200

P.S. This post was highly accidental. I am on the shitter pinching a loaf with my powerbook. Thank you. :error

One of my goals is to make the Fortune 40 Richest Americans Under 40 - As of 2004s list I am close to making the list. Once I'm comfortable in the fact I qualify to be on it, I'll hire a publicist and get the ball rolling. :)

Glad to see this is your reading material of choice :)

Very nice answerds Marc

Marc, can we go back to the beginning? Most of the questions don't seem to have covered the early years.... we only know about you post-ARS.

How old were you when you started your online/porn business? Why did you do it and how did it come about? Did you have any guidance or peers involved in the early stages.

I guess I'm most curious to know how a really young man winds up creating a very successful affiliate program at a time when there weren't so many programs out there.

Did it take a lot of investment.... surely you needed to be a programmer or have some programmers to create and design your sites/programs. Did you get your start under the tutelage of an existing program or friend in the business?

In other words, how did you get the idea and seed money to get started. Once you had the idea, you would need capital to program, design, promote, and have content for the sites or pay thousands of dollars in plugin content. Bandwidth was more expensive back then too (but perhaps not a problem for an affiliate program because their were no free hosted galleries at that time) and pay sites dont eat up much BW.

Marc, what is your relationship with Dave from Pimproll?

are you a cop or something?

absolutely :thumbsup

I'm not clear on whether it's just your adult company that's private or whether your video game company is already public since you acquired it.

Can we buy stocks in your video game company? If I recall correctly, you said you're the 4th or 5th largest out there, I assume you want to be number one someday? Do you expect lots of growth.

If it works out, everybody can thank me later. Substantive advice rocks!

I doubt he was saying his software house was the 4th/5th in the videogame market...

Good read, thanks for answering the questions marc.

Marc De - how much you pay in taxes per average (the company you own that is) ;) ?

Top 40 under 40, is that about $300 million?

I don't have the list in front of me, but I think its around $100 million

Kevin Garnett was in 40th last year with $106 million.

bookmarked! awesome interview! :thumbsup

Nice Interview Marc, always good to read about the success you have had!

I hope you get to that top 40 under 40 goal!

Good luck

i'm wondering if andrew conru made this list - his assets arn't really public knowledge though

It was around 4PM right by that bar where ARS was having a party toward the back side of the hotel right before you go outside on the right side facing towards the ocean.

impressive

Marc... what's the specs on the motor coach you have?

wow, sounds like someone else is blessed (or cursed dependant on situation) with the same insane memory for details that I inherited...


:helpme


PS: Great interview! Interesting read...

someone wants to compare 'moters' lol

seriously though - good question :thumbsup

Great interview

back to work marc!!!!!


someone crack that whip!

21. What businesses do you own/run outside of adult now? Did adult fund their startup?

I own the following businesses, I'll try to follow each with a short description.

DMA Real Estate - Owns income producing property, also owns most of the locations that our restaurants are on.

DMA Food Group - A hospitality company with 6 restaurants throughout Mid Michigan.

S2 Games - Develops PC video games, first title Savage which won Indepent Game of 2004 (a VERY high honor)

iGames - owns happypuppy.com and sells millions of ad impressions per month to video game distributors

nXi - Builds composite goalie hockey masks - considered the best mask in the biz and soon to break into the catcher mask market.

22. Who do you look up to in the adult business? Down on?

I look up to anyone who runs a professional, ethical shop. Specifically I looked up to Rich & Bob Botto, and Dean Shannon (many others included but those 2 stick out).

I tend not to look down on people, however, those people that run their mouth with no regard to how unprofessional and ignorant it makes them look (REGARDLESS for the reasons of acting like such an asshole).

23. Who was your favorite affiliate? - not necessairly volume.

Dr Bill - come back dude! :)

24. If you could do it all over in this biz from day 1 - what would you do different?

Have more stringent requirements for content minimums and quality for sites in the ARS portfolio.

25. How many salaried employees did ARS have at it's peek?

I would guess approx. 25

Ok - I'm done for the evening... Sorry for the delay. Tomorrow I'll go through and answer specific questions and finish up question 26-30 :)

Is DMA involved with Damon's?

And are you famailar with "Badger" masks, owned by Bob Perani (if you're involved in hockey and live in Michigan chances are you've heard of Perani's), does your company produce similar masks or are yours the "next generation" of masks?

http://i8.ebayimg.com/03/i/04/88/27/de_1_b.JPG


Dam, cool hockey masks. I need one to wear around the office.

haha, wow, i emailed you back on 12/6/04 at that geocities address about those cars :winkwink:

nice nice man...

