3 builders who never spoke to each other
Change a name that is costing you customers
A name that sounds like you are processing people can stop an influential customer from displaying it to their own audience, which is a reason to change it rather than defend it. Move the brand across piece by piece and tolerate a stretch where the logo and the domain disagree, rather than flipping everything on one date.
The method
- 01
Migrate a brand piece by piece over weeks and tolerate short periods where the logo and the domain disagree, rather than flipping everything at once.
- 02
A name that implies you are converting or funnelling people can make influential customers refuse to display it to their own audience.
- 03
Write down the naming criteria before searching: one word, the .com obtainable, not obviously technical, easy to say and spell over the phone, and meaning something connected to your mission.
- 04
Search trademark registries alongside domains, because an existing trademark on the same word in your software category will kill the name outright.
- 05
Price each payment schedule separately when buying a premium domain: paying it off faster genuinely costs less.
What it returned
- $360k
The broker quoted $360k over one year, $375k over two and $390k over three, against $340k outright, having started at $500,000 for a domain they were leasing at $2,000 a month
Transition staged from the announcement to August 1st
Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, an early influential customer, did not want the ConvertKit name anywhere on his site
One strong candidate was rejected because another software company held the SaaS trademark for that word and counsel judged it too similar
Sources
- There and back again: the story of renaming ConvertKitNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · The transition · 2020-08-04
- VibeTunnel's first AI-anniversary | Peter SteinbergerPeter Steinberger · steipete.me · Looking Forward · 2025-07-16
- 🎯 Scientific Goal Setting 🤝 Negotiation Tips ⚡ Fast Startup Validation - Trends.vcJay Clouse · trends.vc · 📘 Read This · 2023-10-09
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
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