In Their Own Words with James Iles

As a domain name journalist, I can write thousands of words about a premium domain names’ benefit to a new or existing company. In fact, I have written thousands of words on this topic.

Sometimes, though, those thousands of words fall by the wayside compared to a short quote from someone that uses a premium domain.

With that in mind, I’ve gathered 6 quotes from founders and C-level executives of companies that have acquired a one-word domain name. These quotes perfectly describe the experience and potential benefits of utilizing a premium domain.

“One Word Domains Are the Holy Grail” – Harry Hurst, CEO of Pipe

British entrepreneur Harry Hurst launched Pipe in 2019, providing an option to convert recurring revenue streams into up-front capital. The service was popular from the get-go, allowing Pipe to raise $16 million in funding by mid-2020.

In under 2 years, Hurst led Pipe to a $2 billion valuation, achieved thanks to a $250 million Series B funding round in 2021. To date, Pipe has raised $566 million in disclosed funding.

Throughout its journey from startup to unicorn, Pipe has operated on Pipe.com. The company made securing this ultra-premium domain a priority. As an online financial platform looking to make a mark on an industry, acquiring Pipe.com allowed the company to present itself as a legitimate and trusted entity with long-term ambitions it has undoubtedly fulfilled.

The power of Pipe.com hasn’t gone unnoticed by founder Harry Hurst, who put out a series of tweets about one-word .com domain names. The memorable quote from the thread is, “One-word dictionary domains are the holy grail IMO (but I’m biased). They’re not cheap, but they stamp authority, allow you to build trust with your customers faster (all else being equal) and typically convert better from paid digital through to checkout/sale.”

“(Owning Wealth.com) gave them a sense of the size of the idea behind this name, it’s an amazing branding point. I believe in domain names.” – Rei Carvalho, Executive Chairman of Wealth.

In May 2022, I interviewed Rei Carvalho, the co-founder and executive chairman of Wealth, a new estate planning service for the 21st century.

The platform was built as a result of Carvalho’s own needs for a modern solution to estate planning.

Over a year before launching, Carvalho acquired the Wealth.com domain name for an undisclosed fee, giving the new business a perfect launching pad for success.

Carvalho, an Internet entrepreneur with a string of successes under his belt dating back to the 90s, has a strong understanding of the potency of a good domain name, both as a founder and an investor.

In fact, after investing in one Brazilian drone startup, Carvalho gifted the company its exact-match .com domain.

Speaking to me about Wealth.com, even the experienced Carvalho was amazed by how the domain name has positively impacted the business.

New employees marveled at the company’s ownership of Wealth.com, while Carvalho noted that the domain gave potential investors a sense of the size of the idea behind the domain name.

Wealth launched to the public in early 2022, revealing that it had raised $16 million in funding while in stealth mode.

“The single word dotcom effect is real” – Carl Hancock, CEO of Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms has grown into one of the most popular WordPress developers since it was founded in 2007. The company, which predominantly offers powerful WordPress web forms, has operated on GravityForms.com since its launch.

However, it has always been interested in owning Gravity.com. Unfortunately, for a long time, the domain was owned by AOL, which itself acquired the domain in 2009 as part of the purchase of content personalization company Gravity.

When the opportunity to buy Gravity.com came about, Gravity Forms snapped at the chance, purchasing the domain in an all-cash deal.

Gravity Forms’ co-founder, Carl Hancock, quickly realized how impactful the Gravity.com domain name is.

I need to discuss the domain I own!

In a tweet, Hancock said, “One thing I’ve learned from just a few days of owning the Gravity.com domain name with a catch-all email address is if your company name contains the word ‘Gravity’ people assume your email address is gravity.com. The single word dotcom effect is real.”

“Owning Extend.com makes us seem, feel, and act like a standalone multi-billion dollar corporation.” – Woody Levin, CEO of Extend.

Extend’s acquisition of Extend.com is one I have written about a couple of times before. The 2019 startup immediately realized the need to own its exact-match .com, purchasing the domain for an undisclosed fee as soon as the company knew it was available.

Extend’s CEO Woody Levin was so eager to secure Extend.com that he owned the domain within 48 hours of opening negotiations. That’s remarkably quick for a domain name of this magnitude.

In a 2020 interview with me, Levin described the reasons for acquiring Extend.com so early in the company’s lifecycle.

In a standout quote from the interview, Leven said, *”owning Extend.com makes us seem, feel, and act like a standalone multi-billion dollar corporation.”

“By having Olive.com, it really adds a level of credibility to our brand and helps drive name recognition.” – Paul Sherman, CMO of Olive.

AI company Olive has raised $856.3 million in funding and has been valued at $4 billion. However, Olive, plus several other companies named Olive, missed out on the Olive.com domain name. Now, Olive.com is off the market forever.

That’s because extended car warranty brand Olive bullishly acquired the domain soon after launching.

According to Olive’s CMO, Paul Sherman, the company was not in a position to acquire Olive.com before going to market, but it decided to purchase the domain as soon as it could in order to help with offline marketing and brand amplification.

Olive has grown quickly since its launch in April 2020, achieving 144.5% growth between 2020 and 2021, and Olive.com is central to the company’s success.

The domain has been featured in national TV commercials and is now a sponsor of NHL team Anaheim Ducks, meaning that Olive.com will be heavily promoted throughout the Duck’s arena. Would Olive have been able to achieve its success using its previous domain, GoGetOlive.com?

Perhaps, but as Paul Sherman told me in an interview, “by having Olive.com, it really adds a level of credibility to our brand and helps to drive name recognition.”

“There’s a sense of trust and authority that comes with a great name like Paw.com, and that seems to give a positive boost to just about everything.” – David Gimes, Founder of Paw.com

Trust and authority. These are two words that are synonymous with ultra-premium domain names. Whether you represent a multi-billion dollar business or a brand-new startup, the right premium domain can help you present as an authoritative figure.

When TreatADog was hunting for a new name after noticing customers were struggling to remember its brand name, the company settled on Paw.com.

The generic nature of Paw.com meant that the company could expand beyond dog-related products while also establishing itself as a trusted authority in the pet product industry.

In an interview, Paw.com founder David Grimes told me that the switch to Paw.com had a tremendously positive impact on the company, noting that *”there’s a sense of trust and authority that comes with a great name like Paw.com, and that seems to give a positive boost to just about everything.”