There are a number of characteristics of a premium domain that make it more valuable than other domain names. Below you will find some comments from entrepreneurs who have chosen to invest in a premium domain name for their business.
The one word domain gives us instant credibility. This can’t be quantified, but people trust us wayyy more than some company with a dash in their domain name or a .co domain.
Adam Robinson, CEO of Retention.com
RETENTION.com was acquired for $800K
Cars.com is a pretty easy domain name to type in. We get a majority of our traffic directly and organically, which allows us to really invest in other things, which to us is product innovation as opposed to what a lot of our peers have to do is, is they have to keep spending marketing every dollar every day just to stay relevant.
Alex Vetter, co-founder and CEO of Cars.com
CARS.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
Chat.com is absolutely brilliant in terms of simplicity, shortness and being totally *on point* and meeting the moment. It immediately creates user trust. Somebody (not me) will build a massively successful product/company on it.
Dharmesh Shah, Founder and CTO of HubSpot
CHAT.com was acquired for an undisclosed eight-figure amount ($10M or more)
The transition to Cats.com reflects our commitment to being the web’s most extensive and trustworthy source of cat knowledge. There could not be a domain name better representative of our intentions for this community, and it’s a privilege to call it home.
Doron Wolffberg, Founder of Cats.com
CATS.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
I always struggled to find a way to describe what our tool does in a sentence, but I can easily describe it in a word: monday. In becoming monday.com, our vision is finally encapsulated in our name.
Roy Mann, CEO and Co-Founder of monday.com
MONDAY.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
The power that a top level domain name, dictionary word has with the general public is phenomenal. It creates that authority automatically, instant trust.
Alex Tew, Co-founder of Calm.com
CALM.com was acquired for $140K
We felt as a company that Jets.com was tremendously powerful for our industry and the product that we’re selling. We figured that anyone who’s going to search for private jets is likely to go to Jets.com. Now when we tell people in general on the phone or in a meeting that we’re Jets.com, the credibility alone by saying Jets.com is worth it.
Damian Klinger, President and Co-Founder of Jets.com
JETS.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
If the word that you own is not on the dotcom domain, it falls off in value. People have a harder time remembering it if it was dot io, dot org, or dot tv. Moreover, if the word is too long, it falls off in value too. If 65%~ 80% of the money on commerce around the world is in English, and if you own one of the 1000 most important words in the English language, you can treat the domain as a business.
Michael Saylor, Chairman and Co-founder of MicroStrategy
Having Trainual.com and not .co or another TLD has made us easier to search. We’ve also purchased a few misspellings of Trainual.com since it’s a made-up word. We want to make sure we capture all the traffic that’s searching for us.
Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO of Trainual.com
TRAINUAl.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
Recruiter.com is a powerful brand, and we consider our name recognition and high web traffic to be a powerful differentiator and asset for our business. We have top search placement and generate thousands of leads and referrals every month.
Miles Jennings, Founder, and COO of Recruiter.com
RECRUITER.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
I am pleased to have completed the acquisition of the Chill.com domain name. We are the proud owners of a highly brandable, premium domain asset reflective of a word that is pervasive in the everyday lives of consumers and is easy to say, spell, and remember.
Callum Sommerton, CEO of Chill Brands
CHILL.com was acquired for US$ 1,600,000
Switching to Paw.com has had a tremendously positive impact on our company. First of all, as mentioned before, we no longer are limited to dog products. As “Paw.com” we have the opportunity to build a major pet industry brand, across a wide range of pets and products. There’s a sense of trust and authority that comes with a great name like Paw.com, and that seems to give a positive boost to just about everything.
David Gimes, Founder and CEO of Paw.com
PAW.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
For the 25+ years I’ve been emailing, I’d say close to 95% of those email began with some variation of “Hey [Name]”. So when it came time to think about a name for a new email system we’d be building, HEY was a natural.
Jason Fried, Founder of Hey.com
HEY.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
At that time, we were six people in an office above a fried chicken restaurant. $400K was a lot of cash. We only went for it because we had raised a $3M seed round, and I believed that the long-term branding benefit outweighed the short-term cost. I definitely don’t regret it.
