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A little unusual kind of post from me but.. let’s roll with it.
Via TechCrunch:
Home-Account, a recently launched mortgage search and counseling service, has secured $1 million in seed and angel funding. The largest investor is Charles River Ventures, which gave the startup $300,000 through its QuickStart Seed Funding Program (the program usually only gives startups $250,000 but saw promise in Home-Account). Additional investors include many well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors: Marc Benioff, Ron Conway, Mark Pincus, Jeff Clavier,Arjun Gupta, and Gigi Brisson.
Is this the case of investors on crack or what? HomeAccount.com, the logical version, is owned by Name Administration, Frank Schilling’s co. It’s 2009 and these guys seem to be completely clueless. My guess is, if this is to make any sense it is that a decent amount of that funding is to go for the acquisition of a better domain, however, if that is the case, then they are building brand equity in the wrong name, and just throwing money away. Back to scenario 1 (if they actually plan to keep it), I would award these investors “The naming morons of the year” award, even though the year has just begun.
Cheers,
Sahar
Frank scored.
1) Frank doesn’t sell. Normally.
2) We get lost in our little world of “generic-one word .com only, no exceptions” while the rest of the marketing community saves money by not opting for the ridiculously priced version of a name and just spending some money on traditional promotion. The rest of the world does not care nearly as much as we do (must to keep these conferences/auctions going) about pretty domains.
Frank wins! Atleast on type in traffic where the visitor sees the domain and forgets the dash then finds what they want on Frank’s site anyway.
Depending on content, these “investors” will probably beat Frank in the Search engines. Mybe not though.
What’s a home account anyway? Is that the $20.00 bill we leave in the kitchen drawer in case someone needs a few dollars for milk or whatever?
The question is where’s Frank Schilling? I visited his blog and he has not posted in 12 months.
Frank 1
Home-Account 0
@Alex: Yes. I really wish he’d come back and post. I really enjoyed reading his blog.
Dont call people morons my good friend sahar.
Not all of us are blessed with amazing oversight of knowing that domains are valuable and having-a-domain-like-this-is-very-bad-for-your-business.com.
All you have to do is just lick your paws and enjoy the money rolling in.
Focus on educating and thank god that even in “this economy” there are people still launching companies left and right.
maybe all the doctors should be laughing at sick people because they dont get it… they just collect huge checks and live in big houses..
Lol.
$1 million in angel funding is nothing. OK, I go by the dot-com era start-up standards. In today’s “dot-tel” era (LMAO!) we need a different approach to what constitutes investment opportunity. Still, best of luck to Frank if he sells it.
These companies need to start learning that if they want absolute Branding online there is no cheap way.
But to take up for home-account dot com. They probably tried to contact Frank Schilling and buy the name.
Like most of us know Frank Schilling is not a seller and if he was contacted he probably did not reply.
If Frank Schilling did reply with a price tag? Well, that price tag probably sent someone to puke.
They should probably go for a different name.
For years I watched the frivolous spending by individuals and businesses and wondered How can this keep up,
Answer: It couldn’t thus the economic crash we are in!
Same thing goes for domain names, for years I and other domain investors have sat on names that others desperatly need (as is the case ain this story) and wondered how long can investors and business people remain ignorant to the reality that the internet has arrived and that one or more top notch domain names are key to business success online?
Answer: not much longer
Most domainers that have sold one or more names for a decent price have held those names for years. Time is on the side of those domainers that have held good names for a long period already.
I can’t explain why that is only to say that when it comes to domains and the internet most people outside the domainer community are still in the dark but can’t overlook the truth for ever.
Patience wins for those that can afford to wait. In the meantime I suggest domainers continue to take advantage of ridiculously low prices on good domain names now while others that have less faith in the future of the net continue to let them drop.
Maybe they tried buying the name from Frank but he didn’t wanted any money. Anyway, he’s already gaining links and traffic http://tinyurl.com/d3ooek
Sahar,
I couldn’t agree with you more. If they couldn’t acquire the non dash version of the name I would have avoided using it altogether.
