From my many years of experience in business I can say that anytime you have a serious offer on the table you have to decide if you are willing to risk going for door number two.
You can always point to cases where people didn't sell out and ended up better but with business you have to look at the downside not just the upside. Over the years that is the biggest mistake that I have seen people make in negotiation.
I'll give you an example with domains. I'm in the process of buying a domain for a startup and the startup will pay $50,000 maybe even $100,000 for the domain. But the owner won't even engage preferring to shoot for the stars and thinks he will get a million. He won't even state a price. At this point we will cut bait and find another name. I know fully well this business (I also own names) and I know that this domain has about a 2% chance of selling for anywhere near that amount in coming years. I have domains that I've held for 15 years and have never gotten a single offer on. I've had domains that I've held for 15 years that I've sold for big money. Anytime someone comes along with a serious offer I focus on how long it will take until the next offer will come in - if ever. Business and gambling are two different things.
Nope. Offered perhaps 10,000 and getting no engagement and "sorry not interested in selling" bs. I've dealt with google and that's the only person/company that's not interested in selling any domains and doesn't need the money. (Or once a Fortune 500 company). Everybody else (especially this guy) is interested in selling. I know the "not interested technique" well. And I know this guy is a gambler and there is no end in sight to this. We don't have time to waste with someone who won't even state a price and wants to be chased.
I have found my client another domain that they are happy with.
Because when it's said by a company that is in the business of buying and selling domain names and has sold multiple domain names for big dollars it's BS. I operate in that industry, this isn't speculation on my part.
Otoh, if I approached Marissa Mayer to buy a domain she owned I wouldn't consider "I don't want to sell" "BS".
If I approached McDonalds and wanted to buy "hamburger.com" from them (hypothetical) and they said "don't want to sell" I wouldn't consider that BS.
But this company, that is their business (domains). It is BS.
Lastly, If your vanity domain name is (hypothetically once again) "nowblog.com" maybe you aren't interested in selling it. If someone offers you $100,000 you might be interested, correct?
Why not just use a non-optimal domain name and buy the boutique domain when the startup in question is in a stronger bargaining position and/or has more cash? Lots of YC companies have done this and it didn't seem to be a problem. Even Twitter did it.
Bad strategy. Would increase the price tremendously. This is what I do and I operate on both sides of that business. This particular company got a million dollars for a domain in a similar situation.
From my many years of experience in business I can say that anytime you have a serious offer on the table you have to decide if you are willing to risk going for door number two.
You can always point to cases where people didn't sell out and ended up better but with business you have to look at the downside not just the upside. Over the years that is the biggest mistake that I have seen people make in negotiation.
I'll give you an example with domains. I'm in the process of buying a domain for a startup and the startup will pay $50,000 maybe even $100,000 for the domain. But the owner won't even engage preferring to shoot for the stars and thinks he will get a million. He won't even state a price. At this point we will cut bait and find another name. I know fully well this business (I also own names) and I know that this domain has about a 2% chance of selling for anywhere near that amount in coming years. I have domains that I've held for 15 years and have never gotten a single offer on. I've had domains that I've held for 15 years that I've sold for big money. Anytime someone comes along with a serious offer I focus on how long it will take until the next offer will come in - if ever. Business and gambling are two different things.