Bob Parsons

Bob Parsons, possibly best-known as the founder of GoDaddy, is widely recognized for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic efforts. Currently, Bob is the CEO and founder of YAM Worldwide, which is home to his entrepreneurial ventures in the fields of motorcycles, golf, real estate, finance, marketing, innovation and philanthropy. Bob Parsons is a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and a recipient of the Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon and Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He attended college at the University of Baltimore on the G.I. Bill and graduated magna cum laude. His alma mater presented him with an honorary doctorate in 2008 and named him Distinguished Entrepreneur in 2010. In 1984 Parsons started his first business, Parsons Technology, in his basement after teaching himself how to write computer programs. When Parsons Technology was sold to Intuit in 1994 for $64 million, the company had nearly one thousand employees, $100 million in annual revenue and three million customers. Three years later, Parsons launched Jomax Technologies which would later become GoDaddy – the world’s largest domain name registrar. He sold a majority stake in 2011, in a deal that valued the company at $2.3 billion. In 2012 Parsons founded YAM Worldwide under which he owns and operates more than a dozen companies, including PXG (Parsons Xtreme Golf), Scottsdale National Golf Club, Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale, GO AZ Motorcycles, and YAM Properties. Over the years, three of Parsons entrepreneurial ventures – Parsons Technology (#11, 1992), GoDaddy (#8, 2004) and now PXG (#123, 2019) – have been recognized by Inc Magazine as being among America’s fastest growing privately-held companies. Parsons, with his wife and PXG President of Apparel, Renee started The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation in 2012 to reach marginalized populations and causes often underfunded by mainstream philanthropy. The Foundation provides transformational grants to nonprofit organizations successfully working in the areas of homelessness, medical care, LGBTQ youth, education and the needs of wounded veterans and military families. In his new book, FIRE IN THE HOLE!, Bob tells the story of how he went from having absolutely nothing to making more than $3 billion dollars. FIRE IN THE HOLE! is honest, hilarious, outrageous, raw, and full of valuable business and life lessons.