Chad Hurley is the co-founder and former CEO of YouTube, which was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion. I understand that Chad is now an angel investor, and he also has ownership stakes in the Golden State Warriors (NBA) and the Los Angeles Football Club (MLS).
In the last couple of days, Chad made some interesting comments about domain names on Twitter (with additional comments in the replies):
Want to change the world? Register a sweet domain.
— Chad Hurley (@Chad_Hurley) January 14, 2021
Domains are the original digital store of value.
— Chad Hurley (@Chad_Hurley) January 16, 2021
Only invest in .com’s! Other domains are scams!
— Chad Hurley (@Chad_Hurley) January 16, 2021
The insights from those tweets are interesting to analyze on their own, but another tweet caught my attention this morning more than these:
Startups don’t need capital or experience, they just need sweet domains. I’m setting up a fund that focuses on a domain first strategy. And don’t tell me they don’t matter because of apps… don’t believe the hype!
— Chad Hurley (@Chad_Hurley) January 16, 2021
As a domain investor, I think starting with a great domain name is a good idea. I don’t really agree about not needing capital or experience (particularly the experience aspect), but Chad would have more expertise in that regard.
If you look at the top companies and startups, you will notice the vast majority own a brand match .com domain name. For most of these companies, they are bang-on one or two word .com domain names that would hold intrinsic value on their own – beyond the branding. For instance, Amazon.com and Apple.com would be valuable domain name assets even if their founders chose different brand names.
There are quite a few domain investors who have built valuable domain name portfolios, and a major portfolio acquisition could help Chad jumpstart his domain first fund (you can see Andrew Rosener, Jay Chapman, Adam Strong, and other domain investors already replied to Chad’s tweet on Twitter). Of course, Chad could also build a portfolio by opportunistically buying one-offs like Brent Oxley (found of HostGator and now Create.com) has done.
It will be interesting to see how Chad goes about building this fund. The best domain names are becoming much more difficult to buy, and I would imagine there is more money chasing those assets than ever before.
If this is more than some scattershot, throwing spaghetti against the wall tweets from Chad, it will be very interesting to see what comes of his domain-first strategy fund. With the comment about not needing capital or experience, it could also be a tongue in cheek type of tweet.
“””Only invest in .com’s! Other domains are scams!”””
Yay yay yay!!!
Nice to see rich Folks esp rich White Males with lots of money going after domains!!
Makes my domains more valuable.
I think he was joking
Appears to be trolling now.
Looks like the joke is on me and all of us who replied.
Seems like a fun way to spend a Saturday on Twitter.