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(Left
to right): Lars Jensen, Stevan Lieberman and Thomas Medard introduced
Nicky.me to the
broader domain community at the June 2024 NamesCon Global conference
in Austin, Texas.
When
I saw Lars, Stevan and Thomas standing in front of the Nicky booth
at NamesCon Global last year, I first assumed one of them was starting a
new venture and the other two were visiting. Just about everybody
already knows ShortDot SA CEO & Founder Lars Jensen as one of
the busiest multiple company entrepreneurs in the tech world so he was
the prime suspect. However, I have known Stevan Lieberman, one of
the top domain attorneys in the world, for over 20 years and he is
also a busy entrepreneur (Escrow.domains
being one of his well established businesses). So perhaps it was him. I
had not met Thomas before but was aware of his long history of success,
so it was starting to look like a tossup. When I learned they were all in this one
together, along with a
fourth equally accomplished co-founder, Matheus
Leite, I knew I had been better take a photo because this is
the kind of "dream team" we would be hearing more from
going forward.
So
here we are a year later, seeing many new instances of cryptocurrency being
woven into the world's legacy financial fabric. It was obviously
the right
time to circle back around and get the full story on how this intriguing
partnership came about and how they are competing in a new arena
that is already getting crowded. To me the most interesting part of
every entrepreneurial story is the people behind the endeavor.
Having just met Thomas (who serves as Nicky's COO) at the last
NamesCon, I wanted to hear more from him. This gave me an opportunity to
do that and, at the same time, get an inside view of the
new venture.
| "I’ve
known Lars for about 10 years through the domain industry,"
Thomas began. "We’ve worked in similar circles, and one
thing we’ve always had in common is that we get motivated
by spotting opportunities early - and by solving real
problems that people face every day. Especially the kind of
problems that hold businesses back from growing. So when Lars
told me he was looking at the challenges around crypto payments,
I paid close attention."
"Lars
was the one who first saw the gap. He noticed how hard it
still was for businesses to accept crypto, even though demand
was there. Clients were asking to pay in Bitcoin or USDT,
but businesses often didn’t know how to handle it without
introducing risk, confusion, or a bad user experience. It
wasn’t a new idea - but it hadn’t been done well yet."
"That’s
when Lars brought me in and introduced me to Stevan and
his other co-founder, Matheus Leite. Stevan’s
reputation speaks for itself - he’s seen it all, both from the
legal and domain sides, and he immediately understood the
regulatory and trust hurdles we’d need to clear. Matheus
brought deep experience from both |
Nicky.me
COO Thomas Medard |
|
the
crypto space and as a domain investor himself, having
worked in both worlds for years. His understanding of how buyers
and sellers actually behave - especially in peer-to-peer deals -
has been a huge asset to the product," Thomas said. |
"I’ve spent most
of my career building tools that helped people get online - from
domain platforms to website builders. In the early days, most people
didn’t know how to register a domain or create a website. We made
that possible for millions. Today, crypto feels like it’s in that
same early phase - powerful, but confusing. And we all saw the
parallel. The fit just made sense. We had different strengths, but
the same mindset: solve something real, keep it simple, and build it
the right way from day one. We didn’t want to reinvent crypto - we
just wanted to make it practical and usable in a world we already
understood. That’s how Nicky started and from day one, we knew the
only way it would work is if it felt normal to the people using it. It
needed to feel like something they already knew - something familiar. So
we’ve built it around those principles ever since," Thomas said.
|
Since
we are still in the early days of this convergence of crypto and
fiat currencies, no one knows exactly how big the opportunity if
or how far we are into the adoption path but Thomas has some
thoughts on that. "We’re still early - but not too
early," he noted. "Crypto is past the curiosity
phase. People trust it more now. They use it for real
things. But for most businesses, actually accepting crypto still
feels complicated. They worry about wallets, taxes, volatility,
regulations - you name it. That’s why so many just avoid it
altogether. This is where Nicky comes in. We take that mess
off the table. You don’t need to touch crypto. You don’t
need to understand blockchain. You get a simple payment flow,
fast settlement in fiat, and no added risk and the numbers back
it up. According to Chainalysis,
over 400 million crypto wallets now hold a positive
balance. That’s not just theoretical adoption - these are real
users with funds, looking to spend."
