A Peak Inside GoDaddy's First Free Domain Investor Meetup Held at the Industry Giant's Arizona Office Last Week

GoDaddy issued an open invitation for domain investors to attend a free Domain Investor Meetup that was held at the company's Tempe, Arizona office on May 7, 2026. Space was limited so attendance was limited to the first 40 people to sign up for the unique opportunity.

Attendees came from as far away as Texas to take advantage of the invitation to spend one on one time and learn from GoDaddy's experts. They included one of the best in the business in Joe Styler, the Senior Marketing Manager for GoDaddy's Domain Academy, who hosted the event.

When guests arrived for the Meetup that ran from 3pm to 7pm they began with an office tour, snacks and networking. At 4pm they were able to  choose one of three breakout tracks. Each was led by a different team that focused on a key category of the domain investment workflow. 

The sessions offered were:

1. Auctions API - One of the engineers behind the platform, Mihai Nicolae, walked investors through the Auctions API and allowed them to get hands on access to the API.

2. Afternic listing + selling - Adam Ramsdell took the investors through a hands-on masterclass of how to list domains for maximum exposure, best practices for Lease to Own, plus listing optimization.

3. DomainNames.com - Tom McCarthy (who has over $75 million in lifetime domain sales, over 9,000 deals) took investors through what DomainNames.com accomplishes, what sets it apart from other brokerages, and the marketing approach behind DomainNames.com. 

Those provided about three hours of quality time spent with the actual builders in a small enough group te get specific questions answered. Many thought the Auctions API session alone was worth the trip. Programmatic access to GoDaddy Auctions is a competitive edge that most investors haven’t explored yet, and learning it directly from the engineer who works on the platform daily is not something you’ll find in a tutorial. 

Above & below: Scenes from the breakoput sessions courtesy of attendee Anthoy Kirlew.

After the sessions wrapped, many attendees took advantage of one of the wide variety of dinner spots in Tempe to continue their conversations. The Meetup drew so much positive feedback there could well be more to come!

(Posted May 12, 2026)   

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