Andrey Insarov is an entrepreneur and visionary who has built his career at the intersection of technology, digital innovation, and business leadership. With years of experience in the online ecosystem, he has dedicated himself to creating solutions that make the internet more accessible and functional for individuals and businesses worldwide. His passion for bridging technology with opportunity led him to launch and grow ventures that not only empower users but also reshape the way people interact with the digital landscape.
At the heart of this mission is it.com Domains, a global company redefining how businesses and individuals secure their digital identity. it.com Domains provides a unique domain extension — .it.com — that opens new possibilities for branding, visibility, and presence in the online world. The company has rapidly become a force in the domain industry, helping startups, enterprises, and individuals alike carve out memorable and impactful digital footprints. With a focus on accessibility, innovation, and trust, it.com Domains is positioning itself as a leader in the evolving world of web identities.
Mike: Can you share a bit about your background and what first drew you into the world of technology and entrepreneurship, and eventually domain names?
Andrey: If I go back far enough, I’ve been fascinated by technology since childhood, when I was passionate about radio electronics. After school, I graduated as a telecommunications engineer, and my entire professional career has been connected to technology in one way or another.
My first serious business — which still operates today — was Intis Telecom, founded in 2010, specializing in business messaging services. Unlike many others, we prioritized technical expertise over pure sales. This helped us build a strong team of DevOps engineers and developers and become a significant player in the SMS platform market.
At some point, the idea emerged to provide custom software development. Since our headquarters is in the UK, we purchased domains like it.co.uk and it.uk for this future business. That eventually led to multiple offers for other it domains such as it.ae or it.co. Finally, we received an offer to acquire it.com.
I first went online in 2000, and for me, such legendary names always had a special appeal. So, I decided to accept the offer and acquire it.com. At that moment, I didn’t yet know how I would use it. Initially, I considered building a global IT marketplace but decided against it. What I did know was that I wanted to create a global project for millions of users around the world.
Here, my experience from the early 2000s played a role, when third-level domains were popular. I thought, why not, and tasked my development team with building a platform to support domain zones. Honestly, it never even occurred to me to look for existing solutions — nor did I know they existed. We were complete newcomers to the domain industry.
Now, four years later, we are at the final stage of ICANN evaluation with our RSP platform, we have nearly 100,000 registered it.com domains, and one of the strongest teams in the industry.
Mike: What were some of the pivotal experiences early in your career that shaped your approach to business?
Andrey: First, since I worked as a system administrator, chief engineer, and IT director myself, I naturally developed a tech-centric approach to business. This means we always try to work alongside strong sales and marketing professionals — otherwise, there’s a risk of creating a good product that either nobody needs or nobody knows about. A successful business must combine technical and commercial talent.
Second, I believe in a boutique approach to building companies. I don’t envision us growing into a massive corporation with thousands of employees. I like personally knowing everyone on the team. We’re more like a close-knit family.
Mike: What personal values or philosophies guide the way you lead your companies?
Andrey: The most important values for me are integrity and sustainability. Fortunately, I don’t have to report to shareholders or investors, so I’m guided by my own understanding of what’s right and wrong. You could say I run my businesses for my own satisfaction. That’s why I prefer a strong reputation and long-term relationships over short-term profits.
Mike: Can you tell us the origin story of it.com Domains?
Andrey: As I mentioned earlier, the idea was somewhat spontaneous at first, more of a concept that needed to prove its right to exist. But by 2023, our domain team was fully formed, we signed our first RRA agreements, and it became clear that the project was real. At that point, the startup spun off from Intis Telecom and gained its own identity as it.com Domains.
Mike: What was the vision behind launching the .it.com extension?
Andrey: In fact, the vision evolved several times, even circling back at points. The uniqueness of it.com lies in its multiple layers of meaning.
First, it naturally works for IT projects, similar to the .io extension. Second, it can be used for sites related to Italy, since it matches both the ISO country code and the .it ccTLD. And finally, “it” in English creates strong marketing messages when combined with other words — do.it.com, sale.it.com, chess.it.com, and so on.
At one stage, we tested demand from small businesses, which provided interesting insights. Ultimately, as the number of sites grew into the tens of thousands, we realized our audience aligned more with generic extensions like .com or .online. I’m happy with that because the potential audience for generic domains is much larger, giving us plenty of room for growth.
Mike: What have been some of the biggest challenges in building it.com Domains?
Andrey: Essentially, there were two major challenges. First, as newcomers to the industry, we didn’t always do things optimally. It took a couple of years to clearly understand how the domain industry really works. Second, connected to the first, it took years to prove to market participants that we were reliable partners. There was quite a bit of skepticism initially. Now, the question isn’t if we’ll succeed, but how well we’ll succeed.
The key to success in the domain industry is strong relationships with registrars, since they are the ones who drive sales distribution. I’m very grateful to registrars such as Namecheap, GoDaddy, Dynadot, SAV, Porkbun, CentralNIC, and many others. Without them, we couldn’t have achieved 20x sales growth in 2024–2025. Special thanks also go to early adopters like AEserver, DomGate, and Sedo, who believed in us back in 2021–2022. They made it much easier to overcome the hurdles of the early years.
