Domains for Startups – Nov 17th, 2017: Five names up for auction that I think startups will dig

startups

There have been some truly stellar domain sales with both one and two-word .COMs taking the cake when it comes to value. It’s also pretty well known that many of the top sales you read about on places like DNJournal, often started as a smart buy some time ago. While people often say “all the best .COMs are taken” they’re often missing all of the aftermarket activity which has a lot of good deals, if you take the time to do a deeper dive.

This week I have hand-picked five domains, all of which I think would be a great brand for a startup, and all at prices that aren’t going to break the bank. To make it a little more fun I decided this week to break it down into two categories, one for startups that have raised Angel or a Seed Round (let’s say $3M or less) and another for startups past Series A.

The reason here is simple – if you’re just getting started and have a few hundred thousand dollars in funding, spending $50,000 on a domain name might not make sense. At the same time, a startup that has raised $5M and has a much bigger marketing budget might get a lot of value out of a $50,000 domain. Make sense? Enough from me, let’s get to this week’s names.

Domains for Seed Stage Startups ($3M or less in funding)

Hydrated.com – nice one-word .COM, perfect for a startup in the drink business, water, sports drinks, etc. Current bidding is at $1,169 with nine days to go. I could see this name going for something between $5k – $15k depending on how intense the bidding gets towards the end.

SnowBay.com – great brand for a startup in the winter space, I know a lot of people are looking for snow and ski gear before the holidays, could SnowBay be their next destination? This domain is only at $70 as of this post being written and I’m guessing it will go in the sub-$1,000 range.

ClickLoans.com – another category-specific domain, but a great one for anyone in the online lending space. This is another example of a domain I think will probably be a pretty good deal for whoever gets it, currently at $350 with less than two days to go.

Domains for Series A+ Startups ($3M+ in funding)

BirdHouse.com – solid two-word .COM that could be used across a number of different verticals. Great brand, easy to spell, easy to remember, and will usually bring up a nice positive image in someone’s head when they think about it.

Veggies.com – you know you’re supposed to eat them, heck I’m from Berkeley so veggies have been core to my diet for a long time! That being said, for a startup in the vegetarian/food space this could be a really great brand to build on.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton