We have a name! I’ve talked quite a bit about the struggle we’ve had coming up with a unique, fun and memorable name, so it is with great pleasure that I announce our new company name:
Alice.com
Why Alice.com? It meets all of the criteria that I mentioned in my last post. It has personality and it stands out from the crowd in our market space. And most importantly, it is really memorable and supports the value proposition of our new company perfectly. What is that value prop you ask? You’ll have to stay tuned to see what Alice is up to. 
Downside? The name wasn’t cheap. We paid six figures, but consider this: We are going to be spending a tremendous amount of money and energy getting consumers to even know we exist. A name like Alice.com gets people to smile, tells them immediately that we are different, AND gives us the best chance that you will remember us two weeks or even two months later. Well worth the price in our opinion.
We are in the process of transferring the name now, so don’t be alarmed if you still see a domain landing page on the site now.
Idiot or genius? Please tell us what you think.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:44 pm
I’ve been reading your blog a little after you started it (thanks to a mutual acquaintance; K.W.) and have been enjoying the read. Fascinating stuff to a corporate slag like myself. I look forward to seeing what alice.com becomes. Oddly enough, my 14-year-old has been trying to get me to install Alice (alice.org) on the computer for him to do some programming.
Good Luck
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:44 am
Oh… one-word, 5-character .com domain name. Nice!! You’ll have to get Linda Lavin or American McGee to be a spokesperson.
I’m glad you didn’t choose “Monday”. You could have probably bought that from PwC (er IBM) for <$10k…
Looking forward to seeing what the site becomes!
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
So, then what is boxi.com for? I saw a job posting online for a job with Boxi in Madison, checked out the site and that is how I found this blog a few weeks back… I just assumed that boxi.com was going to be the domain you were announcing, but just taking your time in getting around to it.
Alice.com is certainly memorable, I look forward to seeing what you guys have cooking…
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Jason, Boxi.com was a back up name, in case we couldn’t secure one of our other top name prospects. It is kind of hard to raise money from investors at a solid valuation without a name
We actually got Boxi.com at a great price, but the memorability issue made us continue looking.
@Brad, we came across Alice.org in our trademark clearance. Looks like a fantastic organization and we didn’t see any confusion issues, so we viewed it as a positive. We had a somewhat similar reference at Jellyfish with Phil Visher’s film production studio called Jellyfish.
@Matt, I’ve already been brainstorming corporate spokespeople. Don’t forget the maid from the Brady Bunch!
September 4th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Brian, your argument that the value of the domain name justifies the cost is solid.
I am excited to see the actual content behind the name and then I will realize even more about the name itself.
Good luck! Brian and Mark!
September 9th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Five letters, memorable, catchy, a bit feminine – what more can you ask for? I put this into the category of “genius”. Besides, domain names are assets. As long as you didn’t overpay, you could turn around and sell it. It’s comparable to the real estate market, but with a much lower transfer fee and yearly holding costs.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:13 am
alice was the goon from goon island on the popeye cartoon series.
are you folks a bunch of goons?
November 11th, 2008 at 8:34 am
seriously? 250K?
i guess it was a steal haha!
i could take a company public with $250K & a $6 domain form godaddy.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Well done it’s a great name. I feel sure Lewis Carroll would agree, for me it is synonymous with Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass I wish you every success.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
At $250K this was a good sale, whether it is a good buy will depend on the business. This choice of name has given the business and the building of its brand a great chance of success. Boxi is pretty bad, so good move
November 11th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Thanks for the feedback on our price tag for Alice.com. Having the brand out in the news today strengthens my belief that we made the right choice here. The name provides us with instant credibility, memorability, and an open canvas to build a brand promise. Those things don’t come cheap, unfortunately. The only way you’ll see prices come down for tier one domain names like this is if someone can teach the public not to default to the .com space everytime they seek out a brand.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Alice.com is a great name, very memorable. A good purchase.
I’m looking forward to watching your business come to life. Hopefully in a year or so Brian will be giving another AccelerateMadison presentation on it.
November 11th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
[...] Alice.com sells for $250,000 According to Techcrunch, the domain name Alice.com was sold for $250,000 USD in September 2008. The company raised $4.3 Million for a new retail platform focused on consumer packaged goods and linking manufacturers of essential household stuff like tooth brushes, toilet paper, trash bags with consumers. The founder’s blog, FlywheelBlog, also features a series of interesting posts about the decision to name the company Alice.com. [...]
November 13th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Mark,
It’s always good to see/hear a company actually taking more than 5 minutes to finalize their brand/domain name(s). It is truly amazing how many companies simply do not understand the complexity of a “brand” and online exposure, traffic, and marketplace acceptance.
I agree 100%, you will be spending a tremendous amount of money on initial marketing and advertising, so first impression is key.
Although I agree, “Alice”, sticks out like a sore thumb, I do not agree that it provides you with “instant credibility”. In my humble opinion, the “instant credibility” comes from a strong logo alongside a superior website. I usually think of “instant credibility” in the domain world as generic domains covering an entire product, service, or industry. (Example: Pets.com, or Jacksonville.TV, or USAPolitics.TV). Alice is a females first name.
I agree about the price of the domain, it’s all relative, especially in the world of e-commerce. I am curious however, did you acquire the domain name personally, or through a private broker?
I agree with you that prices for “category killer” domains aren’t coming down–especially in this situation, “You want what they own”, so you have to pay.
I do think it would be a wise proactive investment to own the “.TV” domain for a video and multimedia platform to host your product reviews, testimonials, company intro, career availability, etc.
I agree that millions of people still search for websites using the “ignorant and default” type-in method, but the key factor you are failing to comprehend is, those people are not naturally typing in Alice.com to find trash bags, toilet paper, and tooth brushes. They are typing in the generic words, or going to Google/Yahoo. These items are very small ticket items, so I highly doubt the keyword/generics have a substantial amount of traffic to begin with. As time passes, you have to understand over the past decade those “direct navigators” were in that position because of two factors: a) lack of Internet comprehension/knowledge and b) the search engines were not even 1/10000000 of as mainstream and powerful as they are today. Point being, with time, the next generation of “consumers” and Internet users are NOT idiots, they understand search, and search engine much more than previous generations. They also have learned and been exposed to other domains (TLD’s) that actually have a meaning. (DOT TV), video/broadcasting/multimedia/onlineTV, etc…
Overall, I think you made a very wise decision going with Alice.com over Boxi.com, however, I think you could’ve acquired the domain much cheaper. In the end, I am very impressed with the brainstorming and “outside the box” thinking–and action.
1) get a great logo, marketing materials and press releases!
2) spend the money to get a “wow” web 2.0, user-friendly site!
3) adwords, adwords, adwords!
Thanks for reading.
Ps: To learn more about DOT TV (.TV) visit: http://www.Verisign.TV, http://www.TV, and http://www.NLVmedia.TV
November 13th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
[...] Fly Wheel explains why they bought Alice.com for $250,000, as their new company new. [...]
December 5th, 2008 at 6:52 am
With $4.3M in funding, you have solid financial backing… so it all looks like ‘genius.’ If your funding wasn’t as strong, it would be ‘idiot.’ Point is — really doesn’t take a lot of genius to come up with the right domain name if you are ok to spend $250K. True genius is when you can execute a win on a $9 budget. Luckily for you, those days are behind you and you have no need to challenge yourselves unnecessarily. I wish you success and am confident you will do well. I eagerly look forward to Alice’s launch.
August 28th, 2010 at 9:10 am
I was having dinner with a friend a few months ago when he mentioned Alice.com. For some strange reason I never forgot it. I don’t know about the price but the name has value.
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