In the tech field, Paul Graham is a very well respected programmer, venture capitalist, and essayist who co-founded Y Combinator (“YC”), a startup accelerator in Mountain View, California that has been responsible for providing seed money to a number of successful companies including Airbnb, Stripe and Dropbox. Between finding the next breakout company and dispensing startup advice, he has been ruminating whether there is a link between successful companies and their domain names. We believe there is.
Read MoreA weak domain name is the first indication that your company is a marginal player in its field. In a recent article, Graham suggested that US start-ups should change their name if they do not have the .com domain for it. To him, it is not just a matter of being found during searches, but rather the fact that having anything less than a .com domain name for your company name instantly signals weakness. Graham found that founders can wrongly believe only their current name will suffice. This is often due to an irrational attachment to the original name or lack of creativity to come up with an alternative name. The bottom line is names are fungible and companies should work on getting a good one with a corresponding .com domain.
