A 21 year old Kochiite just struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg
- 16 Apr 2016
- varun kannan
- Features
Ok, No. Amal Agustine didn’t sit across the table, shake hands with Mike and say “ it was nice doing business with you” at the end of the meeting. If that’s what you were expecting, sorry to disappoint you. But yes, he did sell something that was bought by Zuckerberg’s Asset Management firm ICONIQ Capital. But what is it that Amal had that got no less than Mark Zuckerberg interested?
Have you heard of cybersquatting? Cybersquatting is the tech-geek version of gambling. It involves buying domains with names of important person or events and selling them off to someone who would actually want them. You can buy a domain for less than Rs 100 and sell it off to the buyer, easily making a profit of 400 to 500 percent on more. And what's more, it is totally legal, of course!
On December 1, Mark Zuckerberg announced the birth of his daughter Maxima Chan Zuckerberg and then wrote an emotional letter to her promising to use 99% percent of Facebook's share (valued at $45 Billion) for social initiatives. Well, all this made Max arguably the most famous toddler on earth.
While all this happened, Amal Augustine, a 21-year-old electronic and communication engineering student at KMEA Engineering College, Aluva, bought a domain named ‘maxchanzuckerberg.org’. A frequent cybersquatter, it was among the many other domains that he bought. Well, was hoping to sell it of to MarkZuckerberg, someday? We don't know but all gamblers should bet on their luck, shouldn’t they?
However, he was pleasantly surprised when contacted by GoDaddy expressing interest in buying the domain. He quoted a decent 700$ hoping to close the deal at 500$. Surprisingly, no negotiations were made and the deal was closed at 700 $. The domain now redirects to http://chanzuckerberg.com/
But little did Amal know that it was Sarah Kim from ICONIQ Capital, the wealth manager of Mark Zuckerberg who contacted him through GoDaddy and this domain could be used by max in the future. But that would make $700 too meagre a sum, right? Especially when you strike a deal with the wealth management of one of the richest men on earth? Amal begs to differ
According to his Facebook posts
“They asked me what my purchase amount is and I said $700, thinking they would agree for at least $500. To my surprise, they agreed to the amount which I demanded. In fact, my friends later told me I could have made a better deal. But, this is my first deal and I have no regrets.”
Amal was not available for comments. But good going young man and congrats on the deal!
