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Ask HN: How much should a startup pay for a .com?

• interstitial 13y ago
  Just remember that dropbox started out as getdropbox.com, istock.com started out as istockphoto.com. As long as you are free and clear on the trademark, get something close. Also technical start-ups are having great luck with .io
  • rajacombinator 13y ago
    Yea ... I just read some rumors of how Dropbox paid several hundred thousand to get their domain. That would make me sick...! Non-technical startup in this case, consumer facing.
    • trafficlight 13y ago
      But they didn't buy the domain until the company was over a year old. And they've had $250 million in financing over the years.
• damian2000 13y ago
  Personally I wouldn't pay for an expensive domain at the stage of being bootstrapped ... if the project is good, it shouldn't matter much what the name is?
  • rajacombinator 13y ago
    True, I don't need this exact domain. However, it was a pretty good one amongst the ones I brainstormed, so I don't mind paying some amount >$10 to get it. Trying to brainstorm now to see if I can think of a better one.
  • philip1209 13y ago
    Along these lines - I would find spending a lot of money on a domain a red flag as an investor
• jdross 13y ago
  Another option is to rent with an option to purchase. If they want $5000, you can say, "I'll give you $100 in year 1, $1000 in year 2, and purchase it for $10,000 in year 3" If the business is successful, $10,000 hopefully will not matter. If it isn't, you don't have to pay and the owner keeps the domain.
  • rajacombinator 13y ago
    I would be happy to go with that option, but I doubt the current owner will be reasonable about negotiating. (They seem to be a large scale professional domainer.)
• jlgaddis 13y ago
  The most you should pay is the $10 or so to get the same domain name but with a different TLD. Once you're up and running and generating revenue, then you can worry about paying for the .com. (The price that the "domainer" is asking isn't going to come down. It comes him practically nothing (<$10/year) to hold onto the domain name -- which he'll definitely do now that he knows someone is interested -- since he is your only option if you really want it.)
  • astrofinch 13y ago
    I'd expect the "domainer" to increase his asking price if the different-TLD site seems to be doing well.
    • rajacombinator 13y ago
      yea this is why I'm not eager to get working on a different TLD. I don't want to inflate my own market. Apparently Dropbox trademarked their name and filed a complaint against the dropbox.com owner so I could conceivably pursue that route but it's somewhat shady.
  • joelrunyon 13y ago
    > The price that the "domainer" is asking isn't going to come down. That's not really true - they don't ever make money unless someone buys it - so it's not like they're sitting on all their domains waiting for million dollars offers for them.
• diminish 13y ago
  your total domain related costs including. com must not exceed 50K per year once you are big, 10000 per year once you got a 7 figure investment and 1000 when you get traction and 100 when you dont have customers, all in usd.
  • rpedela 13y ago
    Can you explain? I don't understand. Why those numbers? Why not just $10/year regardless of company size? Or ($10 * numDomains) per year regardless of company size?
    • diminish 13y ago
      I just summarized my previous search on the same topic, from multiple resources. Fred Wilson of USV has an article on avc.com on this matter too. I tried to relate the investment into different parts of a startup. Main idea is to start slow, as you are more sure, go on to buy more. So if you don't yet have customers don't invest crazy sums.
• patio11 13y ago
  AppointmentReminder.com wanted $30k. AppointmentReminder.org was available for $8.95. You'll note that I'm still #1 on Google due to the exact match bonus, so mission accomplished plus $29,991.05 in my pocket. This is still an attractive option if you're doing something where brandability isn't all that important. If you're going for something a bit more brandable, there are plenty of domains in the sub-$2k range which are at least as good as, say, Dropbox, Kabbage, Snapchat, etc etc, and probably many more which are not obviously attractive names but won't hurt your company at all (Twilio, Airbnb, etc). There's also a virtually infinite number of NAMEapp, getNAME, NAMEnow, etc etc available on any TLD you care to name available for the registration fee. Many startups start that way.
  • rajacombinator 13y ago
    that's awesome. I am looking for more of a brandable name however. so you think <$2k is reasonable? I'm just trying to establish a ballpark range.
