Julian Hearn is the Founder and CEO of Huel, a meal replacement and nutrition company with a valuation of more than half a billion USD, as of last year. The company began by operating on Huel.me, but it upgraded to Huel.com sometime in 2015.
In an interview on Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal, Hearn discussed why his company decided it was necessary to acquire Huel.com instead of continuing with Huel.me. In addition, he shared some commentary about his negotiation with the seller of Huel.com. The company acquired Huel.com for either $10,000 or 10000 GBP – it is unclear what currency was used for the transaction.
Since the acquisition, pronounceable 4 letter .com domain names like Huel.com have increased in value. In addition, Huel’s growth would have also made Huel.com even more valuable. The registrant likely would have detected more direct navigation traffic, and the risk of lost customers and mis-sent emails would have made it more important for the company to own.
Smartly, Hearn realized the need to acquire Huel.com, and he did not let some adversity in the negotiation prevent him from striking a deal. The full video interview is embedded below, but it starts just before the domain name discussion.
Very interesting, how that negotiation happened.