No you haven’t accidentally stumbled to Morgan’s site. I like many people like reading about start ups for one reason. Money. I love the thought of making millions. What is probably more a reality is the chance to sell a domain to a start up. My job is to know what names are being used by companies, including new young companies. I know what I think is a good name but more important is the need to keep an eye on what they consider a good name. TechCrunch is a good place to gather that data. There is no better publicity than to have an article written about you on TechCrunch. It may not mean you’ve made it but it sure helps pave the way and it’s certainly the best source to see what new names have been chosen. Here are the last 25 domains of new or relatively new companies that have appeared on TechCrunch. Let’s see if we can learn anything by taking a look at them.
Birchbox.com They deliver beauty samples
ZeroFootPrint.net a cleantech software and services company that makes environmental impact measurable, visible, and manageable. And a company that had to settle for the dot net
Brightwurks.com Builds web based products. Again settles
Zippaymobile.com Company is called ZipPay. Mobile payments company. First one on list to have domain that doesn’t match company name
AnyMeeting.com Online teleconferencing. For free. Name works well for the product.
Explorence.com The make outdoor video games. Very interesting concept
Zurb.com Design company. Great name and own the 4 letter dot com
Pinterest.com Pin site. You “pin” the things you like. Just raised 27 million and didn’t need any of it for this name
PostMates.com A local messenger service that connects messengers with users
Everlane.com Clothing and accessory designer with everything under $100.
Yipit.com Daily deal tracker
Ondango.com Lets you sell your products on facebook. I had talked about when this happened that it would hurt the value of domains. Here it is but not sure if I agree with my old feelings.
Binksty.com Manages your college loan payments
Scribol.com Basically it’s a link exchange. Looks fancier but still a traffic exchange.
AirTime.com Who cares what it is. It’s the work of Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning
TroovalInc.com Company is called Trooval. Supposedly they have software that can predict which person will spend more money. And yet they couldn’t get trooval.com
Mysugr.com A company that makes learning about diabetes fun. You know what’s not fun? Trying to remember their domain name
InDinero.com The Mint for small business
8Coupons.com Another daily deal site
Rdio.com A digital music service from the founders of Skype. They have enough money to buy any domain they want
XFire.com An online gaming community
GetApp.com A business software marketplace Good name but kind of wasted on a software store.
TodaysKicks.com A “why didn’t I think of this” site where people post pics of their shoes
Hipsters.com Recently reinvented. Now sends digital postcards
SocialCam.com A video sharing site
If there is any trend here it’s that all but one are dot coms. But even though they are dot coms, most are names that are either hand regs or names that could be had relatively cheaply. Most of these are not bootstrapped companies, they have millions of dollars behind them. Their founders and investors have chosen not to invest in a costly domain and in many of the cases above, it was a wise move. There are a few that should have purchased the exact company match domain and one needs to get the dot com. A few of the names make no sense, nor do they describe the product but those don’t bother me as much as the names that are misspelled or drop vowels. I will remember 8 coupons but ondango may take a few typos. But regardless of what I think, if the product is good enough, users will find it and will remember the name and that seems to be what these companies are hoping for.
You are so right on the money. These guys want it to be the name they came up with. They don’t see the domain as all that important. I have been in meetings where one person recommended getting the generic .com and the CEO said, “This is my baby, I will name her”
Rdio.com is trying to be cool, but those guys could get any name they wanted. But I guess Skype worked, Skipe would have been the spelling most thought of first, but they made it work.
I love the Birchbox model, smart women.