Interview: Blake Irving, Go Daddy’s fresh CEO
Longtime Go Daddy client now at its helm.
This morning I talked with Blake Irving, who was just named Chief Executive Officer of Go Daddy, regarding why he chose to join the firm.
It turns out Irving is no stranger to the domain registration and web hosting giant.
“I’ve been a Go Daddy client for five years,” he stated.
“I host 45 domains with them, and I’ve been a fan of the firm since I purchased my first domain.”
Irving stated he’s also helped friends and family get online by registering domains at Go Daddy.
And yes, Irving owns the domain BlakeIrving.com.
Irving was most recently Chief Product Officer at Yahoo. He sees a lot of similarities between what he did there and what Go Daddy’s mission is.
“At a high level, Go Daddy is a platform for modest businesses with a series of products on top of the platform,” he stated. “You can view Yahoo in the same way. It is a platform for media consumption and communications.”
Irving also has experience expanding in a global marketplace, which is one of Go Daddy’s main goals right now.
Go Daddy Interim CEO Scott Wagner told me that Irving is the perfect fit for the firm.
“He’s an individual that will absolutely fit with the Go Daddy culture,” stated Wagner. “He’s incredibly passionate with a hard charging work ethic and a bend-over-backwards to get it done ethos.”
Prior to Wagner taking the interim CEO role, Go Daddy was led by Warren Adelman. Adelman had many years of experience in the domain industry at Go Daddy. It will be interesting to see what Irving’s outside perspective brings to the firm that manages more domain names than any other firm.
