Cover is a free app that tracks insurance rates and allows people to "cover" (aka get coverage for) items like cars, homes, pets, jewelry and electronics after taking a photo of the item using their phone. Cover uses CoverInsurance.com for its website, although the company has also been using UseCover.com to forward to CoverInsurance.com. Smartly, it looks like the company secured the Cover.com domain name.

This morning, I noticed a Whois change on Cover.com. The domain name was previously owned by Digimedia, and it is now privately registered. When I visited Cover.com, it forwarded me to CoverInsurance.com. Because Digimedia doesn't generally comment about its deals, I am not certain if the insurance app acquired the domain name, and if the company did, I couldn't speculate about how much the domain name cost with any certainty. I could see this domain name selling for mid six figures though.

Cover was founded in 2014, and it looks like the app is (more…) → Read More

TechCrunch has an article about a startup called Mix. Smartly, Mix can be found on the exact match Mix.com domain name.

It looks like the domain name has been registered under privacy since early 2015 (according to DomainTools), so I am not sure when the domain name changed hands. NameBio does not have any public sales records for Mix.com, and I do not see any domain brokerage listings in my email archives for Mix.com. My guess is that Mix.com is likely worth mid to high 6 figures and possibly 7 figures depending on the seller's desire to sell along with the buyer's need for this domain name. Whatever it cost, having the exact match domain name should be helpful to the startup.

One thing that caught my attention in the TechCrunch article is that the founder of the company, Garrett Camp, has quite a bit of experience with startup businesses:

"Camp, who is the founder of companies like Uber and, previously, StumbleUpon, said that he has spent his life building products that he actually wants in his life."

Domain names are an important part of a brand and its marketing. It should be easy for a consumer to find a business online, and the domain name is one of the key considerations a business must make. Despite this, it seems that many businesses make domain names a lower priority than they should.

I read an article about a band called Sultans of String, and they seem to understand the importance of a domain name more than many businesses. Here's an excerpt from a Coastal Journal article which discussed how the name of the band was chosen:

“You know, it is so, so hard to pick a band name,” McKhool said. “We made a short list of the five or 10 names that we liked and asked a bunch of people that we knew, and that one kept coming up as being fun as well as evocative of the kind of music we were going to play.”

But most important of all? McKhool says, when he and Laliberte were brainstorming band names, “Sultans of String” was available for trademark.

“The domain name wasn’t taken yet, which is the most → Read More

Earlier today, Air France-KLM announced the launch of a new airline called JOON. According to a  Bloomberg  article, JOON "will initially offer medium-haul services from the airline's Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport base and begin long-haul routes in mid-2018."

The airline does not appear to have acquired either the Joon.com domain name or the Joon.fr ccTLD domain name. The Joon.com domain name is owned by Canada-based Netincome Ventures, Inc. and Joon.fr is owned by a French event firm. Joon.com is currently monetized with advertising links, and the top of the landing page indicates that the domain name may be available for sale via the Uniregistry domain brokerage. Joon.fr is being used by the event firm.

According to the brand's Facebook page, the company plans to use the FlyJoon.com domain name for its website. When I visited FlyJoon.com, I was forwarded to a page within Air France's website. Here's how Air France described the brand name on its website:

"Short, powerful and international, JOON's name was conceived to → Read More

This may seem like it should be obvious to people who operate startup businesses, but brand names are important. This is especially true for startups that are seeking outside funding to grow their business. Not only does this seem intuitive, but there is a study that shows the importance of choosing a brand name.

Check out this tweet from Evergreen, a domain brokerage and consulting firm:

The name of a startup can have a huge influence on how much funding it gets (via @BIAUS) https://t.co/Ap2R01XJc1 #fact

— Evergreen (@evergreendotcom) July 20, 2017

"Names are are easily pronounced, such as Uber and Lyft, are preferred by both early and late stage investors. They tend to be offered more money, whether its through crowd funders, angel investors, VCs or IPO investors.

Uniqueness is also virtue, but only → Read More

I noticed that people were mentioning this is "Made in America week" , as described by the President. When I saw this, I was curious about what I would find on the exact match MadeInAmerica.com domain name. I presumed it would be unrelated to the President's initiatives, but I wanted to see what was there.

It looks like MadeInAmerica.com is currently in its beta phase and under development. According to the website, it has a pretty substantial mission:

"Our long term goal is to have a noticeable effect on U.S. GDP. This will be through partnering, promoting, and manufacturing highly innovative products Made in America."