"The owner of the URL was willing to part with it ... for 2 million bucks. That represented a massive chunk of the money my VCs were about to give me. Neither they, nor a couple of my seasoned tech friends who had experience with overpriced domain names, thought it was a great use of my new capital. Nor did the fellow who ran the mezcal company on the other side of the wall of our Santa Monica office."
""You're going out of business! Your doorbell doesn't work! It's just a name!" he yelled at me in the parking lot as I walked to my car one evening. On one hand, I wanted to yell back that he didn't know what he was talking about; on the other, I wondered if he was right and I was making a huge mistake. I also wondered where his anger at me was coming from, but realized he'd probably heard some of my own raging through the walls."
"Yes, it had to be Ring. When I'd come up with my voice message-to-email transcription service, I first called it Simulscribe, and it stagnated. When I changed the name to PhoneTag.com, we got a burst of interest. Names matter. I had"
Jamie Siminoff spent a disproportionate portion of incoming venture capital to buy the Ring.com domain for $2 million despite strong objections. Investors, experienced colleagues, and a neighboring entrepreneur all warned that spending on a name was reckless, especially with product issues present. Siminoff believed a concise, memorable domain would dramatically affect consumer interest based on prior experience renaming a product from Simulscribe to PhoneTag.com, which increased traction. The purchase strained finances and patience but served as a foundational brand move that positioned the company to reshape consumer perceptions of home security.
Read at Fast Company
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