How Hall.com picked its name and bought it for $20,000
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Company founder has great message about the importance of (domain) names.
Brett Hellman of chat and collaboration company Hall.com today posted an intriguing insight into the company’s naming process.
It explains how the company’s initial ideas for names, such as medium.com and foundation.com, were just too expensive. The owners wanted $300k+.
Then they decided on Hall.com but couldn’t get in touch with the owner. They settled on halleo.com, but then came to understand they needed something better.
They went back after Hall.com and were able to get it for just $20,000.
Brett’s blog post is worth reading in its entirety, but here are some of his take-aways that will resonate with Domain Name Wire readers:
- Great domains are still available – if you refuse to settle. Unfortunately, many startups do just that. It took almost a year of iterations and innumerable brainstorming sessions before we even had the idea to call the product HALL.com.
- Don’t stop simply because you find an available domain. The key is finding the perfect product name, then getting the domain – NOT settling with what’s available.
- Don’t start off the conversation with a low ball offer. If the domain owner has held the domain since the early 90’s, they know what they’re doing. However, they likely don’t have hundreds of offers. Bottom line:
Make a fair offer.
- Use an escrow service to keep both parties safe.
Amen.
(Thanks Jorge Monasterio)
Further Reading:
Tags: hall.com
Hey I just saw this post somewhere else. LOL
Wow insanely low price
Wait his advice is dont low ball yet he bought at $20k.
Lets face it, he may not have low balled if $20k was the first offer, he got lucky he ran into someone who needed $20k and couldnt turn it down.
Luck does not equate to knowledge.
Even as a first offer $20K is low balling. Smells a bit off – hope he didn’t buy it from someone who wasn’t the actual owner but had access to the domain.
“Luck does not equate to knowledge”
Spot on, Josh.
I am sure hallpass media tried to buy this name before they sold out, great name for that price.
20k seems low now, but depends on when he bought it. Lately I’ve read posts where start ups are searching for available domains to hand reg when picking their domain, so it’s nice to see the opposite advice given. Depends on your budget too I guess.
“Wait his advice is dont low ball yet he bought at $20k.”
From the guy’s blog:
“We started the conversation by offering a fair price to show we were serious. We didn’t want to get ignored by starting with a low, insulting offer.”
If one could afford that, though.
Only the original owner could afford to sell at $20k, unless they bought late 90′s. To hold a domain like this for that long, he must have had over 100 offers over the years, I am sure most were over $20K, has to be more to this story.
This thing should have sold for 10-30 times that price and the buyer should’ve wanted to pay it.
Great PR for Corp if it would have gone for $500K