Antony Van Couvering

Current

• Founder and CEO at Names@Work
• Board of Directors at DomainsBot

Past

• Director, Marketing & Technology at VeriSign
• Founder and CEO at NameEngine
• Founder and CEO at NetNames

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Education

• Columbia

Recommended

7 people have recommended Antony

Connections

257 connections

Industry

Internet

Antony Van Couvering’s Summary

My work is to make good ideas profitable so that they can live. From simple websites to corporate strategies, I help my clients by explaining things and building things. With ICANN's announcement that they will be accepting applications for new top-level domains, I am focusing on helping people with their ICANN applications and start-up process.

UPDATE December 2007 - I set up and negotiated a major investment in DomainsBot from Sedo, the largest aftermarket domain company.

I started Names@Work in October 2005. The seismic changes in media and marketing, created by the Internet, are an incredible opportunity. Names@Work helps people and companies take advantage of those changes.

Also in 2005, I began an energizing collaboration with DomainsBot, a company out of Rome, Italy, led by three passionate entrepreneurs and three brilliant engineers. In a short time, they have taken over their niche of domain name suggestion and are moving into that fascinating crossroads of language, computing, and search. They call me the "grey"; my job as Chairman is to help point their energies in the right direction and assist with business development, product development, and marketing.

Over the prior ten years, I started NetNames and NameEngine, which handled domain names and associated marketing and intellectual property issues for large corporations. After I sold NameEngine, I worked for VeriSign for two years.

I grew up in the U.S. and overseas (Africa, Europe, Middle East). I have a degree in comparative literature from Columbia; I waited tables in New York and managed a restaurant in Paris; I started an artbook publishing house out of Paris and New York; I edited and published the works of Joseph Campbell, a scholar of myth and religion, with HarperCollins. Then I found the Internet -- see my experience below.

Antony Van Couvering’s Specialties:

Business and marketing consulting using search, domain names, social networks, and commercial networks. Use of domain names from both a marketing and intellectual property perspective. Digital rights and intellectual property asset management; branding, naming and identity; international business, esp. US <-> Europe. Strong presenter and writer.

Antony Van Couvering’s Experience

• Founder and CEO

  Names@Work

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  August 2005 — Present (3 years)

  I started Names@Work in October 2005. We work with clients who have great ideas and need to make them work on the Web. Things have changed; there's so much more power in the hands of the customer. There's a huge payback for people who are willing to trust their customers, and earn their trust in return. The Internet is full of ways to do that, and we help our clients learn the ethos and use the technology. We're based in New York City.

• Board of Directors

  DomainsBot

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  October 2004 — Present (3 years 10 months)

  I am helping direct the work of an amazing little company in Rome, Italy. If you're interested in naming, you don't want to miss the the domain name suggestion tools at http://www.domainsbot.com. Attention: addictive.

• Director, Marketing & Technology

  VeriSign

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; VRSN; Internet industry)

  December 2001 — February 2004 (2 years 3 months)

  When I agreed to sell NameEngine to VeriSign, I also agreed to work for VeriSign for two years, in their Digital Brand Management Unit. I didn't have a very definite job there, but I guided their market strategy and argued that for a complete overhaul of their backend systems and domain management system -- which I oversaw.

• Founder and CEO

  NameEngine

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  May 1999 — December 2001 (2 years 8 months)

  Founded and ran NameEngine, an Internet services company handling domain names and other IP assets for major corporations. Grew to 40 employees and a marquis client list without venture funding. Sold company to VeriSign December 2001.

• Founder and CEO

  NetNames

  (Public Company; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  May 1996 — July 1998 (2 years 3 months)

  Started NetNames USA, the first company devoted to working with domain names on an international basis, discovering and developing the market for working with corporations who treat domain names as intellectual property. Sold company to NetBenefit, an English web-hosting company listed on the London exchange.

Antony Van Couvering’s Education

• Columbia

  A.B., Comparative Literature, Classics, September 1978 — May 1983

  Activities and Societies:

  My activity at Columbia was exploring New York and avoiding anything sponsored by Columbia.