Ray King is founder + CEO of a domain name registry called Top Level Design (TLD) and a registrar called PorkBun. Ray is a quiet legend here in Portland, Oregon as a serial tech entrepreneur who has founded six companies, beginning his first one in high school. He has had three successful exits and his two current companies are trending in a very positive direction. Despite all of this success, Ray talks about failure and how his only failed company 6 years ago has haunted him and he has been quietly proving himself ever since with building TLD + PorkBun.
As with all of us, Ray’s journey has not been a straight line to where we are now. He grew up in Manhattan, and as a kid in the early 80's, he’d be on the NYC streets near a paper stand, wowing people with what a computer could do. As an introvert, this was mind-bending to experience the amazing possibilities of converting strangers into customers and friends. It gave him the confidence to start and build tech-related companies from nothing into real businesses. And that confidence was hugely important when he had to drop out of college for a year to care for his ailing Dad. Tune into Ray’s powerful story in this podcast episode.