Thoughts

Andrew Miller

October 13, 2024

Good Things Come to Those who Wait & Keep Showing Up

Historically, I have not been the most patient person in business. I like instantaneous results, and fast wins for our partners. Ironically, I have always been very patient in my personal life. One of the things I have worked hard on over the years is to translate some of that to my business. I have certainly improved. As Jerry Garcia sings in Run for The Roses, “all good things in all good time”. From time to time, I will post here about stocks I am buying (never investment advice!) and one of those I have written about often is Jet Blue. I am a loyal customer, have stuck with them in tough times, and just made 80+ percent on the stock in less than a year, finally taking profits last week. This is an example of patience both as a customer and investor. Last Sunday, I mentioned a large domain transaction that I was excited about, but had to hold off on saying which domain. The domain was First*com, and this deal is a case study in “patience”. We at Hilco Digital Assets worked on this for 3 years, and Daniel Koleshchuk and I spoke to upwards of 300+ companies directly. It was worth the wait as the outcome was phenomenal and a win-win for the buyer and seller. As I have said so often, the sale and acquisition of the most valuable exact match and category defining domain names can take time. Congrats to my good friend Yinan Wang , who is always so loyal and great to work with. Also, it was fun to celebrate such a great result with my neighbor and friend Mike Lefebvre from GoDaddy, who represented the buyer. While Yinan is 6700  miles away, Mike and I engaged in the legendary Mudslides at the Chart Room, mutually one of our favorite spots.

The Art of Finesse

Another great case study of a domain name transaction taking time is our sale of Gold*com for $8.5+ million in March of this year, https://lnkd.in/egYy8Jt9. Our first conversation with A-mark Precious Metals, the buyer, was almost 18 months before we agreed to the deal. During this time relationships were fostered, the gold industry business climate strengthened, and with time, we got to a ZOPA (zone of possible agreement) on a win-win price.

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