Brand Names Are Important for Startups

Elliot Silver
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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 tweet links to a Business Insider Australia article that cites an industry study with insight about how brand names can impact the funding a startup receives at different stages. From the Business Insider article:

“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 with early-stage investors. The study found that since very little is known about a company in the early stages, unique names give the impression there is something special about the company.”

Evergreen and others in the domain consulting space could probably share more insight than I can, but when it comes to naming, I believe

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Made In America: Smart Domain Strategy

Elliot Silver
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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.”

Aside from the cool looking logo, I was also impressed with the domain strategy that seems to have been employed. “Made in America” is a pretty common phrase, dating long before the current

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The Dumbest Response to a Domain Name Inquiry

Elliot Silver
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I have to share what I think is the dumbest response to a domain name inquiry that I have seen in a very long time. I asked about the price of a domain name that had a “for sale” message on its landing page, and here is the response I received:

“If you have to ask then you can’t afford it.”

Let that sink in for a second. I simply asked the domain owner for the price of his domain name, and this is the answer he gave me.

I think this is a pretty dumb response. First off, how is anyone going to know whether or not they can afford a domain name without the price? How else is someone suppose to get the price of the domain name without asking what the owner wants for it?

A buyer may be able to afford to pay 6 or 7 figures for a domain name, but being willing to pay that much depends on the purpose of the acquisition. Having the ability to pay a price for a domain name has little to do with whether they value the domain name at that price.

I can’t imagine going into my local

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Mike Berkens is “Ready for More”

Elliot Silver
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On occasion, I have read comments that called early domain investors like Mike Berkens “lucky” for getting into the domain investment business at an early stage. Some people have even said that those early birds couldn’t replicate their business if they started today. Well, those people are wrong.

Mike Berkens famously sold the majority of his company’s domain portfolio to GoDaddy for tens of millions of dollars in 2015. Mike could retire and/or live a life of luxury, traveling the world with Judi and never buy or sell a single domain name again. Mike is still buying and selling domain names, and he is continuing to prove that he is one of the smartest people in the business who could start over today and still do better than 99.9% of everyone else in the business.

Case in point:

Mike acquired the domain name ReadyForMore.com a little over a year ago at a public auction on DropCatch.com. Anyone could have bid against Mike and beat his bids, but he prevailed in the

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One Way I Come Up With Domain Name Ideas

Elliot Silver
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I took my first long 2017 Pan-Mass Challenge training ride yesterday. It was a beautiful day, and I rode for about 3 hours.  These long rides give me time to think about business without having a computer or iPhone in front of me, and it is a time that I brainstorm about domain name acquisitions.

During the ride, I thought  about a couple of ways that I come up with domain names to inquire about. I presume many people do this already, but for those who don’t, it might offer a nugget of insight that could be useful. I want to share some thoughts about that with you.

Most of my rides are through the back roads of the MetroWest region of Boston (I own MetroWest.com). I pass the beautiful Charles River (I recently sold CharlesRiver.com) at several points throughout my ride. One domain name I own and am surprised hasn’t sold is NeedhamRealEstate.com. There have been a ton of teardowns and redevelopment in Needham during the past couple of years, and I am surprised a real estate agent from Needham hasn’t made an enticing enough offer yet.

Maybe you see where I am going with this?

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Offer Rejections Yield Intel

Elliot Silver
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There are many ways to get domain name intelligence to help your business. The main way is to read sales reports from various marketplaces, auction houses brokers, and private sellers archived on NameBio and DNJournal. This information is readily available and doesn’t cost anything to obtain.

Talking to people and exchanging emails is another way to get information. People regularly share private details in private that they don’t want to have published and searchable. This type of information sharing is readily available, but it is only available to those who are acquaintances with each other and to those who are willing to share their intel.

Another great way to get private information that isn’t readily available is to make offers in private. This can lead to good information that wouldn’t be found elsewhere. I regularly make offers for domain names in private via email. While offers are regularly rejected, the rejection emails sometimes have data that is helpful to me without the sender knowing (or caring). For instance, in response to an inquiry about a one word .com domain name yesterday, the owner told me he rejected a $400,000 offer for the domain name last year. He didn’t know it, but his information is helpful because I own a couple of names I would consider comparables.

When a domain owner shares information with me,

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