advice Well funded startup wants my domain

[Mojoman1234]

I was contacted by a principle from a well funded startup (>$12M), still in stealth mode and about to move into 25k square feet of prime commercial office space. The founders sold their previous company for billions. Let's call the new company "ABC Technology". I own "ABCtech.com". The real name is three characters + technology. (the three characters have industry significance) I used this briefly for tech blog, now just linked to a dormant twitter account.

Their initial offer was $500, "we're just a startup". I countered with: for that amount I'll just hold onto it and maybe use it with my next company, or offer it to "ABC Technology Consultants" who have also expressed interest. I also let him know that I am aware of their financial situation.

He is now asking if there is a price level I am thinking of.

I'd greatly appreciate your advice! What would you do?

 

[Mojoman1234]

Maybe I'll look into auctioning it. I' check out the resources here. Thanks again for the advice offered and interest.

 

[Recons.Com]

Maybe I'll look into auctioning it. I' check out the resources here. Thanks again for the advice offered and interest.

Your best bet is putting bin price in $2k to 10K range (depending on your financial situation, as higher price reduces the probability of sale, although expected value might be higher) and forgetting about it (don't forget to renew it).

No one is paying anything close to end user prices at auctions normally (and shouldn't), as people expect to reasonably make 10x to 100x of their investment in domains.

 

[Jay Ha]

Whatever you do just don't reply to any of the emails that you're receiving. This will be used against you as bad faith. They will get your domain for free (well technically it isn't but you won't get a dime).

Let's say that you double the asking price per year which means your initial asking price 10k became 20k on the 1st year, then the 20k became 40k on the 2nd year, and on the 3rd year the 40k asking price became 80k. With half a year left for the end of this cycle, they are risking an asking price of 160k. Be a gentleman and tell them it is still going to be 80k until 1 day prior to the end of the 3rd year. So now they have ~6 months to think about it while losing business from clients sending emails to your domain.

Is this lost business worth the money? It is a mega tech company so yeah, I guess so.

If not, well, you said you weren't planning to sell the name anyway so nothing to lose.

 

[Fomains]

Very curious to see how much you will finally get for it! But I can agree that you should wait as the company will be ready to pay more and more as time goes by ...

 

[NameJi]

Don't give it. Just say NO to every offer. Domain is important for them not for you. The odds of they coming with big number is high.

 

[Surev Nhoj]

Based on the way you described it, I presumed you have the fear of letting it go underpriced. Give it this way, if you have some reasonable price in mind, tripled that and offer it to the buyer. If they insist to negotiate, they would still fall on double of your original price. But if you hate to wait, just name your price.