Use Cases
Founders and CEOs discuss leveraging their category and exact-match .com domain names.
Exact-match premium domain names are the strongest-performing standalone balance sheet assets. Their game-changing impact grows value exponentially for a business beyond any other investment. Those who have made the decision to acquire these business assets always regard the choice as a wise one.
Below are a few of their observations on exact match & category defining domains in their own businesses:
JM Bullion, a subsidiary of A-Mark Precious Metals, purchased Gold.com with the help of Hilco Digital Assets, adding to its earlier acquisition of Silver.com. Robert Pacelli, President of JM Bullion commented on the acquisition:
“The acquisition of the gold.com domain represents a significant investment in our direct-to-consumer growth strategy… Prominent, single word domains are in high demand due to their scarcity, and the benefits of such domains include instant brand recognition and enhanced marketability. It’s rare to have an opportunity to acquire a category defining asset such as this.”
For more information on this acquisition, the company published a nice description of the process and those involved.
Robert Pacelli
President, JM Bullion
Fairway’s David Lazowski discusses the significance of Home.com as an asset to Fairway:
Teamwork is a project management tool specifically designed for agencies, consultancies, and IT services firms focused on efficiency and control in their client relationships.
Pete Coppinger, CEO and Founder of Teamwork, on how acquiring Teamwork.com lead to his company’s “hockey stick event.”
Gravity CEO Carl Hancock has noticed that the general public is sending emails to the Gravity.com domain when trying to reach a different company that shares “gravity” in part of its name.
“The gravity.com catch all email address gets some CRAZY stuff. Those people should be glad we aren’t bad actors. Because it’s pretty wild what ends up in there. Companies with Gravity in their name? We get it.”
Carl Hancock
CEO, Gravity
Public is a fractional investing platform that Crunchbase reports has raised over $300 million in funding. Launched as HelloPublic.com, its name and URL were changed in 2019 when Public.com was acquired. The benefit is described by Jannick Malling, Co-founder and Co-CEO at Public.com, who tweeted about the change:
“Just like it matters for your brand whether your store is on 5th avenue or in a random alleyway – it matters what your domain is.”
“And finally, yes, works 2x-3x better for digital ads/cvr… but for non-digital (OOH etc), more like 50x-100x better.”
Jannick Malling
Co-founder & Co-CEO, Public.com
Pipe is a lending platform that leverages predictable client cashflow to provide upfront capital. Founder & CEO Harry Hurst shared this thought on Pipe.com:
“One-word dictionary domains are the holy grail in my opinion (but I’m biased). They’re not cheap, but they stamp authority [and] allow you to build trust.”
Harry Hurst
CEO and Founder, Pipe
Woodrow Levin discussed how the exact-match domain name Extend.com adds exponential value.
“One-word domain names are digital real estate.”
In discussing the impact of changing the company’s domain name from HelloExtend.com to Extend.com as putting the firm in a different category. He notes, “it was core to the next step in the maturation of our business.”
Woodrow Levin
Founder & CEO, Extend
Greg Isenberg, Proven Founder & Investor, posted his thoughts on exact match domain names.
“I used to think buying a premium dotcom domains were a waste of cash. But I was wrong… [with] a new premium dotcom domain I started seeing the conversion rates jump 2-3x.”
After first-hand experience, Greg drew some important conclusions:
“So, yeah my realization is premium domains can be totally worth it especially in B2B. I’m starting to think about only starting companies that have premium domains… Brand matters more than ever.”
Greg Isenberg
Founder & Investor, Proven
Elon Musk’s company originally used the name TeslaMotors.com. However, he maintains he considered it more than a car company from the beginning and so wanted a broader name. Musk on Tesla.com:
“Buying Tesla.com took over a decade, $11M & amazing amount of effort. Didn’t like Teslamotors.com even when we were only making 🚘.”
Notably, Musk also bought the trademark for Tesla. He maintains that, without it he’d have named the company “Faraday.”
Elon Musk
CEO, Tesla Motors
Super Chief Marketing Officer Radhika Duggal on why they felt they needed to own Super.com:
“After evaluating the domain’s asset value, competitive threat deterrence, trust value, and potential revenue impact, we decided to move forward – and we’ve never looked back. Despite the price, purchasing Super.com drives trust and legitimacy time and time again.”
Radhika Duggal
Chief Marketing Officer, Super
Warren Struhl has had serial success with the family business he founded and the domains Licorice.com, Pretzels.com, and Caramels.com. He recently added to this portfolio with Chocolate.com, an acquisition expedited by Hilco Digital Assets. He says,
“Single word, category domain names are particularly successful in TV and digital media because the level of credibility and memorability is great.”
The full interview with our own Andrew Miller is available on YouTube.
Warren Struhl
Partner, G.O.A.T. Foods
Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy on the effect his domain name has on referrals:
“It’s not just that a good domain name will help your customer come back to you. It’s that a good domain name will help your customer tell their friends to go to you.”
Michael Saylor
CEO, MicroStrategy
MicroAcquire was launched in 2020 as a platform for startup owners to sell projects or their entire businesses. In early 2023, the business became Acquire.com, branding around the ultra-premium .com domain name it purchased in 2022.
“We’ve seen a lift pretty much all across the company but more importantly [the domain] has helped position our brand more in line with the larger startups we work with. We’ve seen conversion rates increase across the board. Buyers registering, sellers registering, and startups being acquired have all increased. All metrics, including conversion rates, overall traffic, and revenue have also grown.”
For more information on this acquisition, refer to GoDaddy’s blog on the subject.
Andrew Gazdecki
CEO, Acquire.com