Awesome deal with the masks biz. I knew about the others but had no idea about this other one.

I did not realize it was that low... :)


now there is a nice goal to shoot for... 4 more years :)

7 guys will drop off this list top 40 under 40 of fortune next year making room for a lot more :)

to get to the top 400 people in the world ya need 750 Mil or so

Absolutely fantastic interview. WTG Sleazy and thanks for sharing Marc De.

:thumbsup

Wow. You own a lot of other businesses . How many employees you have in total ?

Why is that?

Probably because they're 39 yrs old as of the last list :winkwink:

oh snap :1orglaugh

:Oh crap

Have you ever been approached by other companies interested in buying ARS from you (serious offers)?

Where do you see yourself and the adult industry 5 years from now?

How did you feel when Nastydollars took the industry by storm?

What's the dollar value of the largest loan you've ever taken?

What are your thoughts on P2P marketing for adult sites, spam, and mobile phone marketing for adult content?

I assume most of your peers know about your success. Has that ever caused any problems for you?

That's only for the people they know about; it's probably much higher. I've met a few people who could be on the Forbes list but they're not.
I was once introduced too a billionaire who was walking down the street to his stamp collecting meeting; I'd never heard of him and to look at him and his attaire you would have thought he was poor.
It's really quite amazing at the amount of money that is out there.

ROFL - I know Bob personally... cool dude.

Secondly, Steve "Badger" operates nXi for me - so I'm VERY familiar with the "Badger" mask (as obviously Steve is) haha :)

PK - my RV is a Mandalay 40E - 42 ft w/ quad slide out, 400 hp 1200 torque diesel. I love it, great ride, plenty of power, nice amenities. :)

a.) I see ARS doing very well and myself far less involved than I am now (which is already diminished than my peak) involved in day to day operations.

b.) Nasty Dollars didn't 'take' anything, they grew just like any big program. I vew them as a big program, no more, no less :) They have great content and a solid payout structure. It's actually pretty easy to grow with those 2 things!

c.) $3,000,000

d.) I'm unfamiliar with all those aspects of this business. I'm quite interested in the future of Mobile though, so some investigation and market studies may be done in my organization soon. Spam = bad, always has always will. Now it = worse :)

e.) I don't flaunt my success and I don't belittle anyone because of my money so its not much of an issue :)

26. How long did it take for you to get to processing over 1 million dollars a month?

About 8 months :)

27. Do you make employees live with you to controll their entire lives?

Oh this is too funny. No no no - that is called me having a big heart and helping a friend who is also an employee with this 'situation' :) Trust me, it was not I who controlled his entire life haha ;)

28. Discuss the 2 most impacting life changing experiences of your life?

Quite simple - meeting my wife who has made me a better man and opened my eyes to experiencing life in ways I never would without her and of course, having children. My 2 boys (soon to be 3) have taught me things about myself and life that I would not have learned without them. They've also given me the patience I so desperately needed. Don't get me wrong, I could use some more but I'm sure that will come with age :)

27. Talk about your new online adult ventures. (Scott, learn to count hahaha ;) )

Right now ARS is growing fast and furious. With the addition of over 350 new BYOT tours to our existing stable of sites and a killer cam portfolio combined with the latest promotions and soon to come FREE LAPTOP Promo, things are going well. If you haven't check out ARS in a while, you should. We have the best stats in the biz, over 400 tours in total crossing most niches, price point control and high payouts.

28. What are your favorite webmaster events? Which do you attend now and plan on attending? (again)

Not a fan of any really and I'll probably attend Vegas in January :)

29. Who are your closest friends in this business outside of your company?

I'm an intrevert and I don't really form strong friendships outside of 'circle of trust' (yeah, straight out of Meet The Parents). I enjoy conversation with many people in the biz.

30. How many miles do you think you could swim before not being able to go any further? Would you wear a loose fitting swim suit or skin tight?

hahaha dayum good question - I think I could swim a mile before I collapsed - oh hell I dunno :) I'm in good shape, I play hockey and tennis often. I think I would wear loose fitting swim trunks... Its not that I'm afraid to show the goods but skin tight trunks are goofy to me haha

Ahh.. kewl.. I bought a Bluebird Wanderlodge M380, dual slide, Cummins 400hp ISL diesel about 2 years ago. My parents use it more than I do. In fact, it's in Alabama right now. I just got off the phone with them, checking on my relatives' storm damage.

To hell with the money questions - when is the next blessed event??! Congrats!! :) :) :)

We'll be expecting in early Feb. :)

Very cool. :thumbsup