4 ms·
Rebranding Your Startup
- larrys 14y agoHow much did you pay for gengo.com and how much did you pay the broker to act as the go between?
- robertlaing 14y agoI can't disclose exactly. Roughly a junior developer's salary. It was owned by someone who's name is actually Gengo, and had a business predicated on the name. So he was reluctant to sell. The broker got between 10-15%.
- larrys 14y agoIf the broker gets 10-15% how are your interests aligned? They couldn't possibly be motivated to get you the best deal on the domain. (I've been doing this since 1996...)
- robertlaing 14y agoAs I recall we did something like... if price < x, commission = y% price > x, commission = y-5% Regardless, hard to have a perfect transaction in this kind of thing from a buyer's point of view because by default you have imperfect information. Such is life.
- larrys 14y agoThat's good. I've done something similar. Base rate plus anything under "x" I get a percentage of the "savings". But for me it's less of an issue as I do this mainly for fun. I did it for free in the beginning but it ended up taking to much time so I started to charge to slow things down. I just had a deal where I bought a domain for $3000 less after my buyer already had agreed to the sellers price and the deal was done. I smelled blood in the water so I got the seller (w/o the buyers knowledge) to lower the price more just for the fun of it. In general I will see what the budget is for the purchase and if not reasonable won't take the assignment at all.
- aaronpk 14y ago+1 for Cuban Council!
- titlex 14y agoNice write up. Just curious, was renaming during the rebrand an option? Seems like the money used to purchase the domain could have been used elsewhere.
- robertlaing 14y agoWas always an option but we wanted Gengo. Probably relevant to mention that "Gengo" is the Japanese word for "language". So it makes a lot of sense for us.
- nedwin 14y agoYou guys have a great product, good to see the brand coming to the table. Looks great.
- flyinglizard 14y agoWhat a fantastic write up and outcome. Branding isn't everything, but it's not far from that either. It defines the entire UX from the moment a person first hears your name to the moment that person becomes a paying user.
- adventured 14y agoI really like the new branding + logo. Good call on the change. One negative point of feedback (nothing to do with the name or logo): the split image on the home page is poorly done in my opinion. It looks freakish.
- tuananh 14y agojust like how the Thefacebook changed to Facebook.
- jonathanjaeger 14y agoHuge step up! Love the green color palette with the orange button. I agree with the comment by adventured about the split image on the homepage. Out of curiosity, was this A/B tested thoroughly or just "chosen"?
- robertlaing 14y agoChosen... will keep trying a few things though. So gradual A/B.