Techcrunch.com just covered Raise.com, a domain name that I sold at a live Moniker.com/TRAFFIC auction many years ago for $25,000.
The company has gone from the $25K purchase to raising over $18 Million in VC money.
“”Raise.com is one of the fastest-growing startups in the Chicago region. While we were able to reach founder George Bousis today to confirm the raise, the company prefers to keep a low profile when it comes to disclosing its funding details, and instead wants to focus only on growing its – what we hear to be – profitable business.
Raise.com itself is a spinoff from Chicago-based CouponTrade, a couponing and deals site founded in 2010 by Bousis and co-founder Bradley Wasz. In February of this year, the gift card side of that business became what’s now known as Raise.com, a domain name it took the company months to secure.
“It became a challenge from a consumer standpoint, to understand how gift cards, coupons and deals went together,” says Bousis. “We pretty much decided that because our motto was ‘Give Yourself a Raise,’ that the best natural name for the new gift card-only focused company would be ‘Raise,’ itself,” he says.
The company started in Bousis’ living room, tethering off his iPhone for the first six months, around two and half years ago. Today, it has grown to over 50 full-time employees, and is now aggressively hiring.
In its sights is the massive ($115 billion) gift card industry in the U.S., where roughly 20% of gift cards’ value sits unused every year. In addition, there’s some $200 billion in merchandise credit from store returns, which is another currency Raise.com can buy and sell.””
We couldn’t be happier for them.
Domain names are cheap, dirt cheap.
Just one more example of how any company best money they will spend is to buy a brandable domain name.
For those who are curious at the auction we set the reserve at $25K and there was only one bidder, the buyer
Great domain name. While they would not have spent seven figures on the domain alone, the VC funding is based on a proven track record of an entrepreneur that uses the domain intelligently. Maybe because he’s Greek. 😉
Raise.com actually sold at sedo Oct 2012 for $40,000, march 2009 €21,000 = $26,250 and first at TRAFFIC 2006 for $25,000.
it’s perfect (also) for a crowdfunding platform
@ PunkRock, to be sure, Raise.com sold one more time via Sedo, after @MHB’s sale, according to DNSSalesprice:
Raise com $27,575 Dec 10 Sedo 1 5 N N Raise.com Sedo
Raise com $26,250 Mar 09 Sedo 1 5 N N Raise.com DNJournal
Raise com $25,000 Oct 06 Moniker/Traffic 1 5 N N Raise.com Moniker
and the $40,000 sale was reported on theDomains here:
thedomains.com/2012/10/30/sedo-com-transactions-for-the-week-total-2-3-million
It’s a mixed bag, right? Domains are cheap, but when in startup phase, a company may instead inventing words or turning to new extensions.
Raise just raised another $56 Million, with a valuation just shy of a Billion now. (these “valuations” are crazy if you ask me) Raising $74 Million dollars is impressive though!
I would say that the current users purchased the domain on or about 10/30/2012 according to whois when George Bousis name is displayed.