How did you start that process, and (if you don't mind saying) around how much did it cost? I've been looking at what it would take to buy some domains that are marked as taken and get pointed to domainagents.com by my registrar, but it's $199 minimum bid with a $30 deposit (with $10 going straight to the seller simply for responding), and I worry that they'll ask for like $100K, which I'm obviously not going to pay at this stage in the company lifetime.
> After sending a bunch of these emails by hand, I wrote a Bash script for the process in my old Harvard Computer Society shell account (sending from a .edu address would make us seem reputable while not flush with cash). I tested it out, but having forgotten both “set -u” and to provide any inputs, it sent an email with all variables blank. The to: address defaulted to mailer-daemon@, an administrative list that all of my former HCS colleagues were on. They were pretty confused to see my email asking if I could buy “.com” from them, and I was suitably embarrassed. I figured the cost of further similar embarrassment would be higher than the manual time I'd save, so I kept sending emails manually.
> In total, I sent several hundred emails that day. Of the plausible responses I received, stripe.com was the clear winner. (Incidentally, I also got a reply from the parse.com owner; months later I sent my accumulated domain name list to Tikhon Bernstam, which is how Parse got its name.)
Summary: They sent emails from a student email address to the domain contacts as listed in the Whois details. Cost was perhaps in the range of $2-20k (which I realize is a big range).
DomainAgents is a startup that helps people buy and sell domain names. We (I'm one of the founders) help startups get their ideal domain names all the time.
A few thoughts.
When possible try to buy your domain before any sort of serious traction, first thing people who own domains are going to do is Google their domain and see what comes up. So if you're running on GetHappy.com and are blowing up, you're making the generic domain "happy.com" more valuable every day. Even with a TM, a rocking responsive site, and editors pick in the app store, the value of Happy.com improves right along side your KPIs, your entitlement to the domain however does not.
If you're running on a generic term like "Happy" and things are going well, chances are the term is being picked up by other developers. If you're thinking "no one is going to go after that domain, it's mine!" you're wrong. The guys running theHappyapp.com and haappy.io have likely already pinged the owner trying to buy the domain. So has your arch rival getunhappy.com ... just because they want to screw you. The longer you wait the more people will try to buy the domain. The more interest in an asset, the more potential for the domain to become increasingly expensive.
A good domain name really is an asset. It's likely that for at least the next 10 years or more, a solid .com is going to be an asset that will, at worst, hold it's value. So even if Google enters your market, eats your lunch, then Facebook follows to finish you off, if you own happy.com, you will still have something that you can potentially borrow against, or sell to fund a pivot.
And finally, if you've got a round locked down, see if you can buy the domain you're after before it's announced.
