was his favorite. |
| did learn how to touch
type, an uncommon skill then for a boy." Warner also
started reading business books. "I’m sad to say it
but my favorite one was Donald Trump’s The Art of
the Deal." |
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Business wasn't the only area where
Warner was starting to kick butt. "I managed to
get my black belt in Kempo
and at 18 was the Alaska heavyweight kickboxing champion
for a very short period of time." That was
quite an accomplishment, but Warner found that there
was also a downside. "I learned quickly
that even when you win, you still got the tar kicked
out of you" Warner smiled. "It was a
short lived career in full contact, but I did
compete extensively in semi-contact martial arts
tournaments after that." |
In
1983 Warner finished high school early but his grade point
average was undistinguished at 2.00. The next year things
changed when he entered community college and found an
atmosphere that suited him far better. "I finished
those two years with a 3.00 average - markedly better than
high school where I couldn’t seek out my own subjects of
interest. In college daily work wasn’t required
either," Warner said.
| Though
things were starting to click on the academic front, a
stronger urge sent Warner off in a different direction.
"I was 18 at the time and I decided that I should join
the Navy and see the world," Warner said. In
1986 he was sent to boot camp in San Diego where,
after swimming well in trials, he was selected for a
prestigious position with the Navy's Rescue Swimmers.
"This was basically jumping out of helicopters into the
water trying my best to look like Kevin Costner,"
Warner said. Unfortunately, a major snafu cut his tenure as
an action hero short. |
Navy
Rescue Swimmer's helicopter |
Though
he was considered a rescue swimming specialist, the Navy
also required that specialists have a separate primary
occupation rating earned through an "A"
school - a requirement the brass somehow forgot about. By
the time the oversight was spotted the only ratings
available on such short notice were quartermaster and
boatswains mate - both seafarers ratings, neither of which
allowed him to be a rescue swimmer. A frustrated Warner, who
had been slated to go to the Anti Submarine Warfare
Operator school, saw his slot go to someone else while
the Navy tried to figure out what to do.
"I
was caught between a rock and military administration,"
Warner said. "They offered me a full honorable
discharge and $24,768 if I wanted to leave the Navy
with an option to return nine months later to a rating that
would allow me to be a rescue swimmer. Instead I decided to
jump out of the helicopter and back into university
and business, leaving the Navy and government bureaucracy
for good."
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Warner
returned to Alaska and soon after decided it was time for
another change of scenery. He made his way to Seattle,
a city that would serve as his home base for the next six
years.
Warner now had to pay his own way through his final
years of college. To get the money he decided to learn a
trade and wound up becoming a union journeyman carpenter.
"This paid well and gave me a backup trade to fall back
on. It also led to founding my second real company “DSW
Contractors” - a business that allowed me to bill my
clients contractor rates rather than as a tradesmen,"
Warner said.
"During
these years I became involved with
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| the volunteer fire
department and eventually became certified as an
Emergency Medical Technician and Fireman,"
Warner recalled. While volunteering as a firemen Warner
found he loved having the opportunity to help people and his
superiors loved a special quality he demonstrated - the
ability to keep his head in emergency situations. |
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"We
ran into burning buildings when everyone else was running out
- as they say in the business, “putting wet stuff on the
hot stuff," Warner said. "We peeled people out of
cars with rescue tools at 3 in the morning, and dealt with a
lot of people's heart attacks." His continued exposure
to emergency medicine awaked a new desire in Warner - he
wanted to become a doctor, an emergency medical
specialist to be exact.
Toward
that end, Warner divided his time between his contractors business,
fire
training and part-time college classes. When he had
accumulated enough credits to enter his senior year of
college, Warner gave up the business and enrolled full time
at Central Washington University. He |
| pursued a double
major in Paramedicine and Zoology (Human Anatomy &
Physiology) – the recommended pre-medicine degree. Warner,
who also picked up minors in business, chemistry and
psychology, boosted his GPA again and went on to graduate
with a 3.3 average, leaving CWU intent on moving on to
medical school. |
"After
I finished at CWU I stacked up all the books I had
read," Warner said. "They measured well over my
head, close to eight feet tall. I had already forgotten well
more than I would remember, but I did take away the
repetitive mental exercise and the fundamental processes
that were required to create positive outcomes as
well as the ability to self-learn effectively and
efficiently."
