Interview with Steven Sikes Founder of YouAnd.ME and Domainer
Steven Sikes is co-founder of YouAnd.ME, a rapidly growing online dating site. He is also a domain investor who found domaining almost by accident after offers for names came in after he would purchase a name for a new business idea. After seeing the value of domains he began investing and has recently been successful with his .ME domain investments, but without further ado. Here is Steves interview:
Steve, I have to ask, what drove you to travel around the world at 18 years of age? That sounds like an amazing experience.
I received an academic scholarship to my university, Vanderbilt, and took high level science classes like organic chemistry, theoretical physics and molecular biology my freshman year; and I’d enrolled at the age of 17. Like many others in my dorm, I was pre-med. But I was overwhelmed by the course load, while also participating in intramural sports.
When I returned home for the summer, I worked as a construction worker and read travel books at night. Books by Graham Greene, Hemingway, Bruce Chatwin, and Paul Theroux. So I decided to break the news to my parents that I was going to take a leave of absence from the university and that I was giving up “pre-med” to pursue a life as a “writer”. Of course, this was some romantic notion and foolhardy at the time. But my parents always let me follow my own path, so they agreed and I sold my car and used my summer work money to pay for this trip around the world. I first boarded a Polish freighter ship in Wilmington, NC and went across the Atlantic and got off in Le Havre France. The “around-the-world” ticket allowed the passenger to use it within one year, with the stipulation that you had to move forward or diagonal in flight, and never back-tracking. So I combined this global journey with ship, train, bus and air travel, and the occasional hitchhiking. All in all, it was a fantastic experience and highly educational. I definitely made it on less than $10 per day, mostly by living in hostels or camping outdoors and cheap eats.
Care to share any stories from your travels or any or your other outdoor adventures?
For the rest of the interview, visit;
http://brucemarler.com/interview-with-steven-sikes-founder-of-youandme-and-domainer/
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