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In the context of YC, here's what pg thinks about domain names: "If you have a US startup called X and you don’t have x.com, you should probably change your na
by melvinmt 10y ago
In the context of YC, here's what pg thinks about domain names:
"If you have a US startup called X and you don’t have x.com, you should probably change your name.
The reason is not just that people can't find you. For companies with mobile apps, especially, having the right domain name is not as critical as it used to be for getting users. The problem with not having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness. Unless you're so big that your reputation precedes you, a marginal domain suggests you're a marginal company. Whereas (as Stripe shows) having x.com signals strength even if it has no relation to what you do."
http://paulgraham.com/name.html http://paulgraham.com/name.html
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- eightturn 10y agoauthor here.. I've pinned that post on twitter. Paul gets it.
- chrishacken 10y agoHow many companies have started without x.com that are now huge? Tesla was TeslaMotors.com before it was Tesla.com, Square was SquareUp.com before it was Square.com, DataDog was Datadoghq.com before it was Datadog.com; I can keep going.. (yes, they're still .com's, but you wouldn't consider datadoghq.com investable. In all likelyhood, Datadog only used that name because it was a $9 registration.) The domains didn't make them succeed. I mean sure, if you're going to invest in domains, I'm not going to argue that buying turtle.com for $9 is a good idea, but those days are long gone. Anything that's dropped or available now probably isn't going to be worth anything; unless you're paying $8k on NameJet and flipping for $10k.
- scrapcode 10y agoDidn't rap genius start as a subdomain even?
- yellowapple 10y agoTo add to this, Steam is still steampowered.com.