Thoughts

Andrew Miller

October 27, 2025

What Is A Champion?

I have often written and talked about the importance of having a “champion” when it comes to high value, one word .com domain name transactions. In this instance, a champion is a person inside an organization that clearly understands the value of the domain name to the business, knows exactly how the company will utilize the domain to maximize its value, and is in a position to use that conviction to get a deal done. This has become more evident as I engage in many discussions, negotiations, and transactions. There are two primary types of domain deals I work on; exact match brand domains (Monarch*com for Monarch Money, Rocket*com for Rocket Mortgage) and category defining domain assets (Chat*com for OpenAI, Gold*com for Amark). In both cases, the “champion” is important but is also very different in each case.

The Brand Match Champion

With exact match brand domains, she is usually the founder, CEO, or a board member/investor, who clearly knows that offensively and defensively, they must own their brand’s address to their world. Like Carl Hancock has posted for Gravity*com, having the exact match email address was the most eye opening aspect to him. As Jannick Malling from Public*com has stated, the ROI on OOH advertising, paid and organic search, and social media advertising, exponentially improved when they pivoted from HelloPublic to Public*com. For those that do not understand this, they often miss the boat, only to learn later it was the single biggest strategic mistake they made to date, often so costly that they are forced to rebrand. Exact match domains are must have, not nice to have.

The Category Defining Champion

The champion for category defining names is a slightly different profile. Often, when we speak with management of large, established corporations within multi-billion dollar categories, the initial reaction is, “wow, it would be great to own ._ *com”, “but we have no idea what we would do with it”. That’s where the champion comes in. He has a vision and plan in mind, for which his eyes light up knowing it could stand behind the category defining address for their entire industry. I  am excited for NamesCon next week, where I will be moderating the keynote speech with 3 “champions” joining me onstage (by Zoom).

Surrounded By Champions

So much of my day to day is spent connecting with decision makers, conveying the opportunity of the exact match and category defining domains we are representing or own, and finding, and then help preparing, that champion, so they can complete a high level domain name transaction for their business.

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