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     Gary Millin and his company, World Accelerator, have taken venture capitalism to a new level with their intriguing business model. In addition to offering professional aid to enterprising entrepreneurs, Millin owns millions of dollars worth of domain names, that prospective companies can lease from World Accelerator, and use for themselves.
     Millin got into the business of domain names in the early days of the internet. It all started in the mid-90s, when Millin bought the domain mail.com along with investment banker Gerald Gorman at Harvard Business School. mail.com would reach billion-dollar valuations on the Nasdaq, and Millin found himself buying portfolios of generic domain names, including usa.com, doctor.com, and many others which have sold for upwards of a million dollars.
     Though you can no longer directly purchase domains from Millin, he has stayed true to his roots of venture capitalism, and genuinely seeks to use his resources to help startups success. Millin strongly believes that a domain can boost, and in some cases define a company's public image. Though he could potentially sell some of his domains directly for substantial amounts, Millin claims that he would "rather participate in the whole growth process", explaining that "if we can bet on a company and they get successful, that's more rewarding than saying 'hey, send me a check."
     While there are some who might take issue with the way Millin is seemingly hoarding these domain names, contradicting the ideal of a 'free internet', I admire Millin's opportunism, and the way he uses his stockpile of domain names to benefit small startups and businesses, rather than just profiting off them, or leaving them to rot. Nonetheless, Millin's case certainly brings up interesting questions about the concept of ownership on the internet, and while I personally see nothing wrong with what World Accelerator is doing on the marketplace, it may not be long before more intrusive monopolies come into play, and it will be interesting to see how a not-so-generous opportunist could monetize the industry were they in Millin's position.

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