It’s not often that we hear from the founders of a company to discuss why they spent what they did to acquire a specific domain name. Yesterday, CoFounders Co-Founder Chris Koerner shared the rationale behind his company’s $65,000 acquisition of the CoFounders.com domain name:

We spent $65k on a one word domain name, and it was a stupidly easy decision. Below is our thought process.

In fact, we named the company around the domain name, and not the other way around. Why?

1. Instant credibility for the only audience that matters – ours

2. 80-90%… pic.twitter.com/xczNGwlJOK

— Chris Koerner (@mhp_guy) February 20, 2024

When I agree to a negotiated deal on a platform like Dan or Sedo, I have always held the expectation that the payment will be made ASAP. If a buyer did not pay within a couple of days – maybe a day or two longer if it was a large sale – I would ask Dan to cancel the transaction. Perhaps I should be more forgiving.

Within the past couple of months, I have dealt with two counterparties that didn’t pay immediately. Subsequent payment reminders appeared to have gone unanswered. Because communications between buyer and seller cease once a deal is reached, I couldn’t communicate directly with the buyers on the platform. Instead of asking Dan.com to cancel the deals, I connected with these people on LinkedIn.

If you have visited a Squadhelp landing page, chances are good that you have seen their advertising when you visit other websites that have Google advertising banners on display. I regularly see Squadhelp advertising banners with the logos of domain names I visited on their platform.

Squadhelp CEO Darpan Munjal shared that Google Ads recently published a case study highlighting the platform’s advertising campaign and results:

One of the neat features of Squadhelp is the naming contests the platform hosts. People seeking a brand and/or domain name can post a contest along with a comprehensive contest brief outlining what they are seeking along with a financial award for the winning entry. Domain name sellers on the platform can submit domain names to the contest.

As each contest goes on, the contest holder can rate domain names submitted as “Love It,” “Like It,” “On Right Track,” or “No Thank You.” At the end of the contest, the contest holder is supposed to choose a winning entry, and the person who submitted the winning entry wins the cash award. The contest holder can then purchase the domain name if desired. If the contest holder does not choose a winner, Squadhelp chooses one on their behalf.

I have one ongoing Lease to Own (LTO) deal at Squadhelp. The total sale price was just shy of $5,000, and the buyer is paying over 12 months. Payments are due on the 26th of each month.

Prior to this weekend, the buyer had made 4 monthly payments, which were disbursed via PayPal the day after being received. For January, this meant the fifth payment was due to be disbursed on a Saturday. Most companies don’t have accounting staff working on the weekend, so it would take a couple of extra days to be paid. Platforms I use that offer LTO (Dan and Squadhelp) don’t notify sellers when the buyer makes a payment, so I would only receive an update once the payment is disbursed.

James Booth shared that he sold BoomBox.ai for $59,995:

People talking about .box while I am blasting beats.

Sold – https://t.co/Pf3kx7pfzD for $59,995

— Domain (@domain) January 25, 2024

That sale is impressive in and of itself. I did a bit of searching via DomainTools, and I found something that took me aback. A screenshot of the previous BoomBox.ai landing page from July of 2023 – just 6 months ago – shows this domain name was previously listed for sale on Squadhelp for $9,995! That means James grossed an extra $50k because he repriced it as interest in .AI domain names grew.