Throughout the past couple of years, there have been numerous tech companies that laid off staff. Discussion about these tech layoffs amongst domain investors centered around the idea that these laid off employees would start new businesses and acquire domain names via the aftermarket to jumpstart their business.
CNN shared a video interview with Alphonzo Terrell, a former Twitter employee who was laid off from the company in 2022. Terrell then co-founded a new social media platform called Spill. As you can see from this LinkedIn post, the platform started off with a less than ideal domain name – Spill-App.com.
Earlier this year, Spill seems to have acquired the valuable Spill.com domain name. I understand the domain name was owned by Andrew Rosener and the buyer was represented by Brooke Hernandez of Saw.com. The sale was previously noted on Twitter:
In an impressive domain name upgrade, @SpillMob acquired https://t.co/ybTAemclde via @MediaOptions / @andrewrosener. The company has been using https://t.co/nlNSibe3dw for its website.
Spill was added to our list of companies that upgraded domain names: https://t.co/wghppBv9yE
— Embrace.com (@embrace_com) April 5, 2023
As with many privately brokered deals, the acquisition price of Spill.com was not shared publicly.
I am sure there are many other instances of domain names that were acquired via the aftermarket by an entrepreneur following a corporate layoff. When there is bad news regarding jobs in the tech space, the potential for domain name acquisitions is a silver lining. This is an example of a domain name acquisition that came as a result of a corporate layoff.
The company is only as good as the good employees working in the company.
Employees are just a number in the corporation.
All it takes is a good domain name and good employees to start a business.
Starting a company is challenging. Not only good employees are needed but the people who will use the service must be engaged.