Mike: How do you see it.com Domains differentiating itself from other players in the domain space?
Andrey: I think we bring a fresh perspective. We’re free of stereotypes or long-standing industry conventions dating back to the 1990s. That allows us to experiment and act more boldly. At the same time, our team includes many seasoned industry professionals, so we maintain a balance between innovation and tradition, tech and sales. An example of such a balance is the it.com team, which combines a strong IT background with a “commercial strike force” that includes respected figures in the domain industry such as Joe Alagna, Tess Diaz, Alessandro Baruffi, Sergey Gorbunov, and others.
Technically, we draw on our 15+ years of experience in telecom, where requirements for load and bandwidth are an order of magnitude higher than in other domains. This allows us to set higher technical standards than the industry average.
Mike: What kinds of businesses or individuals are most attracted to registering a .it.com domain?
Andrey: Like many new domain zones, the earliest adopters often come from the adult and betting/gambling industries. I wouldn’t say we see a lot of adult sites, but gambling is well represented. That said, we also see a lot of micro- and small businesses, which is especially encouraging.
Unfortunately, another group we attract — though we do not welcome — are fraudsters and scammers. They try to mimic legitimate brands and mislead users. We fight this relentlessly by integrating with security providers like Google Safe Search, Netcraft, IQ Global, Spamhaus, and others. This allows us to respond to malicious content within minutes.
Mike: Have you noticed any unique patterns or creative uses of .it.com domains among your customers?
Andrey: Since our domain zone supports both IDNs and emojis, some websites use them creatively. For example: ❤.it.com. I find that quite unusual and fun.
Mike: The domain name industry is highly competitive—what strategies have helped you stand out?
Andrey: In physics, there’s a concept called the energy threshold effect: if the energy is below a certain level, the efficiency is zero. The same often applies in business — to achieve results, you need to apply maximum effort. Focus and intensity are everything. If we advertise, it’s across all channels. If we attend exhibitions, it’s as a gold sponsor. We used our experience from the highly competitive business messaging industry and applied it here, ensuring that nearly everyone in the domain world heard about us. Yes, it meant significant spending in the early years, but as a result, we managed to get our idea and our product in front of the maximum number of domain professionals.
In addition, another important strategic decision was made — to collaborate with emerging domain events that have grown alongside it.com and have already earned authority and respect in the domain industry. I am referring to the London Domain Summit, founded by Helmuts Meskonis, and Dubai Domain Day, founded by Munir Badr. Both of them kindly agreed to serve as advisors to it.com Domains, and I am deeply grateful for their contribution.
Mike: With the rise of Web3 and decentralized internet trends, how do you see traditional domains adapting?
Andrey: To be honest, I’m somewhat skeptical about Web3, and I will remain so until mainstream browsers support it natively, without additional steps. By browsers, of course, I mean Google and Apple. Without that, Web3 will remain the domain of a relatively small community of enthusiasts, geeks, and crypto fans. What’s really needed is a bridge between traditional DNS and distributed ledgers. A popular CDN like Cloudflare could potentially play that role, but so far, we’re far from practical implementation. In other words, traditional domains don’t need to adapt — they already work out of the box. It’s Web3 that needs to figure out its place in the global internet infrastructure. That said, it can’t be ignored, as it already has millions of followers worldwide. Hopefully, they’ll solve the fundamental challenges, and we’ll see the internet naming space from a new perspective.
Mike: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs when choosing a domain for their startup?
Andrey: My advice is simple: the domain should be relevant to the website’s content or the essence of the business. It’s like naming a ship — the name determines how it sails. Everything else is a matter of preference. Some people insist on .com only, others prefer the shortest possible names, some use IDN domains in local scripts. Using a keyword in the domain is also a popular strategy. And since it.com is still a young domain zone, there are plenty of great keyword domains available.
Mike: How do you personally stay ahead of trends and shifts in the internet ecosystem?
Andrey: I wouldn’t say we’re far ahead, but we definitely try to stay on the cutting edge by adopting the latest technologies. AI is a great example. We use it across multiple applications — from suggesting domain names, predicting fraud risk, and classifying websites by industry or language, to better understanding our domain portfolio. These features will soon be available to our RSP clients as well.
Mike: Finally, what excites you most about the future of it.com Domains and the wider digital world?
Andrey: At it.com, I’m inspired by our achievements — how many domains we sell, how many clients renew, how many websites are built, and how much traffic they generate. These are clear indicators that we’re on the right path, motivating us to keep improving the product, share success stories, and promote best practices. In the digital world at large, I’m inspired by progress itself. Some aspects may be debated or controversial, but progress is the foundation of healthy development — whether in the internet, telecommunications, mobile communications, media content creation, or the entertainment industry. At it.com Domains, we’re committed to being a meaningful part of that progress.