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August 2015  
  
If you have a US startup called X and you don't have x.com, you should
probably change your name.  
  
The reason is not just that people can't find you. For companies with mobile
apps, especially, having the right domain name is not as critical as it used
to be for getting users. The problem with not having the .com of your name is
that it signals weakness. Unless you're so big that your reputation precedes
you, a marginal domain suggests you're a marginal company. Whereas (as Stripe
shows) having x.com signals strength even if it has no relation to what you
do.  
  
Even good founders can be in denial about this. Their denial derives from 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. Imagine you'd called
your company something else. If you had, surely you'd be just as attached to
that name as you are to your current one. The idea of switching to your
current name would seem repellent.   
  
There's nothing intrinsically great about your current name. Nearly all your
attachment to it comes from it being attached to you.   
  
The way to neutralize the second source of denial, your inability to think of
other potential names, is to acknowledge that you're bad at naming. Naming is
a completely separate skill from those you need to be a good founder. You can
be a great startup founder but hopeless at thinking of names for your company.  
  
Once you acknowledge that, you stop believing there is nothing else you could
be called. There are lots of other potential names that are as good or better;
you just can't think of them.  
  
How do you find them? One answer is the default way to solve problems you're
bad at: find someone else who can think of names. But with company names there
is another possible approach. It turns out almost any word or word pair that
is not an obviously bad name is a sufficiently good one, and the number of
such domains is so large that you can find plenty that are cheap or even
untaken. So make a list and try to buy some. That's what Stripe did. (Their
search also turned up parse.com, which their friends at Parse took.)  
  
The reason I know that naming companies is a distinct skill orthogonal to 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 could find at least one good name in a 20
minute office hour slot.  
  
Now when I do office hours I have to focus on more important questions, like
what the company is doing. I tell them when they need to change their name.
But I know the power of the forces that have them in their grip, so I know
most won't listen.   
  
There are of course examples of startups that have succeeded without having
the .com of their name. There are startups that have succeeded despite any
number of different mistakes. But this mistake is less excusable than most.
It's something that can be fixed in a couple days if you have sufficient
discipline to acknowledge the problem.  
  
100% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the .com of their name. 94%
of the top 50 do. But only 66% of companies in the current batch have the .com
of their name. Which suggests there are lessons ahead for most of the rest,
one way or another.  
  
  
  
  
  
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