    • joelrunyon 13y ago
      If you want a .com and have 2k to burn? Possibly. If you've already generated 2k+ in revenue - it's probably a more definitive "yes." Really depends on the property. If it's a single word - you're looking at multiples of that. If you're looking for a made-up word version, you might be able to get it for closer to 1-5k.
  • selmnoo 13y ago
    Concerning .org tld, here's a relevant wiki paste: "It was one of the original domains established in 1985 and operated by the Public Interest Registry since 1988. The domain extension was originally created for non-profits, but this designation no longer exists and today it is commonly used by schools, open-source projects, and communities as well as by for-profit entities, some of which may use the suffix in an attempt to misleadingly suggest their non-profit status" I bring this up because indeed .org tld is used generally for non-profits, or the non-profit/philanthropic arms of for-profit companies (google.org, etc.), so branding .org tld for your little startup would seem like a misguided decision, and may possibly impair the professional look one is going for. I know you've just said that this is an attractive option where brandability isn't important, but I'm hoping you can discuss this just a little bit more. Is using .org for one's startup a total no-no or is there some conceivable scenario in which it would actually work out?
• rpedela 13y ago
  Use whatever money you are willing to spend on a domain on the company instead. Given the current stage of the company, I strongly recommend the mindset of "anything greater than $0 is expensive". That mindset has kept me (I am also bootstrapping) from spending money on things that are not important in the short-term. If you absolutely must get your desired .com domain, I would recommend finding a new name for the company that has an available .com. You might even find that you like the new name better.
• staunch 13y ago
  I agree. I think $1000 is perfectly reasonable in almost any serious project, but anything higher is only rarely worthwhile.
• thejerz 13y ago
  If you can get it at a steal, take it. Otherwise, a "perfect" domain is something to be purchased at a much later stage (e.g., Series B). Startups are all about priorities -- where to best spend your time and your cash -- and this is a perfect example of that.
  • tmikaeld 13y ago
    As soon as the startup get any press, all domains will be gone and kept at ransom for you to cash out for insane amounts.
    • r0h1n 13y ago
      If a startup has managed to grow successfully and raise a Series B, as the parent says, then I wager they can continue operating with their own domain. There's no reason why they cannot continue ignoring the .com (and the "ransom") and focus on growing their real business.
• Kluny 13y ago
  If you haven't sold anything yet, $15. If you have and it looks like you're going to make money this year, $1000.
• 27182818284 13y ago
  Given that Facebook used to be thefacebook and Dropbox used to be getdropbox, I think you should go with the cheap option.
• prawn 13y ago
  Unless you have money coming in or are especially committed, either keep brainstorming or add a prefix/suffix to your name to find something available for $10. You can still see success this way and it doesn't encourage the domainer.
• chrismcb 13y ago
  It depends on whether you already have an established brand and name. If you don't then find a name that hasn't been taken. Unless it is THE PERFECT NAME, it isn't worth more than your standard new name.
• PhasmaFelis 13y ago
  "Domainer"? When did we stop calling them "scalpers"? There's no reason to give purely parasitic middlemen the benefit of a euphemism.
  • rajacombinator 13y ago
    Well there's a reason I put quotes around it.
    • PhasmaFelis 13y ago
      Fair enough.
• birken 13y ago
  Just for an anecdote that somewhat differs with the popular sentiment here: Thumbtack paid 5-figures for the domain (thumbtack.com) on seed funding long before any traction. There is no way to prove whether or not we would have been as successful with a random domain, but I think in the early days it helped make us seem more established to the non-tech savvy user (which was and still is the majority of the users) than we were at the time. I think if your users are more tech savvy it doesn't matter as much, but for "consumer brand" types of things, I think if your name is good, and your name and domain name match, that will be noticed and will make you appear more reputable.
• michaelkavanagh 13y ago
  When vine ran up against a similar issue they registered the .co tld and it hasn't held them back. Plus, .co's are selling for around $10 still for decent names. This might be a good area to look at.
  • rajacombinator 13y ago
    Thanks I was not aware they used .co
• taunonn 13y ago
  There are plenty of decent domain names available for startups that you can registr for $10. If you can't think of a good name, try using a domain name generator like www.namestation.com
• ceekay 13y ago
  $0. If you become famous, people won't have trouble remembering any name you come up with.