Thoughts

Andrew Miller

January 7, 2024

Hitting the Ground Running in 2024

The first Random Sunday Thoughts of the new year is always a bit more challenging, because the past two weeks addressed my thoughts looking back on 2023 and ahead to 2024 and now we are just a few days underway. However, the great and strong start to the new year helps make this easier. I had barely sat down to get back at it on Jan 2nd, when we at Hilco Digital Assets received a 7 figure offer for a domain we are overseeing, followed by another one 2 hours later, both which will close in the next 1-2 weeks. We also are in discussions on a third of that same magnitude which will happen closer to an early February closing. I ended the year posting about the upswing I envisioned was underway on premium exact match, category domains, and this fast start provides some validation on that. See all our domains at HilcoDigital.com/domains

Venture Capital’s Influence on Domain Investments in 2023

In yesterday’s PitchBook newsletter, it stated that “2023 just wasn’t the year for venture capital”, something I have regularly referred to here and on my Random Thoughts podcast. Pitchbook pointed out some facts to back this up including:VC sluggishness was a global phenomenon;Deal value for 2023 was less than half of what it was for 2021; exit value in 2023 was $225b, the lowest total since 2017; down rounds are increasing and there is still pain to be felt. I continue to believe that we are much closer to the bottom than many believe when it comes to the state of venture investment, which is a huge driver of the pace and acquisition value of the most premium domain name assets. There is cash on the sidelines, AI is exploding as I discussed last week, and there are strong signals that positive investment sentiment is occurring. This is the time where opportunity is historically at its highest and I am excited for what is to come in the next 24 months.

Episode 3 of the Random Sunday Thoughts Podcast

 Speaking of our podcast, Random Thoughts Episode 3 will be live streamed this Thursday, Jan 11th at 12PM EST, on https://lnkd.in/etRdHgpU, and I will post the call in link where you can come on and ask me, Larry Fischer, and our special guest anything starting at 12:40PM EST. We have an awesome special guest which I will say more about when I post the link.

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