Conversation with Donuts, which just applied for 307 TLDs — A tasty

Donuts rolls in a lot of dough, but you’ll have to wait another week to see which domains they applied for.

This morning Donuts, a fresh TLD applicant founded by eNom founder Paul Stahura, disclosed the most ambitious public fresh TLD plans to date: a $100 investment and 307 applications.

The firm also hired Mason Cole as Vice President, Communications and Industry Relations. I had the chance to connect with him this morning to understand more regarding Donuts’ plans.

Cole told me the firm looked at thousands of possible strings, ultimately settling on the 307 it has applied for. Back in January Bloomberg noted that Donuts was applying for 10 strings, but Cole states that may have been a miscommunication between Stahura and the Bloomberg reporter.

“At the time the final number hadn’t been settled on,” stated Cole.

Cole isn’t sure how many of the 307 strings will be contested by other applicants. The firm is prepared to bring all 307 to market.

“I can tell you we’ve made sure to resource the firm in a way that would allow us to get all 307 strings if we decide to,” he stated.

Cole was tight-lipped on what the firm is doing in the digital archery process for batching. He also stated the firm does not plan to reveal its applications until ICANN makes them public on June 13.

The firm disclosed today that it will use Demand Media as its backend registry provider. Stahura sold eNom to Demand Media in 2006. Demand Media has disclosed its own $18 million investment in fresh top level domains, but it has not invested in Donuts. Assuming Demand Media is applying for its own TLDs, it will be interesting to see if there’s any contention between Demand Media’s domains and those of Donuts. Cole stated he can’t comment on Demand Media’s business.

For now, Donuts is engaged in a high stakes game of digital archery and is preparing for whatever roadblocks that may occur — but hoping for no more delays.

“I’d hope that following six years in the entire process there wouldn’t be any additional delays,” stated Cole. “The process is nothing if not thorough.”

Oh, and if you’re wondering why the business is called Donuts:

“The name evokes choice, which is what this program is all regarding.”

I wonder what TLD equates to a maple frosted krispy kreme? I’ll take a dozen of those.