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There may be a strong push to change your name for various reasons. That would seem to make trademarking a waste of time. Paul Graham wrote about it a couple of

There may be a strong push to change your name for various reasons. That would seem to make trademarking a waste of time. Paul Graham wrote about it a couple of years ago http://www.paulgraham.com/name.html http://www.paulgraham.com/name.html

gist 10y ago
> There may be a strong push to change your name for various reasons. I will let the YC mavens give their opinion on YC, but in other cases in business coming into something with 'here is our name or concept but by all means if you want to change it let me know' is not seen as a good sign of commitment to your own creativy. That doesn't mean you name your company and stay with it 'till the bitter end'. But it also doesn't mean that you name your company and then open it up to a vote by others as to what you should do (and not be decisive with your own convictions either).
- shameikachan 10y ago
  i'm pretty set on the name and see it as a benefit to the company, so i'm willing to make my case should an issue ever arise. this is good intel for me to think on though. I hadn't even thought a potential investor bringing up a name change.
shameikachan 10y ago
good intel. I'll check this out and read up more.
shameikachan 10y ago
This was a good read. Thank you so much for sharing. I own the .com to my name so I was happy to read the importance there.
deleted 10y ago
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tshaddox 10y ago
From that essay: > 100% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the .com of their name. 94% of the top 50 do. But only 66% of companies in the current batch have the .com of their name. Which suggests there are lessons ahead for most of the rest, one way or another. To me it suggests that having high valuations may be the cause of having the .com domain. A more useful analysis would be when companies that are now successful got their domains.
- dsacco 10y ago
  Yes, that stuck out to me as well. That was a poor way of conveying the point. The 34% of YC that do not have a .com will probably just buy it once they have the cash, regardless of whether or not they change the name.
- bbcbasic 10y ago
  The lesson is that once you have proven a concept and have raised more funds you can afford to pay the current holder of the domain that you desire?

gist 10y ago

> There may be a strong push to change your name for various reasons. I will let the YC mavens give their opinion on YC, but in other cases in business coming into something with 'here is our name or concept but by all means if you want to change it let me know' is not seen as a good sign of commitment to your own creativy. That doesn't mean you name your company and stay with it 'till the bitter end'. But it also doesn't mean that you name your company and then open it up to a vote by others as to what you should do (and not be decisive with your own convictions either).

shameikachan 10y ago
i'm pretty set on the name and see it as a benefit to the company, so i'm willing to make my case should an issue ever arise. this is good intel for me to think on though. I hadn't even thought a potential investor bringing up a name change.

shameikachan 10y ago

good intel. I'll check this out and read up more.

shameikachan 10y ago

This was a good read. Thank you so much for sharing. I own the .com to my name so I was happy to read the importance there.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

tshaddox 10y ago

From that essay: > 100% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the .com of their name. 94% of the top 50 do. But only 66% of companies in the current batch have the .com of their name. Which suggests there are lessons ahead for most of the rest, one way or another. To me it suggests that having high valuations may be the cause of having the .com domain. A more useful analysis would be when companies that are now successful got their domains.

dsacco 10y ago
Yes, that stuck out to me as well. That was a poor way of conveying the point. The 34% of YC that do not have a .com will probably just buy it once they have the cash, regardless of whether or not they change the name.
bbcbasic 10y ago
The lesson is that once you have proven a concept and have raised more funds you can afford to pay the current holder of the domain that you desire?