In 2014, Nick Macario created Branded.me, a digital network that gave its two million members a platform to create a digital brand. That is until February 2017 when Branded.me merged with Outsource.com to become Remote.com.
Remote.com is the ultimate resource for remote workers and freelancers, allowing its millions of users to find job opportunities all over the World. In this interview, we speak with Remote.com's CEO Nick Macario to see why he chose to acquire Remote.com and what he did in order to secure the ideal domain name for his company.
Can you tell us about the company behind Remote.com?
Who came up with the brand name of “Remote” initially, and how did the brand name originate?
Did you consider any other names before settling on Remote.com?
How did you first go about finding out that Remote.com was available to buy? Was it a case of contacting the owner, or was the domain offered to you?
Can you reveal how much you paid to acquire the domain name Remote.com? How did you justify paying this amount?
Did you use any tools (e.g., automated appraisals), services (e.g., manual appraisals, domain brokers), or data (e.g., sales data, search volumes, search results) to determine your best offer and/or the value of the domain?
Would you have considered paying more for the domain than you did?
If you were unable to acquire remote.com, did you have a backup plan? If so, can you reveal some of the other alternative names?
Do you think buying Remote.com was a good investment in your company?
In your experience, does owning a premium .COM add immediate credibility to your business?
I noticed that you had also managed to secure the @remote usernames on Facebook and Instagram. Do you consider the right usernames to be as or less important than a premium domain?
What would your personal advice be for startups who are thinking of using a percentage of their funding to secure a premium .COM domain?
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Thanks to Nick for taking part in our series. Since many of our readers are freelancers in some shape or form, this domain name and company may be of great interest to you. If you would like to know more about the Remote.com network, all you need to do is visit Remote.com. You can also follow the company on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
Inside Interviews is a blog series profiling the buyers of high-value domain names. Find out their motives, negotiation tactics, and their opinions on popular domaining topics only on the NamePros Blog.
Remote.com is the ultimate resource for remote workers and freelancers, allowing its millions of users to find job opportunities all over the World. In this interview, we speak with Remote.com's CEO Nick Macario to see why he chose to acquire Remote.com and what he did in order to secure the ideal domain name for his company.
Can you tell us about the company behind Remote.com?
Remote.com is the primary resource for remote and freelance work, connecting people all over the world with job opportunities and providing end-to-end solutions for both job seekers and hiring managers to find and manage work.
We use Artificial Intelligence to pair job seekers with remote jobs and predict the highest probability of job success, increasing the odds of a winning outcome for both the hiring manager and job seeker.
Who came up with the brand name of “Remote” initially, and how did the brand name originate?
We were going through a rebrand and wanted to push our existing freelance marketplace beyond freelance work. We see remote work as the future and statistics and research backs our thesis. We knew the name would put us in a position to create something very big.
Did you consider any other names before settling on Remote.com?
We considered several other names, but we were fixated on Remote.com.
I had my eye on Remote.com for a while, but I originally found it by researching potential names as we were thinking about a rebrand for some time. The domain had a landing page with the broker's information and that is how I originally made contact.
Can you reveal how much you paid to acquire the domain name Remote.com? How did you justify paying this amount?
I can’t disclose the exact amount, but it was well into six figures. Justifying the cost is easy; this domain is a fixed-asset with lasting value, which will appreciate over time. Aside from the resale value, the name is going to put us in a position to build a very strong brand and a company that has the potential to change the world.
Did you use any tools (e.g., automated appraisals), services (e.g., manual appraisals, domain brokers), or data (e.g., sales data, search volumes, search results) to determine your best offer and/or the value of the domain?
We didn’t. The seller had an asking price in mind that we found within reason looking at comps. We were able to negotiate and bring down the cost a bit. The broker made the transaction more difficult than it should have been, but we made it work in the end.
Would you have considered paying more for the domain than you did?
Maybe a bit more, but we went through months and back and forth and were close to reaching a point of turning away. We let the seller know we were ready to walk (and we meant it at this point), and I requested another broker to step in and assist with the transaction. The new broker was able to cut through the bs and close the deal fast.
If you were unable to acquire remote.com, did you have a backup plan? If so, can you reveal some of the other alternative names?
Nothing we felt half as passionate about. We were hell-bent to secure this name.
Do you think buying Remote.com was a good investment in your company?
Without question.
In your experience, does owning a premium .COM add immediate credibility to your business?
It’s difficult to argue it doesn’t. Premium .com domains are one of the easiest ways for someone to quickly decipher a company’s legitimacy. All internet users can distinguish the difference between a premium domain, and have some level of understanding of the difficulty of acquiring a domain like Remote.com.
I noticed that you had also managed to secure the @remote usernames on Facebook and Instagram. Do you consider the right usernames to be as or less important than a premium domain?
As excited as we were to acquire those social usernames, they do not hold equal value to the domain name in our eyes.
What would your personal advice be for startups who are thinking of using a percentage of their funding to secure a premium .COM domain?
It depends how important web is to the success of the business, as many companies are focused on mobile first/only approaches. A premium domain is not required to build a successful company. It’s been proven many times. To each their own, but we feel very strong about the long term power of building a brand, and did everything we could to secure this domain.
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Thanks to Nick for taking part in our series. Since many of our readers are freelancers in some shape or form, this domain name and company may be of great interest to you. If you would like to know more about the Remote.com network, all you need to do is visit Remote.com. You can also follow the company on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
Inside Interviews is a blog series profiling the buyers of high-value domain names. Find out their motives, negotiation tactics, and their opinions on popular domaining topics only on the NamePros Blog.