news Alter ceasing operations

[Mkt Sales Leads]

Email received today:

Farewell​ Hi there, First and foremost, I would like to thank each and every one of you for using Alter to sell your domain names. We couldn't have come this far without your invaluable support. Over the last couple years we've been on a mission to transform the domain industry. However, despite all our attempts we weren't able to find a sustainable business model. So it is with a heavy heart I write to you today to say farewell. On April 2nd, all third-party domain listings will be removed from our marketplace. Seller accounts will remain active for the foreseeable future so those with a positive balance or pending installments can continue to cash out. Lastly, we realize this decision wouldn't be fair to sellers who spent money to have professional logos designed on our platform. So we have refunded all relevant payments back to your account balance which can be cashed out at any time. We truly wish you all the best in your future endeavors. It’s unfortunate that this wasn’t the outcome we wanted but we’re thankful to everyone that came with us on the journey. Sincerely, Deven Patel Founder & CEO

 

[Mister Funsky]

Email received today:

I too got the email and it is helpful you posted it here in the event someone may not have seen/received it.

Mr. Patel and I do not know each other and we have never interacted in any capacity, but I just wanted to say this was a very classy thing for him and his team to do regarding notifying those using the site.

I've been self employed since being 15 years old (with a brief stint helping a friend for about 6 months) and I've seen many people make an attempt to start and operate a business with very few succeeding long term.

In all my years, I've never received a notice like this of someone terminating/canceling services. It truly made my heart heavy reading the email. I just wanted to say it was a very classy thing to do during these times when professional (an personal) courtesy has bottomed out.

May you do well in your next endeavor Mr. Patel and thank you for trying to give the industry a breath of fresh air.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I was very sad to get the email.

I found Alter did well so many things, and loved their landers. They were innovative, approaching what is possible with an open mind, and nimble in trying new things. Half of my portfolio, and the majority of my brandable type names, is at Alter landers.

Beyond that, @Deven Patel is an honourable, smart and classy guy. Especially in early stages, he interacted with NamePros members and implemented many suggestions.

There is so much influence in a few large players, and inertia in our industry. A new player breaking in is tough.

I wish @Deven Patel the very best going forward.

Bob

 

[F.E.]

As a new model they lose all the content that probably brings the traffic.

My assumptions are that some domain investors are trying to buy Alter.com for their own portfolios, and not sure if they did already, but I just got it touch with Mr. Patel and if he's willing to sell Alter.com Inc as a whole business, I'll be acquiring it and probably leave things as is for some time, but I do have different vision for it, still in domaining industry.

 

[johnn]

I would not say anything until the deal is done and the transaction is complete.
Every one has a dream but not when the sun is out.

 

[F.E.]

If anyone has contact of this Patel guy, could you please reach him out and ask if he is interested in possible sellout of Alter.com?


If so, please let me know.

 

[F.E.]

1. Business model they've run was growth -> profit which drains capital quickly if you don't have a big one or if you don't have clear expense calendar.

2. Low net profit (or even net loss) - as I understood from one member, they're marketing brandable domain across multiple marketplaces. 3% payment processing leaves Alter on 7%. If the name is sold through another marketplace, deduct 5% more and that's 2% of gross profit. Now if we calculate infrastructure expenses, employee's salary, cost of marketing, that's already net loss.


To run this type of business, you'll need to be prepared for operating at margin negative for some time if you're looking for stable market share. Plus, turning this into profit would require increasing percentage on success fee or add another income streams (like BrandBucket or Brandpa pay for listing or paying to get appraisal etc). And even those are keeping high success fee % after all upfront costs they impose.

Alter has a business that could most certainly success on long term, but certain changes (pivot) should initiate that success.

 

[ddesigns]

This is indeed a sad news. Wishing @Deven Patel all the best for future.

 

[F.E.]

I hear a lot of plans, but are you actually negotiating with the owner about new plans? Maybe it's better not to post this all publicly on the forum.

Negotiations already started, can't disclose much information on that regard. As said, one step at a time.

 

[F.E.]

LOI sent to Deven, hopefully transition will start early next week, once Definitive Agreement is final and Escrow transaction processed. Let's shake things up in brandable domain marketplace

 

[F.E.]

@Bob Hawkes - To answer on your previous message, if this deal goes through between Deven and me, I'll be working alongside domain sellers side by side to re-evaluate their portfolio and give them enough time to move their portfolio/domains elsewhere, so it'll be handled each portfolio individually starting from biggest portfolio owners forward.

Alter is going to be brandable marketplace as intended in case I am the one to complete acquisition, so there will be a lot of delistings due low valuation.

@Future Sensors - There's still negotiations going on behind the public eyes, but I believe that Deven is going to make his decision earlier next week.

EDIT: And yeah, so far during all the conversations I had with Deven, he has been extremely transparent and very nice person (both personally and professionally) to talk to. I would've never considered doing something like this if I didn't saw how smoothly he has handled announcement of closing. I'd love to work alongside Deven and hopefully he'll feel the same if I get a chance.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Does this have any implications for Nameworth? This appraisal site seems to have a connection with Alter. Anyone have any insights on this?

