There are relatively few startups who truly appreciate the power of a great domain name, but in this Inside Interview, we are speaking to the CEO of a company that made the decision to create a smart workflow application and house it on an incredibly powerful one-word .COM. John Furneaux is the CEO of Hive, a company that was founded in June 2015 and has raised $1.4 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Hive is a popular company name, yet a startup that launched less than two years ago was able to acquire Hive.com. In this interview, we speak with John about Hive, and why he bought Hive.com. Can you tell us about yourself and the company behind Hive.com? Why did you originally decide to brand your company under the name “Hive”, and were there any other brand names you were considering? Why did you decide to buy the domain Hive.com? Did you have other domains under consideration, or was your target name always Hive.com? If you were unable to acquire hive.com, would you have stuck with HiveTeams.com, or would you have used a shorter name such as hive.co or hive.io? Are you able to tell us how much you paid for Hive.com, and why you opted to pay a premium to buy this name? Do you think buying Hive.com was a good investment in your company? What would your advice be to other startups or companies looking at buying a premium domain name? Do you think that buying the right name should be a priority for startups? Thanks to John for the interesting insight into Hive, and Hive.com. Hive is available to try for free at Hive.com, where you can also find out more about the company.
Thanks for this 1-on-1. I've noted numerous start-ups, with great products, but they launch on a second tier or worst platform. In case, the domain is owned, but not developed; and a proper capital offer would likely persuade the domain registrant to sell. Hive.com versus HiveTeams.com is a textbook example of getting it wrong, then getting it right.
