Thoughts

Andrew Miller

July 13, 2025

The Snowball Effect of Adoption

I am really encouraged to see more companies and their management assessing, understanding, and acting on the strategic importance of their exact match or category defining .com domain name. I estimate I have spoken to 10,000+ decision makers since I started investing in and advising on domains, and there have always been 3 types of conversations; those who get it and act; those who get it and cannot act yet; and those that simply, don’t. This week, we oversaw the sale of the domain name Monarch*com, https://lnkd.in/eSabmRtP. The CEO understood how pivotal and significant it is. Imagine not having the exact match email address, trust, authority, elimination of confusion, proven higher ROI from paid social, search, and OOH advertising, and the credibility with future investors or partners? We have recently overseen transactions for those that do; OpenAi with Chat*com, Rocket Mortgage with Rocket*com,  and in the past few weeks, with Icon*com, Sword*com, Avail*com, and Odyssey*com. The challenge we face is to help the CEOs that do not understand this until it is too late, and it bites back hard, something which I have been privy to on many occasions. These leaders should at least take the time out to step back and look at the case studies, talk to other peers who have realized the significance, and pay attention. If they don’t, they are not doing their job for their stakeholders, and creating risk at levels they clearly do not yet realize.

The Vision

When it comes to category defining domain names, which I believe are the most valuable of all, I see it through a different lens. The opportunity to leverage this asset (Booking*com, Salesforce*com, Gold*com, Cars*com) is the most powerful way to own a multi-billion dollar industry, but someone inside the acquiring company needs to have a product, vision, or be a champion of how they will do that. Sometimes it is wise to be defensive and own the asset protectively, but there is so much more value to unpack offensively. With an exact match domain (ie Monarch for MonarchMoney), it is truly a no brainer, as it is the massive upgrade by dropping the Money from Marathon, the Hello from HelloPublic (now Public*com) or HelloExtend (Extend*com). With a category name, one can leverage this asset like Booking has to dominate the space but they need to strategically have that plan defined.

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