Thoughts

Andrew Miller

February 23, 2025

World-Class Domains Are More Important Than Ever

I am selective about making predictions, whether its domain name, economy, or even sports related. I have been consistent since the middle of 2024 about my conviction that venture investment and M&A activity would heat up in 2025, and that the most valuable exact match, category defining domain names would continue to be the most strategic, important, and valuable investment that a company, leadership team, and brand can make. The start of 2025 for us has strongly validated this. We are excited to have overseen the sale of Snowball*com, Fancy*com, Hill*com, Experiences*com, and Therapy*com so far in ’25, and in the next 2 weeks, will have a handful more world-class domain transactions to discuss. Atom.com (I am an investor/Board Member) is also seeing this momentum, with strong transactions every day. The importance of owning your exact match, category defining domain, has never been higher, across every facet of your business, from email – SEO – paid social – OOH – fundraising – exit. It is so key to get this early before it is too late or too costly. The most successful CEO/Founders/Investors understand this, a few which you can hear from here: https://hilcodigital.com/use-cases/

Know Your Buyer

If you own or invest in the most valuable ultra premium domain names, there is sometimes a  perception that  “build it and they will come” will lead to the best end game. This can happen, but IMHO, it is not usually how the biggest win-win deals get accomplished. I can say with 26 years of track record and expertise, as a founder, investor, and advisor, that domain transactions such as our Chat*com ($15.5m), Rocket*com ($15m), Gold*com ($8.6m), Home*com, to name just a handful, get done because of the time invested in building a world class network, trust, and relationships; educating, discussing, and setting up the possibility of a win-win transaction to occur. It requires the art of negotiation, the patience to get to a place where the timing is right for all sides, and integrity and trust.  It is an ongoing, relationship building endeavor.

Thank You For Reading!

Quick comment on Random Sunday Thoughts. I started this because 3 years ago, I had a blog that was not getting the proper time commitment that was needed to make it valuable to readers. I decided that I could commit to a weekly Sunday post on LI.  This week, I was catching up with  an old, close, and very successful  friend, who I do not see as much as I would like to, no reason, just life and distance. Unbeknownst to me, he said “I read every one of your RST posts and love them!”. 151 of these later, I am still blown away at how much this has grown and I appreciate that and the readers.

All articles