Like great performers before him – Madonna, Cher, Prince – Jason, the president of OhMobile, needs only one name.
Of course, you won’t be seeing Jason on any sort of stage because he’s one of the most secretive, low-key individuals in the adult space. It’s easy to see why when you consider his mentor is Cybererotica mastermind Ron Levi.
He’s built a rather substantial affiliate program during his time in adult, but he no longer promotes it and rarely speaks of it. (Shhh … don’t tell anyone, but it’s called PornDollar.)
Now, he’s on to bigger and better things—like trying to bring mobile porn (finally!) to the United States with his latest venture, OhMobile.So far, so good. And it’s no surprise when you look at where he’s been and his shark-like, if-I-stop-moving-I’ll-die mentality.Since his early 20s, Jason has had a growing infatuation with technology that translated into a stint at GoTo.com, a little company that would become Overture. Next was a run at domain reseller GreatDomains.com, which in 2000, was purchased by VeriSign.But it’s more interesting to let the man himself tell it. Just watch those expletives, sonny; this is a family publication.
You’re pretty excited about OhMobile. What’s so great about it?
What’s great about OhMobile is there is no market in North America right now for mobile adult. Not only are we doing something that’s very popular worldwide, but we’re bringing it to the U.S. consumer, not just by ourselves, but with all the clients we’re integrating. We’ll be a focal point for the majority of the adult mobile transactions and presence in the U.S.
I hear you’re obsessed with mobile in general. Why is that?
I built my affiliate program from the ground up. It’s a great program and it’s known worldwide, but the problem is I’m bored with it. The whole industry is stale. The mobile space is new and exciting. I’m here to get it going and we have a lot of people that believe in it. I have people that sign up without even seeing a contract. I’m able to do business with people I’ve never been able to do business with.
You have nude and even hardcore content available. How is that possible in the U.S.?
It’s still the Internet. I don’t have the content; it’s on my servers, but it’s not my content. I’m a mobile solutions provider. Whatever people upload and sell, legally, they are bound by the U.S. government and a contract by me saying that content has to be legal. We sell access to a site, just like we do with regular websites, but people are surfing the sites on their phone[s].
What relationship do you have with the Verizons and Cingulars of the world?
Is there a relationship? Yes. Do I have to go into detail about it? No.
Are you willing to be the guy who brings mobile porn to the U.S.?
[Pauses] That’s a loaded question. I don’t want to be Larry Flynt. I want to be the guy who supplies the technology to existing adult companies to bring their content to the U.S. You can never go after the guy with the technology. Well, maybe you could, but I don’t want to be the guy who has the Christian Coalition picketing in front of my house.
We’ve talked numerous times, yet I don’t know your last name. Do you have one?
I do not have a last name. Jason is not even my real name. I’m not even a male.
You’re paranoid. Is there one event that triggered that?
[Sigh] In this day and age, [sigh] with certain groups … when you see your good friend get popped by the FTC, with the DOJ coming down and regulating this, and now the government wants to put a tax on that. … When certain groups do not want you around and can change your livelihood, it makes you paranoid.
A lot of people know you from your affiliate program, yet you have announced your retirement from said program and never talk about it.
[Sigh] PornDollar is at a point where it has been built to run on its own. I have some very talented people who manage every aspect of PornDollar, which allows me to focus on other ventures.
I bet you’re still collecting the checks though, huh?
Well, what do you think?
What excites you more—new technology or a gorgeous woman? Why?
Technology. I already have the greatest woman in the world. My wife is cool as hell. She’s a banker whose husband went a different direction. Technology makes me excited because it moves fast and motivates me to think about what I can do with it.
The OhGirls—pick one.
I can’t pick one. They’re all equal. If you make me pick one, I’m going to have five girls that are not too pleased with me.
You left home when you were 18, moved to Newport Beach, and started selling cars. How did you get into technology?
One of the guys I sold a car for was a network admin for Wet Seal, which sells women’s clothing. They had a lot of hot chicks working there. I started hanging out with him because I wanted to go to the corporation and check out the girls. Instead, he started showing me all the cool things you could do with computers and I just got hooked.
Tell me about working at GoTo.com.
What a fucking great time that was. I was 25 and working for a top-50 Internet company, as far as traffic goes. I had a pulse, I knew Java, and I had a job at one of the most promising Internet companies you’ll ever find. I started as a database developer. I helped develop the keyword search term that everybody uses. You go on and see how many times something was searched—I worked on that. That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve ever worked on.
Eventually, I got bored with database development. It wasn’t cool enough for me, I guess. I wanted to be one of the main site developers—like the shit that I did, everybody saw. So I started doing partner search engine implementations, meaning that in 1999, when Earthlink finally had “search the Web” and it went to use Overture’s results, I made that happen. If you went to Weather.com and searched the Internet, I did that.
I was just glad to be part of [GoTo] because after I worked there I could write my own ticket. When I left I sold my shares at their peak. Then a company out of Universal City with four employees called me: Great Domains.
What about GreatDomains.com?
Great Domains was this company [that] had an eccentric CEO who was two years older than me and now owns Reunions.com. He was so passionate about what he did; it was inspiring. There were just a handful of people there and he built this site using FrontPage. It wasn’t dynamic or anything. It was just this crappy site, but it got so much traffic. He asked me to come in and basically develop the wheel. I developed the buy and sell process and then I developed the domain auction, which was pretty cool. I don’t want to say I created the domain auction because it wasn’t my idea, but we did the bidding process. We did it all.
The days at Great Domains and GoTo, there were many days where I would go to work and not go home for two days. It was just that time, especially at GoTo. The same thing happened at Great Domains. … I would spend days and nights developing this stuff. I wouldn’t go home and my wife would have to bring me food. I’d show up in sweats because I knew I’d have to sleep under my desk. We had so many people knocking on the door and so many domains trying to get listed.
…Then there was the period [when we were] being bought by VeriSign – that was the most gratifying thing. Even though it wasn’t financially gratifying for me, I knew we built something that VeriSign came in a bought for $100 million.
What motivates you?
I need to continuously create something. If I don’t, I get very bored and don’t know what to do with myself.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Don’t fuck people. In this industry, you fuck one person, you might as well forget about it because it will follow you.
Is there a CEO at another company that you admire for his or her business insight or what that person’s achieved?
Ron Levi. He’s done so much for me. … The advice he’s given me over the years is priceless. Just when you think he’s out, he’s doing more than you’ll ever know.
If you were ever to appear on the cover of Forbes, what would you like the headline to read?
Kiss my ass.