I don’t think there is any relation.

The Biix marketplace and NameWorth appraisal are related (same owner).

Alter developed their own 6-factor appraisal system which is part of Alter.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

You could rename it Falter.com

 

[F.E.]

If I become the one who goes through acquisition, here are some key points.

1. Business model: at the moment, Alter is inline between general marketplace and brandable domain marketplace. My first goal would be defining that business model clearly and then we go to 2.
2. Marketing - Concluding on point 1. whole marketing strategy should be rewritten. "Business name generator" although in some sort true is not Alter's usp (unique selling point). That being said, I'll put more efforts into making clear: what Alter is, what visitor can expect and reason why choosing Alter.
3. More aggressive advertising - I'm going to follow you throughout the internet from a moment when you view one buy now page (will try to exclude sellers though haha).
4. Building community - Keeping up with the engagement standards @Deven Patel and the team did on various communities, getting more engagement in social channels.
5. Support excellence - Key of making Alter success is keeping up with both buyers and sellers throughout a day and making sure that every step of Alter journey as easy as it can be.

There will also be some key operating changes: depending on the final decision of first point, I might introduce tougher vetting process, so we could actually focus on domain quality more than on quantity. This is, of course, if I decide to continue with Deven's initial plan and build brandable domain marketplace. Otherwise, if I open up doors for all domains, there will be major revamp of search function.

And lastly, I'm going to introduce more free tools to boost up marketing: free business name generator tool, advanced visitor analytics for domain names, and many more. And yeah, I forgot: I'm going to hit hard on competition by keeping the existing rates and adding more advertising efforts. Essentially, burning the money until Alter is THE go-to place for brandable domains.

 

[F.E.]

Just got lucky enough with several small bets (like Gamestop and AMC) and few long term (BTC, ETH, FAANG) fyi.

edit: as traders would say, one of those stupid millenials

 

[HotKey]

That's too bad. I never joined, but was impressed with the owners participation and hard work. I wish him the best in future endeavors.

The DN industry in every format is a tough gig.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I wonder what the big costs were. Trying to run before they could walk? Would be interesting to know.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

The website should have been a load balancer, a nosql table, a relational database of some kind, 2 docker containers and an elasticsearch instance for the domain search. $200 USD a month tops.

It's all pretty much static data.

 

[F.E.]

Are you buying it? But sellers are already leaving the platform, if they want to sell the whole thing, then this farewell email was not a good idea.

hopefully, I am.

Actually, it's beneficial for me (sellers leaving) as I'll have to decide on whether Alter will be general domain marketplace or just brandable. At this current state it's marketed as brandable, but execution is general marketplace, which doesn't help at all because:
- if I decide to stay on brandable domain marketplace, I'll have to review and probably remove bunch of existing listings, or
- if I decide it's going to be general domain marketplace, I'll have to change front-end (search results, recommendations, marketing side etc) completely.

Once I review everything from a business perspective and start the process, Namepros will be first to know Alter's future roadmap.

 

[Jason Baudendistel]

Heads up , Deven has already decided firmly to move on from Alter. I was going to submit an offer but sounds like the process for several bidders was already pretty far along.

 

[F.E.]

Thanks for your input @eternaldomains. If I be the one who finalize this deal (and I hope so), there will be major changes in operations. Been on a call today with Deven walking me through d2d operations and I feel that those majors changes would be easily implemented within a month-two, since Deven and his team made a really good job in back-end, so onboarding on codebase would be pretty easy.

Regarding your feedback:
1) I am not sure, since I haven't discussed, but I believe in order to make payouts to Payoneer, you need to register merchant account or some equivalent (business) and I guess Alter is, maybe it's just a little complicated UX that made you think they aren't. Even if not, I'll most definitely make sure to get that partnership if I am the one holding a wheel.

2) That's a good point, and I'll definitely think on how to properly structure invoices sovthat the sellers won't have such headaches.

Aside from that, if acquisiton goes well, you could also expect more quicker payouts. Current payout schema is done more-less same as most of other marketplaces do, but in this case I'll probably release funds to sellers immediately after payment is made for a domain, seller pushed a domain to holding account and complete rest of the transfer with buyer in back-end.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I've been refunded the full

Update, I clicked in and out of settings and see I have now been credited the full amount too. Sorry for any confusion my question raised. I agree a very honourable gesture in this and the overall way that Alter has been handled.

Thanks for information.

Bob

 

[koolishman]

If anyone has contact of this Patel guy, could you please reach him out and ask if he is interested in possible sellout of Alter.com?


If so, please let me know.

He posts here, I think.

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

He posts here, I think.

Yes hopefully @Deven Patel can shed more light on next steps.

 

[DotKing]

Yes if you're entrepreneur focused purely on profit purely. If I get a chance to buy Alter.com Inc (business), I'm going to keep things as is (focus on market growth short-term)

I didn't like their decision to allow free listing of any domain.
Quality went downhill...