When Parsons Technology was sold to Intuit, Inc., in 1994 for $64 million, the company had nearly 1000 employees, $100 million in annual revenue, and 3 million customers. At the time, Parsons Technology sold more than 100 products, was releasing a new product or significant product upgrade every six days, and sending more than 6 million pieces of direct marketing mail each month.

In 1997, Parsons started Jomax® Technologies, using funds from the sale of Parsons Technology. He renamed the company Go Daddy® in 1999 and in 2000, Go Daddy became an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar.

Today, The Go Daddy Group, Inc. family of companies is comprised of three ICANN-accredited domain name registrars, including flagship registrar GoDaddy.com® and reseller registrar Wild West Domains®, Inc., as well as Starfield Technologies™, Inc., its technology development arm.

Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Parsons’ business philosophy has been to create low-priced, feature-rich products combined with the highest levels of customer service. This philosophy has fueled Go Daddy’s growth, leading it to become the No. 1 registrar worldwide, both in terms of new registrations and domains under management. Go Daddy® currently registers or renews a domain name every 2-1/2 seconds, has nearly 3 million customers worldwide, manages more than 15.6 million domain names and employs more than 1200 people. Most of the applications sold on GoDaddy.com® are developed in-house and none of its customer support is outsourced or off-shored.

Parsons has driven the expansion of Go Daddy’s core business beyond domain names, so that it now includes web site hosting, secure SSL certificates, and email accounts. With more than 20 complementary products and services, Go Daddy is a one-stop shop that enables individuals to establish, maintain, and evolve an online presence.

In November 2005, Parsons accepted Arizona’s prestigious “Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year,” awarded at the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation.

Parsons’ personal web blog, www.bobparsons.com ranks in the top 1% of most visited blogs on the Internet, out of 100 million+ blogs worldwide. Parsons also hosts a weekly radio show, Life OnlineTM with Bob Parsons (www.lifeonline.com), broadcast over the Internet, as well as XM and Sirius Satellite radio.

Go Daddy was named the fastest growing privately held technology company (ranked # 8 overall) on the Inc. 500 List of America’s Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies in 2004. In 2006, Go Daddy made the list for a third consecutive year.

Parsons joined the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War and received the Combat Action Ribbon, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and a Purple Heart Medal. Upon his return, Parsons enrolled in the University of Baltimore where he earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

• Session: What GoDaddy Knows