Rachel M

Every year, thousands of startups launch on .co, .io or .net. Premium domains for startups can feel like a luxury at the pre-launch stage — something to upgrade to later, once the business is generating revenue. So founders settle. They ship on a .co or a .io and tell themselves the .com can come later. And every year, the same founders discover the same problems. Investors raise an eyebrow. Customers mistype the URL and land on a competitor's site. The .com version of their brand name is...

A brand name marketplace is a platform where brand names — and in the best cases, complete brand identities — are listed for sale and available for purchase by founders, entrepreneurs and startup operators.

Choosing brand names for startups breaks more launches than any other phase. Not because founders aren't creative. Not because the right name doesn't exist. But because the criteria for a great brand name are almost never what you think they are — and most founders don't discover that until they're deep in a process that's already cost them weeks.