This is Gary Kremen. Why is he bathed in light and you are not? Because he is stupid rich. Gary Kremen is the founder of Match.com, but that’s not the stupid rich part. Gary Kremen is also the original owner of Sex.com, ahhh there it is. In 1996 online porn mogul Stephen Cohen had the domain name sex.com fraudulently transferred to his name. After a lengthy court battle Kremen won back the name from Cohen in a settlement for $65 million. Kremen later sold the domain name for $12 million. That’s $77 million for all you math people… Wait, what’s the stupid part? Also the original owner of Jobs.com, Housing.com, and Autos.com, Kremen in a New York Times article estimated his net worth at $10 million. Math people, please figure this out for me.

En août 2002, et après plus de 8 ans de procédure judiciaire, le nom de domaine Sex.com restait toujours au coeur une âpre bataille. En 1994, Gary KREMEN dépose sex.com après de la société Verisign, qui gère les noms de domaine en .com, .net et .org. Un an plus tard, Verisign réattribue le nom sex.com à Stephen COHEN sur la foi d’un document falsifié. Gary KREMEN dépose alors plainte et obtient finalement gain de cause en 2001 et la justice condamne finalement son opposant à lui verser… 65 MILLIONS de dollars de dommages. Mais COHEN a pris la poudre d’escampette en fuyant vers le MEXIQUE. Gary se retourne donc vers Verisign. Il obtiendra finalement 14 millions !

Le web reste un espace suscptible de construire de grandes fortunes. Avec une facilité déconcertante…

I don’t think I’ve written about my friend Gary on this blog. Today you’ll meet another person from my porn-past.

In this photo, the man on the left is Gary Kremen. He is the founder of the online dating site Match.com, but also owned the domain name sex.com as well. At one time he was my business partner. In fact, when I was in the porn world he was the first business partner I had. We went into business together 3 years after I started in the adult business. The partnership didn’t last very long, but our friendship continues to this day.

My friendship with Gary began because he was intrigued by the porn business. He’d originally meant the “sex” domain to work hand in hand with Match.com as a sort of sex education website. Those plans changed when a con man named Stephen Cohen stole the domain from him and turned it into a porn site. Gary spent several years and millions of dollars getting the domain back. By the time it was again in his possession it was making so much money from porn advertising that he left it “as-is” and officially became a pornographer. I remember being at his 40th birthday party where his mother introduced her children to those who didn’t know them by saying, “This is my daughter the photographer, and my son the pornographer”. At the time, it was amusing.

Gary had never meant to be a pornographer. He eventually sold the sex.com domain for $14 million after being awarded a $65 million judgment against the con man who stole it from him as well as another multi-million dollar judgment against Network Solutions, the company that transferred ownership of the domain to Stephen Cohen to begin with.

This morning I read this article, talking about Gary’s latest venture: his plans to provide financing for solar energy to the masses. In the photo taken above Gary and I were discussing that very plan over dinner here in my hometown. I think it’s a great idea, and I really hope it catches on.

The gist of Gary’s plan is to make solar financing very similar to vehicle financing. Think of a car dealership: when a person finds the car they wish to buy, the dealer is able to offer financing on the spot. Gary wants his company to be THE financing option when a solar energy salesperson is speaking with a prospective client. The salesperson can offer solar energy products, and immediately set the customer up with financing through Clean Power Finance, Gary’s company.

He may be a bit ahead of his time, but I won’t be at all surprised if this latest venture is just as financially successful as his previous endeavors. You go, Gary!

Tags: GaryKremen, Donny Pauling

I had dinner tonight with yet another person who is no longer in porn (do a google search for Gary Kremen). The man on the left is Gary Kremen. On the right is Thede Loder.

Gary was once a business partner with me when I was in the adult industry. He founded Match.com and Sex.com. Read the wikipedia article about him. He has quite the story.