Our Story

I started PremiumBrands.com to put a small collection of premium names in front of the founders who could build on them, each shown with enough context to see what it might become. BadAssBots.com belongs in it because it does two jobs at once. It names the category, and it sets the tone of the company before anyone has read a line of copy. For a founder building bots, kits or developer tools, that is a lot of work for ten letters to do, and it is work I would want done on day one.

The morning we became Newswire.com

In 2007 I acquired a press release distribution business that ran on i-Newswire.com. In 2013 I secured iNewswire.com. The name I wanted was Newswire.com, and getting it took more than a year of negotiating. Before I agreed to anything, I consulted SEO professionals about what the move would mean for the business. In February 2015 we moved the business to Newswire.com.

On the morning of the switch, a prospect told one of our sales agents, “Oh yeah, Newswire.com. I’ve heard of you guys.” That was impossible. The business had been running under that name for a matter of hours. Nothing about the service had changed overnight. Only the name on it had, and the name was doing the introducing before our pitch did.

Buying the name before the plan

I bought PremiumBrands.com before I had a plan for it. Premium names matter to me, and I knew that if I waited I would probably lose the chance. By now it could belong to someone building on it, and a name in that position is most likely not for sale at all. The plan came afterwards, and I’m comfortable with that order: a plan can be written in any week, and the name could not wait for it.

I buy names as an end user, and every one has to pass the same test: would I build on this? The names I haven’t built on yet are the ones I’m open to selling, and BadAssBots.com is one of them. If I were starting on it, I would begin with the work rather than the attitude: one repetitive job a bot can take off someone’s plate, shown honestly, including the moment it needs a person to step in. The name already brings the swagger; the product only has to work.

Why I wouldn’t wait

My strategy and development work runs through OnlineBusiness.com, and the pace of building has changed. With AI, a working bot or a decent prototype can come together in days, so the product gets easier for the next team to copy, and the name becomes one of the few things they can’t. The common advice is to launch on whatever is available and fix the name once you’ve made it. I understand the appeal, but later means new packaging, new email addresses, new signage and asking customers to learn a second name, if the name you wanted hasn’t gone to someone else by then.

A great name won’t save a bad business, and if the bot doesn’t do its job, no name will cover for it. What a name gives you is a head start, not the business. If BadAssBots.com is the head start you want, tell me what you plan to build on the Pricing Inquiry page; the Discover the Name page has the details of the sale. If the name you have your eye on is a different one, tell me that instead, because I also help founders acquire names that aren’t in the collection. A premium .com is a trust shortcut.