Jessica Alba’s company is called The Honest Company, and as you might expect from a company with a billion dollar valuation, they own the exceptional Honest.com domain name. In a Late Show with Stephen Colbert video shared today, Jessica Alba and Steven Colbert discuss the Honest.com domain name and how Alba’s company acquired the domain name.
I did a bit of research using DomainTools Historical Whois Tool to see who owned the domain name prior to the acquisition. In 2011, Honest.com was owned by Anything.com, a company that owns and has owned some of the most valuable domain names.
I have communicated with people associated with Anything.com, and the company does not share sales information. I am quite sure this was a very high value deal (my guess is high 6 or 7 figures), and I am also quite sure we won’t ever learn the price of the domain name unless Jessica Alba or someone else from The Honest Company reveals that information.
Here’s the video (skip to 3:30 to see the part about Honest.com)
Thanks to Matt Worth for sharing this video.
I listened to it last night. I did not like the way she talked she worded it. Last night I also did the quick research and noticed anything. I thought about notifying Larry or Ari but I decided to leave it alone.
I noticed that namebio had the sale reported in 2011 for $ 180k thru godaddy (afternic?).
DNJournal has it listed at $180,000:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2011/20120111.htm
Good catch! Seems like a good price.
My guess was wrong (assuming that was the sale price).
The $180,000 price on DN Journal back from 2011 .. isn’t that probably what Anything.com bought it for at auction?
She says, “it was not cheap”
My guess, is it went on the low end for $500,000.
But, you could be right in saying millions since the people own a lot of high quality names and have experience in selling them.
The Honest Company purchased it on Dec 31, 2011 for 180,000 USD, through GoDaddy.
Date is correct, check it and you will see that until late Dec 2011 it was owned by Anything.com and parked, while at the start of Jan 2012 The Honest Company website was already on. 🙂
” she talked ”
thought I had erased those 2 words. Oops.
Funny, i had to watch it three times. the first two time i was looking at how beautiful she is, then the third time i heard about the domain.
Seems like a great buy for her company…
way to cheap at 180k in my opinion.
It takes ambition to go up against the dish soap and laundry detergent industry GIANTS like JOY, PALMOLIVE, DAWN, and TIDE.
TIDE had a rough time with PODS which looked like edible candy and poisoned a lot of people.
That woman commands central categorical shelf space at Walmart.
across the USA
Just shows how domain name can become a factor for successful businesses. Very good name used smartly by smart lady
Alba is about to become a cash billionaire, if Media rumors are true.
Amazon.com, Uniliver, Walmart & Alibaba have been “in talks” about acquiring Honest.
If the recent acquisition deals for Jet.com & Dollar Shave Club provide indicators or price points, Honest should do well. (But I don’t know what its customer acquisitions are, marketing spend, what if any proprietary technology it owns, demographics of its customer base)
Most companies with “celebrity founders” rarely pan out. The scenario is usually like this: Big time PR, explosive growth (revenues and/or customers/users), drop off, marketing spend, uptick, Series A round, revenues, flame-out…
Honest seems to have executed well. But we’ll see.