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Same domain name, company name necessary?

10 points by dlitwak ↗ HN
I have come up with a lot of great names for my company, but common consensus seems to be that before you settle on a name, you need to make sure the domain name is available, the twitter handle is available, etc. There are certain startups like Square (squareup.com) that get away with having a different domain name, when do you think it's appropriate to do this?

Thanks!

5 comments

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steventruong
It is preferred that the name you want is available (especially as a .com) and in other areas (such as twitter or facebook) as you have mentioned. It is particularly important to make sure it isn't trademarked.

That said, it's preferable, not required. Obviously a lot of companies don't use a .com, don't necessarily have the exact domain (delicious being an extreme case originally) and can still make it work. It's all about branding. The main thing you would lose is organic type-in traffic.

There's still room for creativity though.

DevX101
Have you ever heard of Obvious Corporation?

No? Well they've got a little web app I can guarantee you you've heard of and probably use.

dlitwak
that's irrelevant though, Obvious is an idea incubator, but they launch separate companies/entities (dunno the exact legal structure but that also doesn't matter), and one of them, Twitter, has its own domain name. Unless you are referring to something else . . .