How we got the .com for our startup | Hacker News Reader

How we got the .com for our startup

medium.com

15 pointsjayzalowitz12 comments

When I saw the HN title for this I thought it was going to be extremely lame. I'm glad I read it. Here's what I learned:

- You chose a name and started a company and based your branding off a name when you knew you didn't have the .com domain.

- You bullied a guy that had a domain and was working on something. Even threatened the guy with legal action.

- The 'how' in the title was never actually revealed beyond the bullying. This was a self-congratulatory opinion article.

- I will never, ever recommend SocialRank and will actively recommend against using your services or doing business with you.

Disagree with this. The owner was domain squatter.

Also, if everyone chose the name of their company based on available .com's there would be no good names anymore. They took a risk and it seemed to work out.

According to the article, the owner of the domain was not taking advantage of the buyer's trademark...because it didn't exist. So no, by simple definition, the owner was not a domain squatter.

So, in summary: you came up with a company name / domain that someone else was already using, asked that person to sell you the domain, then when they refused, threatened to sue them for it, then tried begging, then tried bribery and finally got them to agree to sell it for less than they wanted to, by using some "secret" technique, then bragged on the internet about how clever you'd been?

You sound like exactly the kind of person I'd love to do business with (NOT!)

I thought I might get downvoted into oblivion for my original comment on this thread from the "startup solutions" money-worshipping crew who seem to have taken over this site of late. But I'm comforted to see that (thus far) everyone else commenting seems to think you're an arsehole too.

Maybe it's time to start sending the threatening emails out to the current owner of the "shotmyselfinthefoot.com" domain?

So you hounded this guy until he didn't care enough to protect his property, great business tact...I don't understand why you divulged all of this on the Internet, if I were you I would make sure no knows that this is how you do business.

You bullied a domain owner into selling his domain for a project he was working on. Very foolish to post that.

With tactics like his ... especially alluding to legal action ... had I owned the domain it's unlikely they would have ever had the chance to own it. Bullying always backfires on them.

Huh, that seems pretty douchey, not a very nice way to do business.

LOL - "The principle of the matter"

weird strategy to acquire a domain. I don't like it at all...

You are an SOL my friend

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