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Friday, December 3, 2010

Bob Parsons

Bob Parsons

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For other people of the same name, see Robert Parsons (disambiguation).
Bob Parsons
Born 1950 (age 59–60)
Maryland
Occupation Owner of GoDaddy.com
Bob (Robert) Parsons (born 1950) is an American entrepreneur. He is the CEO and founder of The Go Daddy Group, Inc., a family of companies comprising three ICANN-accredited domain name registrars, including flagship registrar GoDaddy.com, reseller registrar Wild West Domains and Blue Razor Domains. Other affiliated companies include Domains by Proxy Inc., a domain privacy company, and Starfield Technologies, the business's technology development arm.

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[edit] Background

Parsons was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and spent his childhood there. His family lived in Baltimore's inner city and struggled financially. Parsons has said about those days, "I've earned everything I've ever received. Very little was given to me. I've been working as long as I can remember. Whether it was delivering or selling newspapers, pumping gas, working in construction or in a factory, I've always been making my own money."[1]
After almost flunking out of high school, Parsons enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.[2][3] He was assigned to the 26th Marine Regiment which was attached to and operated as part of the 1st Marine Division. In 1969 he served as a rifleman in the Delta Company of the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, during a tour of duty in Vietnam, in the Quảng Nam Province.[4]
He was wounded on duty, medically evacuated and spent two months at a naval hospital recovering from his wounds. As a result of his service and injury he earned the Combat Action Ribbon, the Vietnam Gallantry Cross and the Purple Heart.[5]

[edit] Education

Parsons obtained an accounting degree, graduating magna cum laude in 1975 from the University of Baltimore.[6] He began his long-term career in software as a self-taught programmer.
The University of Baltimore conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree on Bob Parsons May 21, 2008.[7]

[edit] Parsons Technology

In 1984, he founded Parsons Technology in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and began selling MoneyCounts, a home accounting program. In late 1987, Parsons was able to quit his job and focus completely on selling and programming MoneyCounts. Eventually, Parsons Technology grew to be a 1,000-employee privately held company. On September 27, 1994, Parsons completed the sale of Parsons Technology to Intuit for $64 million.[8]

[edit] Go Daddy

Main article: Go Daddy
Parsons is founder and sole investor in the Go Daddy Group.

[edit] See also

Biography portal
United States Marine Corps portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bob Parsons blog
  2. ^ Sloan, Paul (February 28, 2007). "Who's Your Go Daddy?". CNN Money. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/12/01/8394968/index.htm. Retrieved 23 September 2010. 
  3. ^ David, Andersen; Lameen Witter (2006-02-17). Former Marine, Go Daddy CEO Talks About His Rise to Success. Marine Corps News. http://www.military.com/Careers/Content1?file=careersArticlesGoDaddy.htm&area=Reference. Retrieved 2006-06-02. 
  4. ^ Draper, John (2005-12-07). "GoDaddy's Remarkable Daddy". Worthwhile. Archived from the original on June 30, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060630092721/http://www.startupjournal.com/runbusiness/worthwhile/20051207-worthwhile3.html?refresh=on. Retrieved 2006-06-02. 
  5. ^ Jackson, Ron (October 2004). "Underachiever to Overlord: Go Daddy's Bob Parsons Started Slow Then Built Two Business Empires". Domain Name Journal. http://www.dnjournal.com/columns/cover090504.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-02. 
  6. ^ "University of Baltimore". University Relations. 2010-04-10. http://www.ubalt.edu/news/index.cfm?id=1238. Retrieved 2010-07-20. 
  7. ^ Larson, Jane (2008-05-28). "Go Daddy extends sponsorship of Danica Patrick". The Arizona Republic (Gannett). http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2008/05/24/20080524sr-godaddy0523-ON.html. Retrieved 2008-05-29. 
  8. ^ "Form:10-Q". SEC Edgar Filing Information. 1996-06-12. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/896878/0000891618-96-000868.txt. Retrieved 2006-06-02. 

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bob Parsons
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