Here's another interesting story from Medium.com posted in August by Zalmi Duchman, founder of The Fresh Diet, which is an online meal delivery service established in 2005 whose clientele have included Mila Kunis and Sara Michelle Gellar.
After initially naming his company ZoneAtHome (largely because ZoneAtHome.com was available to register). A lawsuit was filed against him for infringing on a company's name in the same industry: Zone Diet. Zalmi changed his company name to Fresh Diet in a move that he described as one of the best things that could have happened to his startup.
Naturally, Zalmi wanted to register FreshDiet.com, but quickly learned that this name wasn't available. Being a cash-strapped startup, Mr. Duchman opted to register TheFreshDiet.com instead.
Having decided that not owning FreshDiet.com would put his company at a disadvantage, Zalmi approached the FreshDiet.com owner and inquired about the domain's availability. A figure of $20,000 was quoted; four times higher than their budget.
By 2012, The Fresh Diet had grown into a successful company competing with the elite in the industry. Thanks to national media appearances and large customer growth, The Fresh Diet were propelled into the national spotlight.
At this point, Zalmi thought again about purchasing FreshDiet.com. Thanks to their national press coverage, The Fresh Diet's team were worried that the owner of FreshDiet.com may push traffic to a competitor.
Upon inquiring about the domain's availability this time, a six figure sum was quoted to Zalmi. Negotiations ended up at $75,000 on a lease-to-own basis. This lead Zalmi to wonder why he didn't try harder to acquire FreshDiet.com when it was available at $20,000.
The Medium.com article provides an excellent piece of advice for entrepreneurs looking to buy domains, who don't have the full budget at the time; think outside the box to try to come up with a way of creatively funding a domain purchase; perhaps through a lease-to-own agreement, offering equity, or even offering alcohol and chocolates, something that happened to @Acroplex recently.
After initially naming his company ZoneAtHome (largely because ZoneAtHome.com was available to register). A lawsuit was filed against him for infringing on a company's name in the same industry: Zone Diet. Zalmi changed his company name to Fresh Diet in a move that he described as one of the best things that could have happened to his startup.
Naturally, Zalmi wanted to register FreshDiet.com, but quickly learned that this name wasn't available. Being a cash-strapped startup, Mr. Duchman opted to register TheFreshDiet.com instead.
Having decided that not owning FreshDiet.com would put his company at a disadvantage, Zalmi approached the FreshDiet.com owner and inquired about the domain's availability. A figure of $20,000 was quoted; four times higher than their budget.
By 2012, The Fresh Diet had grown into a successful company competing with the elite in the industry. Thanks to national media appearances and large customer growth, The Fresh Diet were propelled into the national spotlight.
At this point, Zalmi thought again about purchasing FreshDiet.com. Thanks to their national press coverage, The Fresh Diet's team were worried that the owner of FreshDiet.com may push traffic to a competitor.
Upon inquiring about the domain's availability this time, a six figure sum was quoted to Zalmi. Negotiations ended up at $75,000 on a lease-to-own basis. This lead Zalmi to wonder why he didn't try harder to acquire FreshDiet.com when it was available at $20,000.
The Medium.com article provides an excellent piece of advice for entrepreneurs looking to buy domains, who don't have the full budget at the time; think outside the box to try to come up with a way of creatively funding a domain purchase; perhaps through a lease-to-own agreement, offering equity, or even offering alcohol and chocolates, something that happened to @Acroplex recently.
