5 ms·

Five killer domains I own … looking for technical co-founders.

30 points by _pius 16y ago

shanes 16y ago
I think he could maybe use 20.com to sell items that cost just twenty bucks. Divided up into categories, such as Home, Office, Computer, Books, Jokey items, it might make a good place to visit to buy birthday or Christmas presents, etc. Or maybe it would just offer web services that cost $20/month or $20/year.
arthurdent 16y ago
note: i can't sign any NDAs or anything, i invest in a lot of companies, etc. so please don't think that any idea you send is really that important… Not that he's wrong, but just an example of how he comes off as abrasive. The "so please don't think that any idea you send is really that important" just serves to belittle everyone else's ideas (while his ideas are "killer"). The startup community generally embraces the "execution is really important" mantra, so just stop it at "i can't sign any NDAs or anything, i invest in a lot of companies"
- pinksoda 16y ago
  He does come off as abrasive but I can understand why he worded it that way. Lately people with "great ideas" are coming out of the woodwork like rabid animals. He's probably just tired of it.
- gojomo 16y ago
  From his perspective, it's much better to filter out the people who are sensitive about such things right away, by being 'abrasive', than to spend a bunch of time talking to people nicely only to find out they're incompatible with his style later.
dagw 16y ago
Do people here still think that "killer" domain names matter? I mean, will you really make back the extra 40k you invested in joke.aday.com instead of going with the $10 dlyJoke.com or todaysjoke.org (to take two currently available domains I just made up). Or to put it another way. Has anybody seen any significant increase in business after switching their site to an expensive "killer" domain?
- jonknee 16y ago
  Dropbox, Facebook, Groupon and Mint all come to mind. Update: missed a really obvious one--Twitter. It launched as twttr.com and was nearly impossible to explain to people. I don't think it would have gone mainstream without the URL that includes vowels.
  - iterationx 16y ago
    SuperUser cost 70K
  - mey 16y ago
    Survivor Bias?
  - JeremyChase 16y ago
    With the exception of Mint, the other examples were already quite successful before improving their domain name. Establishing causality in these cases is tenuous.
    - jonknee 16y ago
      I seriously doubt Groupon.ThePoint.com would today be valued at over a billion dollars. Dropbox went on a tear after their domain purchase, but I suppose it's possible they would have anyway (though I know from personal experience it was tricky to tell people about Dropbox and then try and remember the domain). http://www.google.com/trends?q=dropbox http://www.google.com/trends?q=dropbox (Dropbox.com was acquired in October 2009, right where growth turns from linear to exponential.)
      - qeorge 16y ago
        Dropbox.com was also acquired right after they got a ton of funding, which could also partially explain the exponential growth. (Not arguing with you, just pointing it out).
      - Confusion 16y ago
        The left part of any graph that shows exponential growth looks linear. You could just as well argue that the growth has been exponential from the start.
alexsherrick 16y ago
I have to agree with both of you... owning 20.com does not make it become the best location domain. He would be starting late in the game, and would need a killer idea behind the domain.
- alttab 16y ago
  Did you even read the whole post? He clearly stated his ideas were killer to match the level of killer-ness of the domains. He's a killer guy with killer companies and conferences and killer domain names. Sign me up!
moe 16y ago
The only one that I found mildly interesting was 20.com. He paid 40k for aday.com?! Ping me jason, I've got abridge.com to sell to you.
- gvb 16y ago
  $ whois abridge.com : : Registrant: Abridge Inc. 134 Sumner St Newton, MA 02459 US : : Hmmm, so you are Susan? ;-)
- Someone 16y ago
  I am no expert on domain name pricing, but www.anApple.aDay.com could easily be an Apple fan site or something health related.
  - eitally 16y ago
    The same reason I registered thefoo.com. I really just wanted the subdomain ipity.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    anappleaday.com would work just as well, though. vani.ty domain names are cute, but hard to remember. I liked del.icio.us, but apparently delicious.com was easier to market.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - enjo 16y ago
      I never used delicious simply because the first time I was told about it, I couldn't remember where all the dots went. Even after checking it out I couldn't remember, so I just never went back. Life's to short to look those things up on Google every time I want to visit a site.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
antirez 16y ago
After an infinite number of successful startups that picked an almost random short domain name that was available and used this as the company name there is still somebody calling domain names "killer" for startups?
vaksel 16y ago
those are horrible domains, and I'd think they cost $9.99 to register. well except for 20.com. but 20.com is a horrible name in itself, because the majority of people would just go to twenty.com
- systemtrigger 16y ago
  By that reasoning we should expect higher traffic to thirtysevensignals.com than 37signals.com. Having a numeral in your domain seems unwise but for a location oriented company "20" is a winner. It is not worth $70k though IMHO. Aday.com is worth thousands. I've been looking at hundreds of potential domains for a daily deal site and it's been frustrating. If I had found aday.com for $10 I would have shouted so loud all my neighbors would be deaf.
  - vaksel 16y ago
    37 signals is long enough on it's own that people know that 37 is a number. 20.com on the other hand noone would expect the site to be on the # domain
swivelmaster 16y ago
I'm not sure why the human body imposes physical limits on eye-rolling, so I'm a little frustrated that I can't roll my eyes at this post as much as it deserves.
aniket_ray 16y ago
I think this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1794576 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1794576 discussion might have sparked the post.
maukdaddy 16y ago
- lowimpact.com and noimpact.com (10k)… wanted to do a green blog. UGH. Now I hate him even more.
MisterWebz 16y ago
Looks like he thought buying expensive domains would make everything else a lot easier. It's like that time when i thought i needed a comfier desk chair and a better laptop to start building a web app, but i was really just postponing the parts that were hard to do. Procrastination in disguise.
aresant 16y ago
Calacanis just offered HN users angel funding, work space, and connections. The domain name lead is ancillary to his interest in HN users – eg the domains are his way of inserting himself into the HN conversation. There are worse people in the world to have as your co-founder, and if you hit even a base hit with Jason you're as good as made on the west coast because you can be darn sure everybody will hear about it.
languagehacker 16y ago
Good for you, spending all that money! How much do you have to spend to get your own feature in Modern Domainer Magazine?
SabrinaDent 16y ago
That's 125K spent on some pretty B-list domains (except 20.com - which is nice even if it fails the ambiguity test.) It's frustrating to read because pretty much anyone here could tell you that 125K can fund a lot of freakin' development time for actual, you know, products instead of names for things that don't exist yet, even as ideas. On the other hand, Jason has 125K and I don't so WTF do I know. But I will say that I don't buy into the idea of really good domain names these days being rare as gold dust; I brand a lot of client companies, and just picked up the perfect 5-letter.com on the aftermarket for $79 on behalf of a client. Granted, that was a steal but I've never, ever paid more than $300 to brand a company with a great .com. YMMV
bluesnowmonkey 16y ago
So I bring a great team and idea, and he brings the domain and funding, and I get "some equity." Except if I have a great team and idea, I can get funding anyway. So really he just brings the domain. How is this not domain squatting? If Calacanis isn't using the domains, he should sell them.
Tycho 16y ago
40k? I'm still mad I spent £40 on a domain in a moment of whimsy. Let me know if anyone wants to buy knommerce.com (as in knowledge and commerce... what was i thinking?)
- hdx 16y ago
  lol

30 points by _pius 16y ago

I think he could maybe use 20.com to sell items that cost just twenty bucks. Divided up into categories, such as Home, Office, Computer, Books, Jokey items, it might make a good place to visit to buy birthday or Christmas presents, etc. Or maybe it would just offer web services that cost $20/month or $20/year.

arthurdent 16y ago

note: i can't sign any NDAs or anything, i invest in a lot of companies, etc. so please don't think that any idea you send is really that important… Not that he's wrong, but just an example of how he comes off as abrasive. The "so please don't think that any idea you send is really that important" just serves to belittle everyone else's ideas (while his ideas are "killer"). The startup community generally embraces the "execution is really important" mantra, so just stop it at "i can't sign any NDAs or anything, i invest in a lot of companies"

pinksoda 16y ago
He does come off as abrasive but I can understand why he worded it that way. Lately people with "great ideas" are coming out of the woodwork like rabid animals. He's probably just tired of it.
gojomo 16y ago
From his perspective, it's much better to filter out the people who are sensitive about such things right away, by being 'abrasive', than to spend a bunch of time talking to people nicely only to find out they're incompatible with his style later.

dagw 16y ago

Do people here still think that "killer" domain names matter? I mean, will you really make back the extra 40k you invested in joke.aday.com instead of going with the $10 dlyJoke.com or todaysjoke.org (to take two currently available domains I just made up). Or to put it another way. Has anybody seen any significant increase in business after switching their site to an expensive "killer" domain?

jonknee 16y ago
Dropbox, Facebook, Groupon and Mint all come to mind. Update: missed a really obvious one--Twitter. It launched as twttr.com and was nearly impossible to explain to people. I don't think it would have gone mainstream without the URL that includes vowels.
- iterationx 16y ago
  SuperUser cost 70K
- mey 16y ago
  Survivor Bias?
- JeremyChase 16y ago
  With the exception of Mint, the other examples were already quite successful before improving their domain name. Establishing causality in these cases is tenuous.
  - jonknee 16y ago
    I seriously doubt Groupon.ThePoint.com would today be valued at over a billion dollars. Dropbox went on a tear after their domain purchase, but I suppose it's possible they would have anyway (though I know from personal experience it was tricky to tell people about Dropbox and then try and remember the domain). http://www.google.com/trends?q=dropbox http://www.google.com/trends?q=dropbox (Dropbox.com was acquired in October 2009, right where growth turns from linear to exponential.)
    - qeorge 16y ago
      Dropbox.com was also acquired right after they got a ton of funding, which could also partially explain the exponential growth. (Not arguing with you, just pointing it out).
    - Confusion 16y ago
      The left part of any graph that shows exponential growth looks linear. You could just as well argue that the growth has been exponential from the start.