Waseem Daher, CEO of Pilot.com
PILOT.com was acquired for $400K
Operating through stoggles.com helps us to reach more people and follow our purpose of inspiring the importance of everyday eye protection through innovative and seamless design.
Max Greenberg, CEO of Stoggles.com
STOGGLES.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
This is the company’s most significant evolution in a nearly 50-year history of serving the rental industry. This is much more than a name change. It is the outward signal of our evolution from an advertising company to a technology and software driven company.
Jon Ziglar, CEO of Rent.com
RENT.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
We didn’t have much cash at the time, we’ve just raised a little round of capital but what I knew was that this name would allow us to be taken a lot more seriously by future investors because it is a lot easier to raise venture capital when you’ve got a domain name like we have because the first thing you see on the deck is the title, and if it says Scan.com it is making them turn to the next page.
Charlie Bullock, founder of Scan.com
SCAN.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
It was important for us to have the top level domain (TLD) for our brand strategy, so we secured Denim.com. Our experience has been incredible. It may seem trivial, but people take you a lot more seriously when you have a clean, one word .com domain with no prefixes or suffixes.
Bharath Krishnamoorthy, CEO and Co-Founder of Denim.com
DENIM.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
We saw our conversion rate dramatically jump when we rebranded from usefedora.com to teachable.com.
Ankur Nagpal, Founder of Teachable.com
TEACHABLE.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
Our domain name was initially CHILI.tv but we changed to CHILI.com in order to become more international and to emphasise our presence on all devices.
Giorgio Tacchia, CEO and founder of CHILI.com
CHILI.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
Our plan is to build a strong, memorable brand. Cal.com is the kind of domain/brand name that achieves exactly that.
Bailey Pumfleet, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Cal.com
CAL.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
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 Sumo.com, we’re positioned as the original. We are the Sumo.com.
Noah Kagan, Co-Founder
SUMO.COM was acquired for US$ 1,500,000
Beyond just the benefits of properly aligning our brand with the .com name, we knew that owning this domain would illustrate to future customers that we’re here to stay for the long haul.
Steli Efti, CEO of Close.com
CLOSE.COM was acquired for an undisclosed amount
You will lose all word of mouth marketing if you don’t have a good name. Most people choose their name because the domain is available. That’s a really bad idea. I spent 3 months and $182,000 negotiating for Mint.com, and it was the best purchase I ever made.
Aaron Patzer, MINT.COM
MINT.COM was acquired for US$ 8,100,000 (cash + equity deal)
If you’re talking to someone at a bar about your company, they just won’t remember TeamworkPM.net. One of our competitors is Basecamp, which has Basecamp.com. If someone is comparing Basecamp.com against TeamworkPM.net, many will choose the .com because it has credibility and the right image.
Peter Coppinger, CEO Teamwork.com
TEAMWORK.COM was acquired for $675,000 in 2014
Over the decades, I’ve learned about the importance and value of domain names. WordPlay.com (my word-game) has hit 150 million games played and 16 million users. I know for a fact that a lot of this is because the domain is easy, memorable and fun.
Dharmesh Shah, Founder and CTO of HubSpot
WORDPLAY.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
Buying Tesla.com took over a decade, $11M & amazing amount of effort. Didn’t like teslamotors.com even when we were only making cars.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
TESLA.COM was acquired for $11 Million in 2016
Compared to the earlier domain XAircraft.com, XA.com is simply more than a memorable, easily recognisable online identity. It undoubtedly better carries XAG’s brand value and prospect to shape the future of sustainable agriculture for 7.6 billion people, by unceasingly exploring smart farming technology.
Chinese Agri-Tech Company XAG
XA.COM was acquired for US$ 1,600,000
We’ve grown over the years – and we’re now much more than a taxi app. This new brand is an important evolution that represents our goal to outserve our customers. We are not only providing passengers with a transport service, we are saving them time and ensuring they have a safe ride.
Anthony Tan, Group CEO and Co-Founder, Grab
GRAB.COM was acquired for an undisclosed amount
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.
