Sandy Carter to Go from AWS to Unstoppable Domains

AWS’ Sandy Carter

Sandy Carter, who ran the public sector team at Amazon Web Services for nearly five years, has announced her new job. She’s taken on the role of senior vice president for business development and channel chief at Unstoppable Domains. Carter calls the move “an epic adventure into Web3 — the next wave of technology.”

San Francisco-based Unstoppable Domains lets users create a blockchain-connected web address similar to a URL. As the company explains on its website, “Once a user claims a domain to a wallet, they have absolute control over that domain. Domains can be transferred, updated, and linked to other services without any involvement from Unstoppable Domains. Unstoppable Domains cannot deactivate, change, or transfer a domain’s records without a user’s permission.”

For Carter, such capabilities represent the next phase of the internet.

“It’s clear to me that crypto, NFTs, and Web3 are the future, and that Unstoppable Domains is building the tools to accelerate global adoption,” she said in a prepared statement. “We’re at a key moment in history as blockchain technology takes off, and I’m excited to roll up my sleeves and get to work building a team, forging new partnerships, and taking Unstoppable Domains to the next level.”

NFT stands for “non-fungible token.” It’s the next wave in blockchain and cryptocurrency. But Carter sees even more potential within the NFT world.

“NFT domains are your name on the internet, social profile for web3, payment address for all of your cryptocurrencies, your own website URL, and soon to be your login for the entire decentralized web,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “And this is just the beginning.”

Furthermore, she said, Web3 surrounds the so-called ownership economy. Here, “users own their data and the economic rewards associated with the online value they create,” Carter said. “Additionally, Web3 is a commitment to developers who build on blockchains that the rules of the game won’t change, where composability is guaranteed, and where code is law.”

Back to the Future

Carter also called the jump to Unstoppable Domains a “back to the future” moment. That’s because she helped drive e-commerce during the Web 1.0 generation, then shaped social media during Web 2.0.

“Now I get the opportunity to impact the future with Unstoppable Domains for Web3,” Carter wrote. “The potential is huge and history-making.”

Unstoppable Domains’ Matthew Gould

Matthew Gould, founder and CEO of Unstoppable Domains, agreed.

“We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome such an accomplished, driven leader to the executive team at Unstoppable Domains,” Gould said of Carter. “Sandy’s enthusiasm for the future of Web3 and NFT domain names speaks to the incredible potential that the next year holds, and we look forward to what’s in store.”

Carter added that she was drawn to Unstoppable Domains in part because it turned a profit in its first year — a rarity for a startup. Gould started the company in 2018. Unstoppable Domains is backed by Draper Associates and Boost VC, and supported by grants from the Ethereum Foundation and Zilliqa Foundation.

Carter is well known to the channel partner community, and throughout the business world as well. CNN and Fortune have both given her “Powerful Women” top honors. And prior to AWS, Carter worked in the emerging technology group at IBM. She also serves as an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, teaching marketing, innovation and leadership, and acts as chairman of the board for Girls in Tech. Carter holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s in computer science from Duke University.

AWS confirmed in late November that Carter had stated her intent to leave the world’s largest public cloud computing provider.