What's in a name?
If you have a US startup called X and you don't have x.com, you should probably change your name. 100% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the .com of their name. 94% of the top 50 do. The problem with not having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness.
Buying Tesla.com took over a decade, $11M & amazing amount of effort. Didn’t like TeslaMotors.com even when we were only making cars.
Choose something with meaning, even if it's expensive and difficult to acquire, rather based on domain name availability, because otherwise, you're going to kill word-of-mouth.
A domain name is your address, your address on the Internet. We all have a physical address; we're all going to need an address in cyberspace. They're becoming increasingly important.
Standing out just gets harder when people confuse you with other companies. That’s why we went right to the source. There are many copycat Sumo names in the market but by owning, we’re positioned as the original. We are the Sumo.com.
So, what is there in a name? Absolutely everything. It is one of the most important assets we have, providing instant recognition and a shorthand for our brand values.
35 years of experience in market research agencies
It's never easy to spend $350,000 on a domain... In the end, we agreed that our brand was an increasing part of the value of the company, and we wanted to ensure we had that locked up as a priority.
We started with PerchHomes.co and then moved to Perch.com when we had an opportunity to get the domain. Ultimately, your website domain is a big part of your brand, particularly for a B2C company that is not primarily app-based.
It’s never easy to find a catchy name for your company.
Brand is key. Having a one-word category killer name as our brand has been everything for us.
I was ready to move forward on a deal ASAP - and this is key. A seller needs to know you are real and have the intention and the wherewithal to close on a deal.
I believe that a credible domain name is absolutely critical to success, especially for a B2B business. It was a top priority for us. We saw a 40% increase in traffic immediately after securing our preferred domain.
People are trusting us with their finances and TryDave just didn't seem to give me the same confidence as Dave.com.
A domain name is akin to real estate – you have prime locations (e.g. food.com), you have solid ones (e.g. an examine.com), and then you have the rest (e.g. whatwhocaresabouthis.com).