Phil DeGisi, Co-Founder at Perch.com
PERCH.COM was acquired for an undisclosed amount
If we didn’t own RTS.com we probably would have changed the company’s name. It was very important for us to have a simple brand that has the ability to be recognized and understood globally.
Greg Lettieri
Recycle Track Systems co-founder and CEO
RTS.COM was acquired for an undisclosed amount
People are trusting us with their finances and TryDave just didn’t seem to give me the same confidence as Dave.com.
Jason Wilk, Co-founder and CEO of Dave
DAVE.COM was acquired for an undisclosed amount
We saw a big growth with our repeat customers. We had an average return of repeat customers of over 200% from where it originally was and that was definitely attributable to the brand. When you are Pacific Pillows, you can stumble across a bunch of pillow sites, but when you are Pillows.com, its pretty clear that there is only one Pillows.com.
Craig Clark, Pillows.com
PILLOWS.COM was acquired for six figures
About 70% of traffic comes from the domain directly – we don’t have to purchase the keywords as much any longer. The domain name is pretty valuable in and of itself.
Tor Sweeney, Owner of Dresses.com
DRESSES.COM was acquired for an undisclosed amount
We saw a 40% increase in traffic immediately after securing our preferred domain.
John Furneaux, Hive.com
HIVE.COM was acquired for an undisclosed amount in
partnership with the domain owner
We saw our customers confusing us with some of the other companies in the industry, and wanted to remedy that issue. Our service is so different and unique in comparison with the competition that these confusions might cost us a lot of opportunities.
Oliver Dlouhy, CEO of Kiwi.com
KIWI.COM was acquired for US$ 800,000
We have seen a 5x in our web3 calls to our Alchemy instances that coincided with the procurement of sushi.com. I think from a branding perspective it has been a boon.
Joseph Delong, CTO of SushiSwap
SUSHI.COM was acquired for undisclosed amount
As Badger expands to become the most trusted place for anyone to put their Bitcoin to work, it’s important that the first experience for non native crypto users is comfortable and that we help them quickly overcome the common stigma that surrounds the cryptocurrency industry today.
Chris Spadafora, founder of BadgerDAO
BADGER.COM was acquired for US$ 300,000
As the founder of the branded payment platform Recharge.com (500 million annual revenue), I know how to launch a worldwide fintech platform and how important it is to have a good domain name that is easy to remember.
Robin Weesie, Founder and CEO of Exclusive.com
Fleksy.com acts as a primary touch point between us and potential customers, our website is a representation of who we are and what Fleksy is all about.
Olivier Plante, CEO of Fleksy.com
FLEKSY.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
It was important to us to have a brand name that consumers could get to easily without having to come up with some clever derivative or other domain that’s close, but not really. Autonomy.com we think obviously handles that.
Scott Painter , Founder and CEO at Autonomy.com
AUTONOMY.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
Having a strong keyword .com domain name brings a lot of inherent value, such as trust and a sense of being well-established, recognizable and not to mention web-based.
Rolf Larsen of CEO Desktop.com
DESKTOP.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
Having the right domain is very important, and having a short, unique name that resolves in a .com has been super helpful versus, I don’t know, modern-dresses-best-shop.com or something.
Elena Silenok, Founder and CEO of Clothia.com
CLOTHIA.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
Since Yought was a unique name, buying the .com was straightforward and was one reason we wanted to go with something unique. As a marketer, I understood having a .com presence would be beneficial in the long run, especially as a SaaS product.
Richard Liu, Co-Founder at Yought.com
YOUGHT.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
After a few years of effort, we landed our dream web address of Ahead.com, replacing ThinkAhead.com. Our name finally matches our domain!
The team behind AHEAD.com
AHEAD.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
Acquiring the aura.com domain is an investment in the Aura brand as we grow our business and build the best all-in-one digital protection platform for consumers.
Lark-Marie Anton, Chief Communications & Branding Officer
AURA.com was acquired for an undisclosed amount
We hope the above information will help you in making informed decisions about your brand. If you want to say hi or have any questions about naming, branding, and domain names get in touch, we’re always happy to hear from you.
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