I really wanted the name since we had named the startup so 2k was "cheap" even though it was a lot of money for us.
Luckily I had just read the post on how easypost bought their domain and replicated that with success.
In another case, we opted for the .co, since the .com owner wanted $16K. Using a .co is a good alternative, since Google treats it as a generic ccTLD [1].
I am curious, what do people here think about .co domains?
[1] https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922?hl=en
There is something about a .com that signals age and trust more than any other domains, I invariably think that it must be a new business or not as trustworthy when they don't own the .com (especially if the .com is for sale)