

Ask HN: What would you give up for The Killer Domain? - beepbeepbeep

Let's say you're trying to build a well known consumer brand. Most of your traffic is expected to be word of mouth. You've found the best domain you can imagine. Something as good as Mint.com.<p>You've talked to the owner, and he claims to have had offers of hundreds of thousands.<p>I know what Aaron Patzer did in that situation. What would you do and why?<p>Let's assume you're 6 months old and have raised $1M angel round.
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rodericksilva
Google didn't need search.com. 37Signals didn't need basecamp.com. If mint.com
were mintybooks.com you would have found it anyway.

The owners of schoolbinder.com wanted a ridiculous amount. We went with
myschoolbinder.com. People are finding us. Were making money.

I wouldn't spend much on it. Find another catchy name.

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nopassrecover
Well noone will beat Yahoo's effectively $5.7 billion domain purchase of
broadcast.com.

It's just a matter of if the number of running days you sacrifice by spending
this money and the lost other opportunities you could spend the money on (e.g.
PR, design, a new dev) are outweighed by the likelihood of the new domain
bringing you income.

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portman
I would give up equity, possibly as much as $100,000 worth. But I would not
pay very much cash ($15k tops).

Most importantly, I wouldn't spend more than 1-2 days on the negotiation,
because "The Killer Domain" is one of the less important issues that a 6 month
old consumer startup faces.

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byoung2
I know someone who bought a very good domain for $45,000 (not quite mint.com,
but close) in 2008 and the type-in traffic alone brings millions of unique
visitors and is enough for him to earn $500-1000 per day in advertising.

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joshuarr
I'd spend the money on hookers and blow. Seriously, a rose by any other
name...

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RtodaAV
Domain is a Domain. You don't need a amazing domain to be successful.

