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Change Your Name

paulgraham.com

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Re: Change Your Name

#221

Post by mbesto »

pc wrote: post #177
nostrademons wrote: post #124

"It turns out almost any word or word pair that is not an obviously bad name is a sufficiently good one, and the number of such domains is so large that you can find plenty that are cheap or even untaken." So, after reading this advice, I decided I'd actually try it out - it's easy enough to download a word list and write a script that pings a WHOIS API to check every single word or word pair. Turns out most such API…

So were Stripe and Parse, as it happens. We reached out to the owners of domains that looked unused / potentially for sale.

Care to share how much you paid for it? I typically see north of $5k. For a very early stage company its hard to justify even just $5k.

Re: Change Your Name

#222

Post by jacquesm »

electic wrote: post #179
cpeterso wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wondered how long will domain squatters wait before they negotiate. Surely Tesla Motors has approached tesla.com and apparently been turned down. Telsa Motors has shown they don't need that domain name to succeed. So when will the squatter, if ever, cave to Tesla Motors' offer?

Nissan.com is a great example. I am sure Nissan offered them a lot of cash for the domain name before going hostile on them.

You should probably read up on the case then.

Re: Change Your Name

#224

Post by DenisM »

rwallace wrote: post #197
DenisM wrote: post #104

At the time of my comment, there are dozens of comments disagreeing with Paul and only 2 agreeing. And this goes to show you - most people will not accept an advice from someone who knows better. If a conclusion must be reached, it must be reached under your own power, and at your own speed. This just can't be helped, it seems. Or can it?

That is one possible conclusion. Another possible conclusion, however, is that the world has changed in the years since last time Paul was actually doing this, and people with current experience are pointing out that his advice in this case is actually out of date.

Paul is drawing his conclusion from seeing through hundreds of startups and still being involved in YC to this day. His opponents draw their conclusion mostly from seeing through zero startups, that is being in the middle of their first. Then a much smaller number of people have between 1 and 3. This vast discrepancy in experience is strike one.

Strike two is that pretty much everyone has an unhealthy attachments both to their own creations and to their own "identity". It gets even worse when the two are combined. Even Paul himself, one of few wise men of our times, gets very defensive when his creations are under fire. It's just how people are. Yet in this case Paul is a more objective observer, he doesn't have a stake in the game of naming your company.

The insidious part of strike two is that it's nearly impossible to recognize while you're in the grip of it. It's like being drunk - most people who are severely drunk think they are "ok to drive". They aren't.

Accepting advice takes one of the two: either blind deference to authority, or wisdom to recognize the limits of your own understanding and selective deference to those who could know better. Not perfect, mind you, just better. Alas, wisdom is hard to come by, and blind deference has significant downsides. And so it goes. Most useful advice goes unheeded.

Re: Change Your Name

#225

Post by Animats »

silverwind wrote: post #220
Animats wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a clearer example, try " http://ai." No redirection; there's a web site there.

There's no DNS record for "ai.". It's actually the browser prepending www in search for a site and "www.ai." happens to exist.

No, there is a DNS record for "ai":

    $ nslookup ai
    Server:	127.0.1.1
    Address:	127.0.1.1#53

    Non-authoritative answer:
    Name: ai
    Address: 209.59.119.34
Rechecking using Google's DNS server:

    $ nslookup
    > server 8.8.8.8
    Default server: 8.8.8.8
    Address: 8.8.8.8#53
    > ai
    Server:	8.8.8.8
    Address:	8.8.8.8#53

    Non-authoritative answer:
    Name: ai
    Address: 209.59.119.34
It's pingable:

    $ ping ai
    PING ai (209.59.119.34) 56(84) bytes of data.
    64 bytes from offshore.ai (209.59.119.34): icmp_seq=1 ttl=46 time=133 ms
    64 bytes from offshore.ai (209.59.119.34): icmp_seq=2 ttl=46 time=132 ms
    64 bytes from offshore.ai (209.59.119.34): icmp_seq=3 ttl=46 time=132 ms
    ...
And it speaks HTTP:

   $ wget ai
   --2015-08-09 14:26:26--  http://ai/
   Resolving ai (ai)... 209.59.119.34
   Connecting to ai (ai)|209.59.119.34|:80... connected.
   HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
   Length: 1257 (1.2K) [text/html]
   Saving to: ‘index.html’
   100%[======================================>] 1,257       --.-K/s   in 0.001s  
   2015-08-09 14:26:26 (842 KB/s) - ‘index.html’ saved [1257/1257]
It doesn't respond to HTTPS, though. So we don't get to see a cert issued for a TLD.

A base level TLD site is rare; most TLDs don't have one. But it's supported in DNS.

Re: Change Your Name

#226

Post by intopieces »

pepon wrote: post #203
natch wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You completely ignored PG's argument about it signaling weakness. This is one of those perception versus reality things, where people's perceptions (those who are judging a startup) ARE the reality, whether those perceptions are theoretically refutable or not. In other words, let's say you're right, and owning the .com domain name is becoming less meaningful (an argument that PG already addressed, by the way). That d…

But changing perception is in our hands. If everybody starts not giving a F for the .com, then people will start not caring about that... If we keep fighting for the .com we are just supporting that ugly business of buying nice domain names in order to sell them for a ridiculous price to people that actually want create something.

When you're trying to get your company off the ground, fighting the good fight for the betterment of other companies is not something your can afford.

Re: Change Your Name

#227

Post by wisty »

rpedela wrote: post #219
finkin1 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't appearing weak by not shelling out potentially tens of thousands of dollars for a domain name be, well, accurate? I mean...these are startups, not established companies. I think showing weakness could be to the advantage of a startup, which PG seems to ignore.

How is showing weakness an advantage?

It can signal value, though you might end up chasing worse customers.

Re: Change Your Name

#228

Post by [deleted] »

rpedela wrote: post #219
finkin1 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't appearing weak by not shelling out potentially tens of thousands of dollars for a domain name be, well, accurate? I mean...these are startups, not established companies. I think showing weakness could be to the advantage of a startup, which PG seems to ignore.

How is showing weakness an advantage?

[deleted]

Re: Change Your Name

#229

Post by rory096 »

bmelton wrote: post #119
timtamboy63 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But he's implying that having a .com correlates to success - so % starting with a .com would be a more apt comparison.

Except for the spate of domain names that are .coms but are not the company's actual name, ala "Bootstrap" and "getbootstrap.com".

rjvir said the .com though. getdropbox.com doesn't count, but they managed to get dropbox.com after they raised enough money for lawsuits.

http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/13/dropbox-acquires-the-domain...

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