Founders often focus on metrics like burn, CAC, runway, and churn while overlooking brand naming friction that reduces performance. A clunky or forgettable domain causes small frictions: ad skips, misspelled return visits, trust erosion from sketchy URLs, and diminished press interest. Modest percentage drops at each funnel stage compound into meaningful customer loss; a 3% reduction per step yields an 11% drop overall, translating to six-figure losses on a $1M acquisition spend. The domain tax also affects word-of-mouth, investor impressions, and hiring, quietly increasing the energy and cost required to grow.
Founders live inside numbers. Burn, CAC, runway, churn. I've been guilty of obsessing over a small fluctuation in CAC, only to realize later I was missing the bigger picture. But here's the irony. While we chase decimals, another cost quietly eats away at the business. It never shows up in QuickBooks. Nobody lists it as a KPI. But if your name is clunky or forgettable, you're paying it everyday.
It's never one big moment. It's death by small frictions. Someone scrolls past your ad because the URL feels a little sketchy. A warm lead tries to come back but misspells your name and lands on a competitor's site. A sales prospect wonders if they can trust a company that's running on "get-something-app.net." A journalist passes on your story because the name feels half-baked.
Let's simplify and think about the funnel: impressions → clicks → signups → conversions. Now take a weak domain and shave 3% off each step. Doesn't sound like much. But compounded across the funnel, that's an 11% drop in customers. If you're spending $1M a year on paid acquisition, that's six figures gone. And you'll never see it called out anywhere. No dashboard. No line item. Just wasted.
Collection
[
|
...
]