discuss Buy the right domain name for your startup and then go for funding or vice-versa?

[Arpit131]

Having the right domain name is important when it comes to getting your startup funded?
Although many of the startups that get funded do not necessarily have the best domain name, however, having the right name is always a plus when approaching investors.

So what do you think?
Should people go with the matching .COM name for their startup(which may be available at low to mid 5 figures and the startup could somehow afford it) before approaching investors, or should they get the investment and then go on with buying the domain name?

There are instances when the news of funding is out and the owner raises the price of the domain when they come to know about it.
What would you do? What do you suggest and why?

 

[N-A]

A bank or investors will always see what outweighs the negative of buying a .com for 250,000, after the, let's say .io is being used.

If someone is serious about doing business, all it takes is putting together the correct plan. You can get a series of funding for 100k at start and use 25k to buy the domain, leaving you with a mere 75k for payroll and other expenses, while paying off the 100k loan. Or, you can take the 100k, invest in better human capital for idea development, purchase a $10 domain name, then request money based upon your findings and development (R&D) to get more than 100k, let's say 500k.

With this, you now have had more money in the beginning to get through the storming and forming stages of a business. You merely would need a better corresponding .com or other brandable to get through the rest -- and with more funding to back you up, given quite possibly with a lower interest rate, or even as a complete investment.

Added into your next plan of attack is the CPC that a business would pay verses the amount of type-in traffic and organic traffic a good domain can get. Present this information, and the domain costs should be minimal in comparison to how much you would pay bidding on keywords for the next X years. Any smart investors can see that, and would write it off as a much better marketing strategy than PPC.

For a project that you really want to develop, the name can come later. If it's a project that you only want to make a couple extra bucks a month on, grab the name first and take complete risk.

 

[NameFit]

I think more important than having a .com is the concept - that investors look for, management, marketing strategy besides others. If the concept is good, then any brandable name on the market which is typically available for $2K or so can be used. Let us look at Facebook, they did not have that name, actually if you look at it, I do not think you would not pay more than $2K back in 2000. The had TheFaceBook.com, and before that it was something like ConnectU. Once the site was going, they had money from investors, they got facebook.com, I believe for $200,000 and now FB.com for I believe $2M. Keep in mind, if the seller of Facebook.com did want to sell or asked for the price which the buyer did not want to pay, they would have gone with some handregged name or some $2K name on the market as well.

So what is inside matters more than what is on the cover.