Thomas added,
"We also ran a survey across our own network, asking
businesses if they had ever been asked by a customer to pay with
crypto. 67% said yes, more than once. That’s not a
one-time thing - it’s a pattern. It shows that crypto buyers
are already here, and they expect options. If you don’t
offer it, they’ll often move on."
"In
the domain world, this opens a clear opportunity,"
Thomas said. "Registrars, domain sellers, and marketplaces
are sitting on products and domain inventory that crypto holders
are ready to buy. But without a smooth payment option for
crypto, those deals move on. With Nicky, these |
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businesses can turn
that demand into completed sales - without changing their
systems or adding risk. We meet them where they already are,
with tools that fit right into their existing flow. That’s why
the opportunity is still wide open. The interest is here. The
infrastructure is ready. And adoption is now a matter of
execution." |
One thing
we've seen in common with many of Lars Jensen's ventures is a way for
clients to open a new revenue stream beyond what they receive in their
initial transaction with a customer. That is part of Nicky.me's appeal
as well. "Yes - and Nicky is designed to support both merchants
and channel reseller partners," Thomas noted. "Merchants
are any business that wants to accept crypto. That could be a domain
registrar, a hosting company, an ecommerce, or even a service provider
offering consulting or development. As long as they want to get paid in
crypto, they’re a fit."
"Channel
reseller partners are typically registrars, hosting companies, or
marketplaces that serve a larger user base. They integrate Nicky into
their platform, resell it to their customers, offer crypto as a payment
method, and earn revenue on every transaction processed through their
channel and those two roles aren’t mutually exclusive. Many of our
partners do both. They use Nicky to collect crypto payments
themselves and offer it to their user base as a value-added
service," Thomas said.
|
"We’ve
made the referral engine automatic," he continued.
"When someone completes a crypto transaction through a
Nicky-powered checkout, they receive a follow-up email inviting
them to open a Nicky account themselves - it’s fully
optional - the payer doesn’t have to. Behind the scenes, this
is part of an automated email funnel that educates them, builds
trust, and encourages them to try it themselves. If they sign
up, they’re automatically marked as referred by the original
partner - and that partner earns a cut of everything that
user does going forward. So Nicky doesn’t just support
crypto payments - it builds a passive revenue stream from every
new user introduced through your network. You’re not just
checking out customers - you’re bringing them into a larger
ecosystem where everyone wins." |
Image
from Bigstock |
Now that Nicky has been up and running for over a year, the partners
feel the feedback they've gotten from customers has proven they are on
the right path. "Most of the feedback we get is that it just
works," Thomas said. "That may not sound flashy, but
it’s exactly what people want when it comes to payments. No
friction. No confusion. Just a smooth, secure experience."
"We’re
seeing good adoption among different types of merchants too - domain
sellers, brokers, registrars, eCommerce businesses and even global
freelancers. We’re also gaining traction fast, and several
industry-leading companies are now building on Nicky. NameSilo
launched Nicky in March, and they’ve had great success offering
crypto payments as a payment method inline with regular credit card
payments. They made it visible, promoted it well, and their users
responded. That’s a great example of how this can work at scale."
|
Thomas added "Saw.com,
(founded by Jeff Gabriel, one of the most successful
domain brokers in industry hstory), is also integrating Nicky
and will launch crypto payments through us in Q3. As a brokerage
firm with deep expertise in the secondary domain market their
team understands exactly how transactions happen in this space
and has seen increasing demand from clients wanting to use
crypto. This new partnership with Nicky is their way of
responding directly to that demand - adding more flexibility
to how deals can close, especially across borders and time
zones." |
|
"Openprovider,
one of Europe’s largest domain and SSL wholesalers, is also going live
in Q3 with a full integration of Nicky. They’ll use it for their own
crypto payments, resell it to their network of resellers, and even
enable those resellers to offer Nicky to their own end-customers.
That’s made possible through our API-based multi-tier reseller
model, which we support out of the box," Thomas said.
