
Five killer domains I own … looking for technical co-founders. - _pius
http://calacanis.com/2010/10/15/five-killer-domains-i-own-looking-for-technical-co-founders/
======
arthurdent
_note: i can't sign any NDAs or anything, i invest in a lot of companies, etc.
so please don't think that any idea you send is really that important…_

Not that he's wrong, but just an example of how he comes off as abrasive. The
_"so please don't think that any idea you send is really that important"_ just
serves to belittle everyone else's ideas (while his ideas are "killer").

The startup community generally embraces the "execution is really important"
mantra, so just stop it at _"i can't sign any NDAs or anything, i invest in a
lot of companies"_

~~~
gojomo
From his perspective, it's much better to filter out the people who are
sensitive about such things right away, by being 'abrasive', than to spend a
bunch of time talking to people nicely only to find out they're incompatible
with his style later.

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moe
The only one that I found mildly interesting was 20.com.

He paid 40k for aday.com?!

Ping me jason, I've got abridge.com to sell to you.

~~~
Someone
I am no expert on domain name pricing, but www.anApple.aDay.com could easily
be an Apple fan site or something health related.

~~~
jrockway
anappleaday.com would work just as well, though. vani.ty domain names are
cute, but hard to remember. I liked del.icio.us, but apparently delicious.com
was easier to market.

~~~
enjo
I never used delicious simply because the first time I was told about it, I
couldn't remember where all the dots went. Even after checking it out I
couldn't remember, so I just never went back. Life's to short to look those
things up on Google every time I want to visit a site.

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dagw
Do people here still think that "killer" domain names matter? I mean, will you
really make back the extra 40k you invested in joke.aday.com instead of going
with the $10 dlyJoke.com or todaysjoke.org (to take two currently available
domains I just made up).

Or to put it another way. Has anybody seen any significant increase in
business after switching their site to an expensive "killer" domain?

~~~
jonknee
Dropbox, Facebook, Groupon and Mint all come to mind.

Update: missed a really obvious one--Twitter. It launched as twttr.com and was
nearly impossible to explain to people. I don't think it would have gone
mainstream without the URL that includes vowels.

~~~
JeremyChase
With the exception of Mint, the other examples were already quite successful
before improving their domain name. Establishing causality in these cases is
tenuous.

~~~
jonknee
I seriously doubt Groupon.ThePoint.com would today be valued at over a billion
dollars.

Dropbox went on a tear after their domain purchase, but I suppose it's
possible they would have anyway (though I know from personal experience it was
tricky to tell people about Dropbox and then try and remember the domain).

<http://www.google.com/trends?q=dropbox>

(Dropbox.com was acquired in October 2009, right where growth turns from
linear to exponential.)

~~~
qeorge
Dropbox.com was also acquired right after they got a ton of funding, which
could also partially explain the exponential growth.

(Not arguing with you, just pointing it out).

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SabrinaDent
That's 125K spent on some pretty B-list domains (except 20.com - which is nice
even if it fails the ambiguity test.) It's frustrating to read because pretty
much anyone here could tell you that 125K can fund a lot of freakin'
development time for actual, you know, _products_ instead of names for things
that don't exist yet, even as ideas.

On the other hand, Jason has 125K and I don't so WTF do I know.

But I will say that I don't buy into the idea of really good domain names
these days being rare as gold dust; I brand a lot of client companies, and
just picked up the perfect 5-letter.com on the aftermarket for $79 on behalf
of a client. Granted, that was a steal but I've never, ever paid more than
$300 to brand a company with a great .com.

YMMV

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swivelmaster
I'm not sure why the human body imposes physical limits on eye-rolling, so I'm
a little frustrated that I can't roll my eyes at this post as much as it
deserves.

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antirez
After an infinite number of successful startups that picked an almost random
short domain name that was available and used this as the company name there
is _still_ somebody calling domain names "killer" for startups?

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vaksel
those are horrible domains, and I'd think they cost $9.99 to register.

well except for 20.com.

but 20.com is a horrible name in itself, because the majority of people would
just go to twenty.com

~~~
systemtrigger
By that reasoning we should expect higher traffic to thirtysevensignals.com
than 37signals.com. Having a numeral in your domain seems unwise but for a
location oriented company "20" is a winner. It is not worth $70k though IMHO.

Aday.com is worth thousands. I've been looking at hundreds of potential
domains for a daily deal site and it's been frustrating. If I had found
aday.com for $10 I would have shouted so loud all my neighbors would be deaf.

~~~
vaksel
37 signals is long enough on it's own that people know that 37 is a number.
20.com on the other hand noone would expect the site to be on the # domain

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shanes
I think he could maybe use 20.com to sell items that cost just twenty bucks.
Divided up into categories, such as Home, Office, Computer, Books, Jokey
items, it might make a good place to visit to buy birthday or Christmas
presents, etc. Or maybe it would just offer web services that cost $20/month
or $20/year.

------
MisterWebz
Looks like he thought buying expensive domains would make everything else a
lot easier. It's like that time when i thought i needed a comfier desk chair
and a better laptop to start building a web app, but i was really just
postponing the parts that were hard to do. Procrastination in disguise.

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maukdaddy
_\- lowimpact.com and noimpact.com (10k)… wanted to do a green blog._

UGH. Now I hate him even more.

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languagehacker
Good for you, spending all that money! How much do you have to spend to get
your own feature in Modern Domainer Magazine?

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bluesnowmonkey
So I bring a great team and idea, and he brings the domain and funding, and I
get "some equity." Except if I have a great team and idea, I can get funding
anyway. So really he just brings the domain.

How is this not domain squatting? If Calacanis isn't using the domains, he
should sell them.

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alexsherrick
I have to agree with both of you... owning 20.com does not make it become the
best location domain. He would be starting late in the game, and would need a
killer idea behind the domain.

~~~
alttab
Did you even read the whole post? He clearly stated his ideas were killer to
match the level of killer-ness of the domains.

He's a killer guy with killer companies and conferences and killer domain
names. Sign me up!

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aresant
Calacanis just offered HN users angel funding, work space, and connections.

The domain name lead is ancillary to his interest in HN users – eg the domains
are his way of inserting himself into the HN conversation.

There are worse people in the world to have as your co-founder, and if you hit
even a base hit with Jason you're as good as made on the west coast because
you can be darn sure everybody will hear about it.

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Tycho
40k? I'm still mad I spent £40 on a domain in a moment of whimsy. Let me know
if anyone wants to buy knommerce.com (as in knowledge and commerce... what was
i thinking?)

~~~
hdx
lol

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aniket_ray
I think this <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1794576> discussion might
have sparked the post.