Like JK said you don’t need to have the best generic type in to win this game. They would have been fine going with a made up name and branded and promoted the hell out of it, but going with a dash looks very amateur to me. I am not saying the product or people behind it our amateur; clearly that is not the case. What I am saying is that from the eyes of a consumer I don’t have as much confidence in a company with the dash.
They are morons but we are failures. We have failed to educate the masses about domain names. It was not just one moron involved here. It was from top down and from bottom up and everyone in between. But we have never been able to make our case on the world stage in an effective manner. Articles that have come out have never really focused on that aspect of things. So it is not their faut for not knowing even though you would think it be common sense. What each of us has to realize is that many others will make that same mistake.
I have long said that the Internet is the intersection of art and science. We really need to figure out where the disconnect is that can allow a company to do something as stupid as this.
Congrats to Frank! He is the only winner in this deal and all others have lost before thay began. Unless the $$$ is for Frank. Then……never mind.
Maybe its not that they just don’t “get it” and more of they just “can’t get it” as FS does’nt usually sell his domains.
A few things to consider before calling anyone anything:
Budget - Maybe they got a reply from Frank and it was something like ireport @ over $750,000 - not really a great option if their funding was only $1 million.
Type in Traffic on two word (in this case brandable) domains is not always massive.
Type in traffic is only a small percentage of traffic when developed/advertised properly.
Hyphens are commonly used in TV/Print advertising
(some people/countries even prefer them)
Just because a domain gets traffic does’nt mean it will convert to paying clicks, if they don’t see what they expect they can/do use a search engine (like most people)
If they had their heart 0 set on those two keywords then they may have had no choice in the matter.
Many large companies are just not willing to spend 6 figures on a domain. ( I know a few MASSIVE ones that would’nt even spend $10k…unfortunately for me)
……….
On the whole I do agree its a very poor choice and I would of looked for something better without the hyphen - like HomeCredit.com perhaps which just sold for high x,xxx on snapnames this month.
What I’m trying to say is I think domainers often assume too many things without knowing all the details.
JMHO - don’t beat me up too much
Now just so I understand, who came up with this silly idea that Franky doesn’t sell domains? I remember some he sold before, and not even for that much (less than six figures).
Just because you make money and do well does not make you an “antibuyer”. Matter of fact, most of those who make money understand trading, understand the concept of “I can pick this $$ up and put it in better places”.
Cheers
Sahar
“Clueless” is the right word, Sahar, unless indeed the money is being offered to FS in exchange for the non-hyphenated version. There is still the brand equity problem, but it would at least make some sense.
Last I checked, Frank Schilling seemed to be selling. There have been quite a few registrant changes from Name Administration recently. Could be something else, but sure looks like he is selling these days.
Cheers
Esa
Hi,
I am sure Frank would sell….at some price.
But even if he never does or never gets an offer on the domain…its nothing but “money in the bank” for him….especially if this venture is highly successful.
Franks ‘type-in1 traffic will most likely go through the roof.
The main mistake with this domain is not the “hyphen”… its the fact they are spending THEIR money…building a very nice income & business for someone else they do not even know….And Frank does not even ‘owe’ them a ‘Thank You’.
Just another case of someone very ill informed about what they are doing concerning their domain name selection.
The “hyphen” domain is just plain bad on its own merits…but spending your money building traffic for someone else for FREE…is just plain out… stupid.
Good for Frank….He is the best!
Peace!
Dan
Hi,
Sorry I forgot….I hope this company is planning on spending $3 million on a 30 sec advertisement during next years “Super Bowl”.
That day will become one of Franks favorite day’s of the year…even if he doe not like football….LOL
That would really show their misunderstanding and miss use of domain names and their value…. and the unintended consequences of a very bad move on their part in selecting a domain name.
Best,
Dan
Being the conspiracy theorist that I am, do you think they are being sneaky and atttempting a reverse domain hijack down the line? Benioff paid millions for Force.com because it is more broad going forward for software than just SalesForce.com so this is someone who “gets it” with domains.
It is one thing if som goofball makes a dba and a no revenue company called diamonds, llc and tries to get diamonds.com..
