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Change Your Name

paulgraham.com

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Re: Change Your Name

#281

Post by richardbrevig »

Riseed wrote: post #132
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…

There are still a few one-word domains left in the .com TLD (e.g. naziisms.com, regularizing.com, castigators.com). I myself registered one earlier this summer. http://www.randomdotcom.com/

I purchased a domain a few months back that I found on that site. Still debating on using it as my company's name, just not the best to spell.

Re: Change Your Name

#282

Post by ThomPete »

malisper wrote: post #236
TeMPOraL wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Great names are made not found. > But for most people just like their logo it's it's not that important until you become big Exactly this. If you look at the most successful companies in all sectors out there, most of them have logos that range from plain to just ugly, and many of them feel like they were initially created as a formatted company name on top of some document, back when the company's secretary first…

> The more I see things and think about them, the more I believe that this whole talk of logos being "very important since it's what your customer looks at all the time" is a big scam perpetuated by graphics designers, because they make (a lot of) money on you believing you need the slick, $expensive new brand image. Patio11 has actually A/B tested two different logos. His conclusion was that "Your logo could potenti…

I wont even get into the amount of issues with testing a logo via A/B testing. Patios A/B test is anecdotal not by any metrics statistical.

Re: Change Your Name

#283

Post by ThomPete »

onedev wrote: post #255
TeMPOraL wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Great names are made not found. > But for most people just like their logo it's it's not that important until you become big Exactly this. If you look at the most successful companies in all sectors out there, most of them have logos that range from plain to just ugly, and many of them feel like they were initially created as a formatted company name on top of some document, back when the company's secretary first…

Check out this short video by a well known graphic designer (Michael Beirut). He explicitly talks about how logos are inherently NOT important and are overemphasized in the world. Rather it is the consistent actions of a company that give a logo meaning and builds a "brand": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0jw-Q7r-ng

Exactly. It's the same reason there is no such thing as branding per se. Everything you do is branding. From your packaging to your customer service to your employees.

Re: Change Your Name

#284

Post by ThomPete »

pbreit wrote: post #256
TeMPOraL wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Great names are made not found. > But for most people just like their logo it's it's not that important until you become big Exactly this. If you look at the most successful companies in all sectors out there, most of them have logos that range from plain to just ugly, and many of them feel like they were initially created as a formatted company name on top of some document, back when the company's secretary first…

I don't think the logo is important but that's a different topic. If you at most successful companies in all sectors out there, they have their .com.

Yes but thats exactly the wrong point to make. The question is whether the name made them big or whether they got a good namer after they had success.

Re: Change Your Name

#285

Post by marincounty »

booruguru wrote: post #272
pbreit wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There's no point in buying an expensive domain name for a company that may not survive past the startup stage." This is exactly why the .com domain wins. They do not have this attitude. Their attitude is to be in it to win it and do what it necessary to be successful. That's the .com signal.

Not everybody finances a startup with a mountain of cash. If you're funding your business with your life savings and credit cards, it's difficult to place a premium on a domain name while contemplating how long you can pay your mortgage and put food on the table. Also, blind optimism is not required for success. And no domain name is an antidote for a shitty idea that nobody cares about.

You are right about the chitty idea, but decent .com names are dropped every day. (You need to scout for names every day though, but will become a nasty habit in no time.) I have found that people, outside of tech, will remember weird, odd .com domains. I got people to remember physibles(and how to spell it.), and these were senior citizens. (I guarantee these people have never been on the mother site either!)

I tried a different domain with a .io domain; and it just wasen't worth it the effort.(they knew about .net. ,org, but that's it.). There's almost a anger that comes up when a domain ext. gets to specific, like .photography?

Re: Change Your Name

#287

Post by taytus »

We started working in our startup one week ago. I'm signaling weakness because I don't want to spend 5 grands in a .com domain? This post is so confusing.

Re: Change Your Name

#288

Post by gwu78 »

Hypothetical:

Let's say you are a founder and VC tell you that you need to pay off someone to get a certain domain name that matches your startup name.

Let's say that someone knows how badly you need this name, and they charge you an absurd price.[1]

Finally, let's say your startup fails.

Question:

Who gets the domain name?

Considering the money that has been spent to get it, the domain name could be your startup's most valuable and liquid asset?

[1] "Absurd" because the cost of creating and maintaining a domain name (editing a zone file and running a DNS server) is quite low. In the early days of the www, domain names were registered for free. These days some people pay thousands of dollars for "domain names". Funnily enough, in some cases the names being "sold" for thousands of dollars are the same ones that were once given away for free. After one has paid a one-time, exorbitant "price" for a domain name, then they must pay the annual fee each year to keep the domain name registered. Usually this fee is under $100. Even the annual fee charged is far above the cost of creating and maintaining a domain name.

Maybe I should start a new TLD, e.g., ".startup".

I could distribute a copy of root.zone with .startup added.

I could give away a free, preconfigured localhost DNS cache, freeing users from ISP provided DNS, open resolvers like Google and Cisco (OpenDNS), and most importantly freeing them from the ICANN racket.

Then I could give away domain names for free, upon a proper showing of need. No hoarding.

Nah, it would never work. No one wants "alternative" TLD's.

(I wonder how much pure profit .io has made in recent years.)

Re: Change Your Name

#290

Post by astrong »

pc wrote: post #269
BreakoutList wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was answering the question above and came across this so figured I'd share -- though maybe Patrick/Stripe has changed his/their mind since then :-) > We'd rather not disclose the amount, but it was less than you might think. http://www.quora.com/How-much-did-Stripe-com-spend-on-their-...

Yeah, now the challenge is just that I don't remember the exact amount :-). I believe $20k or $30k. We'd raised ~$1.8M by this point and so it seemed like a reasonable amount to spend.

That was 2010 right ? I'm going to throw this out there...The 2015 price point for a dictionary .com name of that caliber is double that at least.
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