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In 2012,
ICANN radically changed the Internet
landscape when it opened the door to over a
thousand new top level domains. One of those went
to serial entrepreneur Colin Campbell who
focused all of his efforts on getting just ONE new
extension - .CLUB. That single minded focus
and never ending marketing blitz made .CLUB
successful enough to get GoDaddy's
attention in 2021 when they acquired the .CLUB
registry. Colin continued with his many
other ventures and also authored a best selling
business book - Start.Scale.Exit.Repeat. Fast
forward to ICANN's long-awaited 2nd round
of new gTLDs - the first opportunity on 14
years to create a new domain extension. The
window for applicants to apply closed earlier this
week with 1,600 submissions, including more
than 300 from a
single entity, Link Feedom Group
(LFG). This new round also pulled Colin back
into the domain game with an entirely
different strategy than LFG is pursuing. Once
again, Colin is interested in just ONE new
TLD. This
time it is .factory - a quest that prompted
him to team up with long-tine colleague and highly
respected industry veteran Michele
Van Tilborg to create a new company - USA
Made in America Inc. - the official applicant
for .factory. Colin and Michele believe .factory has the potential to become a valuable
global digital asset serving manufacturers,
technology companies, entrepreneurs, brands and
businesses across a wide range of industries.
While the word “factory” traditionally
refers to a place where physical goods are
manufactured or produced, USA Made in America
believes its commercial potential extends well
beyond traditional manufacturing into
technology, software, artificial intelligence,
media, design and other areas where products,
ideas and services are created.
Colin
said, “We strongly believe that this gTLD will be a
great asset to America. The Internet has
created entirely new categories of digital real
estate, and strong generic words can become
valuable infrastructure. We believe .factory has
the qualities we look for in a top-level domain:
it is short, memorable, globally understood and
commercially relevant across many industries.” Michele, who also serves as President of the new
company, added, “Businesses around the world
want domain names that actually mean something
to their customers. We believe .factory can give
companies a new opportunity to secure a
meaningful, memorable identity that reflects what
they make, build or create, whether that happens
in a physical facility or entirely through
technology.” Now, Colin and Michele are well aware that if more
than one qualified applicant seeks the same or
a conflicting string, the applicants may
ultimately need to resolve the contention through settlement
or an auction process. As a result, USA Made
in America has established a financing strategy
that contemplates raising up to $10 million
through a private securities offering conducted in
reliance on Rule 506(b) of Regulation |