alexsherrick 16y ago

I have to agree with both of you... owning 20.com does not make it become the best location domain. He would be starting late in the game, and would need a killer idea behind the domain.

alttab 16y ago
Did you even read the whole post? He clearly stated his ideas were killer to match the level of killer-ness of the domains. He's a killer guy with killer companies and conferences and killer domain names. Sign me up!

moe 16y ago

The only one that I found mildly interesting was 20.com. He paid 40k for aday.com?! Ping me jason, I've got abridge.com to sell to you.

gvb 16y ago
$ whois abridge.com : : Registrant: Abridge Inc. 134 Sumner St Newton, MA 02459 US : : Hmmm, so you are Susan? ;-)
Someone 16y ago
I am no expert on domain name pricing, but www.anApple.aDay.com could easily be an Apple fan site or something health related.
- eitally 16y ago
  The same reason I registered thefoo.com. I really just wanted the subdomain ipity.
- jrockway 16y ago
  anappleaday.com would work just as well, though. vani.ty domain names are cute, but hard to remember. I liked del.icio.us, but apparently delicious.com was easier to market.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - enjo 16y ago
    I never used delicious simply because the first time I was told about it, I couldn't remember where all the dots went. Even after checking it out I couldn't remember, so I just never went back. Life's to short to look those things up on Google every time I want to visit a site.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]

antirez 16y ago

After an infinite number of successful startups that picked an almost random short domain name that was available and used this as the company name there is still somebody calling domain names "killer" for startups?

vaksel 16y ago

those are horrible domains, and I'd think they cost $9.99 to register. well except for 20.com. but 20.com is a horrible name in itself, because the majority of people would just go to twenty.com

systemtrigger 16y ago
By that reasoning we should expect higher traffic to thirtysevensignals.com than 37signals.com. Having a numeral in your domain seems unwise but for a location oriented company "20" is a winner. It is not worth $70k though IMHO. Aday.com is worth thousands. I've been looking at hundreds of potential domains for a daily deal site and it's been frustrating. If I had found aday.com for $10 I would have shouted so loud all my neighbors would be deaf.
- vaksel 16y ago
  37 signals is long enough on it's own that people know that 37 is a number. 20.com on the other hand noone would expect the site to be on the # domain

swivelmaster 16y ago

I'm not sure why the human body imposes physical limits on eye-rolling, so I'm a little frustrated that I can't roll my eyes at this post as much as it deserves.

aniket_ray 16y ago

I think this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1794576 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1794576 discussion might have sparked the post.

maukdaddy 16y ago

- lowimpact.com and noimpact.com (10k)… wanted to do a green blog. UGH. Now I hate him even more.

MisterWebz 16y ago

Looks like he thought buying expensive domains would make everything else a lot easier. It's like that time when i thought i needed a comfier desk chair and a better laptop to start building a web app, but i was really just postponing the parts that were hard to do. Procrastination in disguise.

aresant 16y ago

Calacanis just offered HN users angel funding, work space, and connections. The domain name lead is ancillary to his interest in HN users – eg the domains are his way of inserting himself into the HN conversation. There are worse people in the world to have as your co-founder, and if you hit even a base hit with Jason you're as good as made on the west coast because you can be darn sure everybody will hear about it.

languagehacker 16y ago

Good for you, spending all that money! How much do you have to spend to get your own feature in Modern Domainer Magazine?

SabrinaDent 16y ago

That's 125K spent on some pretty B-list domains (except 20.com - which is nice even if it fails the ambiguity test.) It's frustrating to read because pretty much anyone here could tell you that 125K can fund a lot of freakin' development time for actual, you know, products instead of names for things that don't exist yet, even as ideas. On the other hand, Jason has 125K and I don't so WTF do I know. But I will say that I don't buy into the idea of really good domain names these days being rare as gold dust; I brand a lot of client companies, and just picked up the perfect 5-letter.com on the aftermarket for $79 on behalf of a client. Granted, that was a steal but I've never, ever paid more than $300 to brand a company with a great .com. YMMV

bluesnowmonkey 16y ago

So I bring a great team and idea, and he brings the domain and funding, and I get "some equity." Except if I have a great team and idea, I can get funding anyway. So really he just brings the domain. How is this not domain squatting? If Calacanis isn't using the domains, he should sell them.

Tycho 16y ago

40k? I'm still mad I spent £40 on a domain in a moment of whimsy. Let me know if anyone wants to buy knommerce.com (as in knowledge and commerce... what was i thinking?)

hdx 16y ago
lol