"Support-wise,
we’ve kept things tight. We don’t disappear after integration.
We do hands-on setup, tech support on Slack, comprehensive
documentation and guides, and we give our partners the tools they need
to promote and support Nicky on their own. And we don’t
nickel-and-dime on fees or contracts - what you see is what you get. So
overall, it’s been a strong first year - and we’re just getting
started."
Circling
back around to where we began and PayPal's announced entry into the
game, we wanted to know if the Nicky founders viewed that as a net
positive (with increased mainstream recognition for cryptocurrency) or
negative (as new competition from an 800-pound gorilla). Thomas told us,
"I see PayPal’s move as a really strong validation that crypto
payments are going mainstream now. At Nicky, we do focus a bit
differently though. We’ve built our product with deep roots in the
hosting industry, and we’ve prioritized real innovation - like being wallet-agnostic
and non-custodial, which gives merchants full control over
their funds, without locking them into proprietary systems or high
fees. And as far as I know, no one else in the crypto payment space has
built a true reseller model like ours, where partners can offer Nicky to
their user base and earn revenue on their customers’ transactions for
years to come. I’m looking forward to seeing more people become
familiar with crypto payments through moves like PayPal’s - it helps
grow awareness, drives education, and benefits the entire ecosystem."
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If you would like to know more
about Nicky's services or have any other questions, Thomas will
answer them. "They’re welcome to contact me directly - [email protected]
or connect with me on LinkedIn.
We’re a small, accessible team, and I’m happy to speak with
anyone who wants to understand how Nicky works or explore a
partnership. They can also visit Nicky.me
and use the contact form or the chat widget on the site. We’re
quick to respond and usually offer to jump on a call if someone
has questions. If they’re already in touch with Lars or
Stevan, they can go through them as well. We work closely
together, and we all stay aligned," Thomas concluded. |
Image
from Bigstock |
Postcript: When
we interview industry leaders we often end the conversation with an
invitation to comment on any other industry issue or matter they feel
would benefit our readers or the industry at large. We frequently
get thought provoking, useful ideas in return, as was the case with
Thomas's response to that invitation below:
When I look at the domain and hosting industry today,
I see how much of it is driven by short-term revenue metrics.
ARPU, upsell flows, pricing ladders - that stuff dominates the
conversation now. And I get it. Most of the big hosting groups are
VC-backed. The pressure to show fast growth is massive. But here’s the
thing - this industry wasn’t built on maximizing revenue per user.
It was built on making it easier for people to get online.
|
Thomas
Medard |
Back in the early
2000s, we were building tools and developing user interfaces
that made it possible for people to create their own online
presence. We bundled services, removed complexity, and focused
on making the Internet accessible and usable for both technical
and non-technical users. We weren’t chasing margins. We
were solving real problems. That wave of hands-on, practical
innovation is what helped millions of small businesses get
online and grow. And that foundation is still what the industry
stands on today.
What
worries me is that the innovation curve has been replaced
with what I’d call a revenue treadmill. If you’ve been
in this industry long enough, you’ve probably felt it too.
Price increases happen fast. Product updates are mostly
cosmetic. And the user goodwill that took decades to build is
being spent quickly. It doesn’t have to be that way. I think
it’s time we bring back what made this industry strong in the
first place - a bias toward building, toward usefulness,
toward making life easier for the people we serve. Call it
the return of the builder phase, if you want.
Crypto
payments are a perfect example of where that energy is needed.
The demand is here. The infrastructure is maturing. But most
companies haven’t
prioritized it because it’s not an |
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instant revenue lever.
That’s why we built Nicky. Not to chase a hype cycle, but to
quietly solve a real problem that’s already slowing down deals
and frustrating users. And we did it the way early founders used
to do things - by focusing on the customer experience first. |
So
if there’s one thing I’d leave readers with, it’s this: let’s
make room for product innovation again. The kind that leads to tools
that guide users through technology they used to find difficult - and
helps them do valuable, meaningful things with it. That’s how we
bring in the next generation of growth in the domain and hosting space
- not just by raising prices, but by raising the standard of what we
deliver to users. |