"While
walking through the student union building as I was just
about to graduate in 1993, there was a foreign exchange
program set up at a booth. A nice looking girl asked me
if I had ever been to Australia, and would I like to study
there for awhile? As it usually takes a year to be accepted
into a medical school, I took up their offer to join a post
graduate exchange program with an Australian
university," Warner said, adding " I have been in
Australia ever since!"
| "After
I had moved to study in Australia I faced the tremendous
conflict of falling in love – with a country.
Australia is the most phenomenal place on earth. I
have traveled extensively before and since that time and I
still believe Australia is unequalled in beauty and
lifestyle."
"The conflict that arose out of this was that in
Australia becoming a doctor was an undergraduate degree
which lasted six years. At the time I arrived, the
country was in a transitional period of upgrading medical
study to become a graduate program. The first graduate
positions for medical school weren’t to begin for four
years. Also, with a largely socialized medical system,
doctors were typically paid less than $100,000 a year and
foreign medical degrees were strongly scrutinized. The cost
of foreign study was monetarily prohibitive if my intention
was to return to Australia. The result was that if I were to
stay in Australia I needed to choose another career
(at least for the next four years), or leave Australia
permanently," Warner said.
Given
his love of the country, the latter was not an option, so
Warner had to plot a new |
When
Warner saw Australia it was
love at first site. This is Noosa Beach
where he now has a vacation home. |
| direction for his career but that
course also left him facing unexpected roadblocks. "It
might come as a surprise to many Americans, but Australia
and many European countries do not recognize a significant
amount of education and training from the USA,"
Warner said. "My degree in Zoology was recognized but
didn’t qualify me for any particular career. My degree in
Paramedicine wasn’t recognized as qualification for
emergency medicine in Australia." |
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"Australian
Paramedics were only allowed to administer the equivalent of
aspirin, nitroglycerin, and little else – they were
glorified ambulance drivers. Paramedics, where I had trained
in Seattle, were qualified to administer 64 different drugs
in the field, did arterial lines, and performed occasionally
surgical procedures. I was not going to be allowed to
perform any form of emergency medicine in Australia
until I became a qualified doctor. Even my qualification as
a journeyman carpenter wasn’t recognized. If I was
to perform any trade in Australia I would have to start
from the beginning." |
The
solution to Warner's problem would be returning to his
entrepreneurial roots. "I looked at my life, studies,
experiences and interests and found the interim solution
there - my lifelong interest in computers," he
said. Warner decided to start a new company, Wild World
Software, whose first product was a screensaver
slideshow of Australian wildlife which was sold to tourists
for $29.95. "We sold thousands,"
Warner recalled. "I also learned that at that point in
time distributors controlled the flow of money for software
producers and had a way of extracting most of the profit for
themselves. Distributors required software vendors
to ship them enough stock to last for six months, which they
wouldn’t pay for until after the six months had passed.
Plus, they had the right to return all of the stock and made
you pay the freight! They had a fully stacked deck."
Warner
continued, "These distributors didn’t realize that their
time was running out. Something new was coming.
A global distribution mechanism that could change everything
– the Internet. The problem was that the internet
wasn’t commercial yet."
| With
the web still in its infancy, Warner, tired of living like a
student and scrounging for business capital, listened to a
friend who encouraged him to get a job with a pharmaceutical
company. "I had the right credentials to communicate
effectively with doctors and became a representative for Abbott
Labs," Warner said. "This gave me a lesson in
two important things; |
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| the nature of corporate business and
the importance of cash flow. I did well with Abbott. I had one of the most
successful territories in the country and managed to do my
work in less than 20 hours a week." |
Warner's
performance earned him an opportunity to become a higher
paid specialist in surgical anesthetics, a position that had
him based in Sydney for a couple of years. There he
found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time -
a misfortune that almost cost him his life.
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Coming
Up on Page 2:
-
While
trying to walk across a Sydney street in broad
daylight, Dan Warner is seriously injured
when a car traveling at full speed slams into
him from behind.
-
Warner
launches a new company that grows to $50
million in value only to see a crooked CFO destroy
the business before being caught and sent to
prison.
-
Finding
himself broke and forced to start all over
again, Warner gets a new start at Dark Blue
Sea and builds a domain industry powerhouse
at Fabulous.com.
Continue
to Page 2 |
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*****
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