One Letter Domain | Hacker News Reader

One Letter Domain

5 pointsmrkmcknz11 comments

We have the chance to acquire a single letter domain at a competitive price for our start up. It will be the largest single expenditure from the angel round/seed and we're considering on whether it is actually worth it.

We own the brand name .com domain and the single letter domain is brand related.

I was wondering what you guys thought on this and whether it would be money better spent elsewhere.

I have to admit it does look cool.

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Is it a .com/net/org?

If it's one of those random country TLD's not related to your own country or the name of your business, i'd say definitely "No."... if it's a .com/net/org or the TLD makes up part of the business name (eg i.bm, which doesn't exist, but is an example of what I mean) then maybe.

Depends on your business plans pretty much.

If you're appealing to the very internet illiterate, the single letter brand is very useful.

However, there might be some problems; eg trademark issues in which case you'll lose the domain to the trademark holder. So, not only do you have a premium for the single letter but you also have to pay lawyer and court costs for it.

Some great feedback and I mean we have had some talks of re branding simply because at this stage we can.

It's going to be a hard one.

I guess some respect would come from press and blog given that not every start up comes with a single letter domain.

Then again would the money be better utilized in plain marketing.

I'm obsessed about branding, names and domains so if I had the money I would most definitely buy it. But in your situation? Doubtful. You already have the brand .com so how are you going to use this one, as a cheap url shortener domain? Or is it for a cool domain hack which you are going to use as your main domain?

You've probably already researched it, but if not, look into leasing it with an option to buy. You might give up a sliver of equity, but you could keep the cash free and used for things which your angel/seed round investors (and you, pre-realizing-the-domain-was-available plans) had intended.

MrMike I actually stupidly enough haven't even thought about that. Someone did mention it but I just thought it would be a solution not suited.

Maybe it could be something to explore...

Out of curiosity, who "offers" single letter domain names? The only two single-letter domain .coms I could find are:

  x.com => Paypal,
  q.com => CenturyLink (???)

Even if someone had the money, which organization decides who can register these?

I'd have to imagine that in the early stages, money should be spent that improves the customer-product fit, and its never worth it spend significantly on a domain name. If you gain a lot of traction, then it may be worth it in the future.

Not worth it.

A reasonable variation on a domain would be one that includes some line of work, e.g. if it were gardening you could get "z-gardening.com" instead of "z.com" and probably save a ton.

I think that, depending on the type of product/service they're offering, it could definitely be worth it. If it's a consumer product targeting less computer savvy folks, the shorter/easier the better. If it's something my parents would use, and they could go to "z dot com" instead of "z dash gardening dot com". On the other hand, if it's a site that targets HNers, then it's probably harder to justify.

the incremental impact on success bewteen a good and single letter .com domain name is less than the incremental impact of a great hire, at any early stage startup.

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