But, what if established vcs take a less generic and actually make it a real business with the “-” like home-account.com? They could be testing the waters…??
fp
I’m not sure Sahar, Seems to be all over the public forums though. I said he does’nt usually sell which is slightly different. His last post was named “everybody sells” so probably when the right offers comes along he does too.
Many of those huge PVT sales posted on Dnjournal could be his for all we know, you probably have access to alot more info than most of us.
I was’nt suggesting that ANY domainer was an “antibuyer” just because they put a high value on their domains or choose to keep some for PPC….we all do that
I suspect (hope?) this is just a working name, and the company plans to launch under a different name soon.
fp. same thoughts and predicition I’d make. Watch for a udrp.
On the other hand, the seemingly bad move is creating some publicity for them. In my very inexperienced opinion, once a company is large enough to spend money on promotion, domain name doesn’t make a huge difference.
“Hyphens are commonly used in TV/Print advertising
(some people/countries even prefer them)”
Gazzip is right about different countries different rules. Hyphens are a not that good when wanting to atract user inside the U.S.
In Europe many prefer hyphenated names specialy in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They dont see the name the easy way, they just simply see it as wrong writing to separate words together.
The Language ( German) is very difficult and Germans are absolute fanatic in being corect and on the spot. So if you use a hyphenated name when wanting to reach one of the German speaking countries you are not going wrong. For others like the U.S. its a problem.
DNJournal and the dot de sales show that hyphenated names in certain languages are seen as positive.
I suggest you take a look from the perspective on the other side - the startup side. Mission 1 is raise more money, and you must prove concept on some domain in order to do that. That domain has to make sense (to investors), but it does not have to be your final home when you go to market.
At first you do NOT have to work hard promoting the domain… you need to prove your product can work, and develop it. For all you know the exit strategy is a technology sell out, and they do not ever plan to grow market share beyond the initial needs. Perhaps their plan includes finding a better name? I didn’t suggest this was a good pick — I am suggesting they may have given up on trying and shifted to higher priority development for now.
I note they have not done even the most basic SEO on that site, so they are also not (yet) spending efforts on search marketing. Does that make them stupid? Don’t forget there are opportunity costs to spending efforts on SEO and domain names…
No argument that it is good for Frank to have the non-hyphenated, as he will get typo traffic. This is another case to add to parked-page-blindness, as no one will mistake homeaccount.com for home-account.com
Considering the domainer side, what else can a cash-strapped startup do? They pick an available name, and get to work on the important issue of proof-of-concept. Better get started today and raise money, than wait for the perfect “Free” domain, or spend all of your seed money on a good domain (only to be too poor to develop the business).
I’m thinking it’s obvious domain investors need to innovate and put some energy into advancing the parked page model, as the world continues to “move on anyway” because in many cases, like this one, there is no reasonable (visible) option.
BTW Sahar, Wikipedia link broken.
Correct link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Schilling
—-answer—-
Fixed. Thank you.
Sahar
Case in point:
A U.S. company run by someone I know put a hyphen in their domain. The hyphenless version was available. I always had to retype the domain in my browser because I’d forget that blooming hyphen.
I finally registered the domain and offered it to them for the cost of reg. They never replied but an insider told me they figured they had a domain. Didn’t need another.
And they actually dropped several real good domains as they purchased some smaller independant companies to gain the “name recognition” the other company held. Go figure.
I think the hyphen issue is only the tip of the iceberg. the mortgage industry has dramatically changed over the past twelve months, companies like lending tree are losing millions (tons of leads with current low rates and fewer lenders to buy them)…they have a different biz model but face a huge cha challenge in customer acquisition, this space is super crowded and one million is a drop in the bucket…I dont think the hyphen is a big issue unless they were dumb enough to try and advertise on tv or radio
All domainers should be very careful about changing their position in response to anothers business actions.
Given that parking pages often migrate towards what users want, then you might not even willingly realise that you are going down that path. Even parking providers should be very careful.
Domain names can be registered trademarks in the US. A hyphen would not be enough of a difference for consumers to be aware. Thus gaining additional traffic and then benefiting by showing the businesses own ads and those of its competitors could get you a writ and the parking company as well.
flickr doesn’t own flicker.com and they’re doin ok….right