
How We Bought easypost.com - jstreebin
https://www.easypost.com/blog/how-we-bought-easypost-dot-com
======
wesleyy
Hate to be a cynic but this article could've easily been titled 'how naming
our startup "easypost" turned into a 15k mistake'.

I just can't imagine that the name easypost was 15k better than alternative
names. I get that the company already had traction and it'd be cheaper to buy
the domain than change the name of the company but I guess what I'm trying to
say is domain name availability should probably be the number 1 criteria when
picking a new startup name.

~~~
joncalhoun
Easypost launched roughly 2 weeks before a competitor did. The competitor
received 16 upvotes on HN. Easypost's Show HN had 157.

Perhaps if Jarrett had waited until he found that perfect .com name he
wouldn't have launched first, and as a result would have had less initial
exposure. Less initial exposure means less initial traction, and that might
have lead to easypost not raising their first round, or raising on much worse
terms, both of which could easily be worth more than $15k.

On top of that, finding an available .com isn't easy. You essentially end up
using a non-english word, mashing several words together, or use something
like geteasypost.com (which easypost owned prior to making this purchase).

Non-english words are harder to say and recall, and could ultimately affect
word of mouth growth. Mashing words together puts you in a similar situation,
and nearly every company who owned get<company>.com or try<company>.com
ultimately ended up buying <company>.com if they were successful. Dropbox did
it. Facebook did it. Easypost just opted to get theirs earlier in the
company's lifetime.

~~~
PMan74
> The competitor received 16 upvotes on HN. Easypost's Show HN had 157.

This is important how? Are these ~150 extra up votes really worth $100 each?
Really worth 7.5% of your funding round. Yeah, yeah, yeah, visibility on HN is
good but outside the HN bubble I think I'd rather have the 15k.

~~~
RobAley
They could be worth it. If 1 in 10 of those voters directly becomes a customer
(or mentions it to someone else who does), and the LTV of a customer is > $1k
(which is very possible for a b2b relationship), then it is. And that doesn't
factor in any customers (or investors) bought in by having greater visibility
on the post (more votes = more time on front page = more people see it =
probably a few more customers).

~~~
big_maybe
In fact I became a customer of EasyPost's soon after reading that HN post.

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JacobAldridge
Possibly the neatest succinct explanation of dealing with (buying from or
selling to) corporations that I've read: _" you're dealing with a bureaucracy,
which means people are heavily inclined to say 'No', and it takes several
'Yes's for a deal to go through."_

Enterprise Sales 101.

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petercooper
Reading this reminded me of some of the domain negotiations I've been involved
in (on both sides) and just how _cloak and dagger_ they are. I can't think of
any similar transaction that involves so much mystery and shadowy
manoeuvring.. it's almost comical.

What also intrigued me is how they got it for less than their initial offer
(which was "$10K GBP" \- one assumes this is meant to be £10K?) - $15K being
less than 10K GBP (recently, though not today).

~~~
jstreebin
He meant 10k GBP. Their initial ask was 20k GBP and we bought it for half
that, $15k at the time.

------
imjk
If the broker did such a good job, why not mention who you used? I can't think
of why he'd want to stay anonymous.

~~~
jstreebin
I'm checking with them to see if they mind.

------
ThomPete
So a broker that actually helps you save money and get what you want. Thats a
first. Imagine if real estate brokers where this helpful.

~~~
rgbrgb
The broker/buyer conflict of interest in real estate is exactly what we're
working on at Open Listings [1]. It's interesting to think about whether a
flat-fee model like ours could work in domain brokering. It's kind of an
interesting thought experiment to consider what kind of input you'd need for a
program to do the buy-side negotiation.

[1]: [https://www.openlistings.co](https://www.openlistings.co)

Edit: Not trying to undermine this domain broker's business at all! He's
obviously doing an amazing job hustling for his clients and there's no better
option if you really want a domain.

~~~
omarchowdhury
Looks like openlistings.com is for sale:
[http://openlistings.com/](http://openlistings.com/)

;)

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bhaumik
There's a great Reply All podcast episode that dives much deeper into domain
selling: [http://gimletmedia.com/episode/7-this-website-is-for-
sale/](http://gimletmedia.com/episode/7-this-website-is-for-sale/).

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ypeterholmes
What an ugly marketplace.

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beeskneecaps
easypostage.com is $3k per
[https://www.godaddy.com/domains/searchresults.aspx?ci=83269](https://www.godaddy.com/domains/searchresults.aspx?ci=83269).
I could have saved you $12k!

~~~
joncalhoun
easypostapi.com and geteasypost.com were $10 each. Something tells me you
wouldn't have made the sale :D

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_RPM
So after the domain has been bought, the company can obviously see who bought
it and find out your true identity. Is this a problem? (an inevitable one).

~~~
escaped_hn
I would guess the main reason for hiding your identity would be so the sellers
don't overcharge. After its sold, it doesn't matter.

~~~
jonah
Correct. Though it't often easy enough to figure it out if it's related to an
existing company.

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fiatjaf
You should redirect from easypost.co to easypost.com.

------
gesman
Kudos to easypost for sharing this.

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thomseddon
_" $10K GBP"_

Confusing

~~~
zhte415
It makes sense if they would like to throw the buyer off the scent and suggest
it is a UK-centric service.

But a bit non-sequitur with the rest of the email - American English spelling
and while Bill is quite common in the UK, Jarrett is an unusual name there.

~~~
Acquirable
They already knew we were American, we weren't hiding the fact.

