Marshall Hays is an

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. Raised in a suburb of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, Hays was a 1995 graduate of Trinity University, where he earned Bachelor of Science degrees in both accounting and marketing. He then attended

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

and earned his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

in 1998. While at SMU, Hays was the teaching assistant for the Electronic Commerce Class in 1996 while also founding his first business that same year, Hays Internet Marketing, Inc. Hays Internet Marketing is an interactive agency that provided

internet marketing The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, publ ...

consulting and development for clients such as AT&T, Fujitsu, and Nextel. The company also owns and operates several popular web properties, the most famous ones include VirtualKiss.com, WhoDoYouLove.com, DatingFun.com, and VirtualStapler.com. Success of the dating advice related websites led to many radio interviews, 2 CNN appearances and Hays then becoming the co-host of a weekend radio show on 105.3FM in Dallas, Texas, in 2001. In 2004, Hays Internet Marketing stopped taking on new clients so that Marshall could serve as the Vice President of a television production company. Then in 2009 Hays purchased 3 car washes in Dallas, Texas, renaming them Lucky Ducky Car Wash. Later in 2011 Hays purchased the lube shop next to one of the car washes. In 2012 Hays started up a gourmet food truck business, calling it Lucky Ducky Dogs – Fun with Meat. The popular food truck was a finalist for D Magazine’s Best of Big D in 2013. Hays moved to Virginia in 2017 and sold all the Texas-based businesses, so that he could start up Highlight Homes LLC, a

vacation rental A vacation rental is the renting out of a furnished apartment, house, or professionally managed resort-condominium complex on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel. The term ''vacation rental'' is mainly used in the US. Othe ...

home business, buying and remodeling homes in Massanutten, Virginia and a beach house on the Chesapeake Bay. The business quickly became an

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( , an abbreviation of its original name, "Air Bed and Breakfast") is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays, experiences and services in various countries and regions. It acts as a ...

Superhost, and premier partner of Vrbo.

External links

Highlight Homes Massanutten Vacation Rentals websiteHays Internet Marketing website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hays, Marshall 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American television executives American television producers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)