August 2015If you have a US startup called X and you don't have x.com, youshould probably change your name.The reason is not just that people can't find you. For companieswith mobile apps, especially, having the right domain name is notas critical as it used to be for getting users. The problem withnot having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness. Unlessyou're so big that your reputation precedes you, a marginal domainsuggests you're a marginal company. Whereas(as Stripe shows)having x.com signals strength even if it has no relation to what youdo.Even good founders can be in denial about this. Their denial derivesfrom two very powerful forces: identity, and lack of imagination.X is what we are, founders think. There's no other name as good.Both of which are false.You can fix the first by stepping back from the problem. Imagineyou'd called your company something else. If you had, surely you'dbe just as attached to that name as you are to your current one.The idea of switching to your current name would seem repellent.[1]There's nothing intrinsically great about your current name. Nearlyall your attachment to it comes from it being attached to you.[2]The way to neutralize the second source of denial, your inabilityto think of other potential names, is to acknowledge that you'rebad at naming. Naming is a completely separate skill from thoseyou need to be a good founder. You can be a great startup founderbut hopeless at thinking of names for your company.Once you acknowledge that, you stop believing there is nothing elseyou could be called. There are lots of other potential names thatare as good or better; you just can't think of them.How do you find them? One answer is the default way to solveproblems you're bad at: find someone else who can think of names.But with company names there is another possibleapproach. It turns out almost any word or word pair that is notan obviously bad name is a sufficiently good one, and the numberof such domains is so large that you can find plenty that are cheapor even untaken. So make a list and try to buy some. That's whatStripe did. (Their search also turned up parse.com, which theirfriends at Parse took.)The reason I know that naming companies is a distinct skill orthogonalto the others you need in a startup is that I happen to have it.Back when I was running YC and did more office hours with startups,I would often help them find new names. 80% of the time we couldfind at least one good name in a 20 minute office hour slot.Now when I do office hours I have to focus on more importantquestions, like what the company is doing. I tell them when theyneed to change their name. But I know the power of the forces thathave them in their grip, so I know most won't listen. [3]There are of course examples of startups that have succeeded withouthaving the .com of their name. There are startups that have succeeded despite anynumber of different mistakes. But this mistake is less excusablethan most. It's something that can be fixed in a couple days ifyou have sufficient discipline to acknowledge the problem.100% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the .com of theirname. 94% of the top 50 do. But only 66% of companies in the currentbatch have the .com of their name. Which suggests there are lessonsahead for most of the rest, one way or another.Notes[1]Incidentally, this thought experiment works fornationality and religion too.[2]The liking you have for a name that has become part of youridentity manifests itself not directly, which would be easy todiscount, but as a collection of specious beliefs about its intrinsicqualities. (This too is true of nationality and religion as well.)[3]Sometimes founders know it's a problem that they don't havethe .com of their name, but delusion strikes a step later in the belief that they'llbe able to buy it despite having no evidence it's for sale. Don'tbelieve a domain is for sale unless the owner has already told youan asking price.Thanks to Sam Altman, Jessica Livingston, and Geoff Ralstonfor reading drafts of this.
