A young firm moves from RibbonExperiences.com to Ribbon.com
This newish startup made a big domain upgrade.
Founded in 2020, Ribbon is an online platform for live and recorded events that can integrate with services such as Zoom, while also offering email marketing solutions. In essence, it’s billed as a one-stop-shop for yoga studios, creators, and possibly even influencers.
As with many recently formed firms, Ribbon initially didn’t focus much attention on its domain name, opting to brand around WithRibbon.com ahead of switching to RibbonExperiences.com.
Both of these names are what I would call stopgap names, both cheap to acquire and adequate for a modest startup until proof of concept, funding, or recurring revenue makes acquiring the firm’s exact-match .com more viable.
It seems that such an buyout was possible as Ribbon has now transitioned from RibbonExperiences.com to the succinct Ribbon.com.
Jamie Zoch first spotted the buyout of Ribbon.com on Twitter:
Ribbon Technologies Inc. purchases ultra premium generic domain name https://t.co/5TvMIe4NeA . The #startup was founded in 2020 and has only $1.3M in a seed round that I could see. They upgraded from RibbonExperiences․com. Next Navigation Pty Ltd. owned Ribbon prior.
— Jamie Zoch (@DotWeekly) June 26, 2021
As stated by WHOIS, the name switched accounts at Uniregistry around June 21st, 2021. Ahead of that, the domain name was registered to Next Navigation Pty. Ltd. of Australia. That firm is also listed as the registrant for domain names such as Moose.com, Tape.com, and Herbal.com, alongside many other valuable domain names.
As of writing, it is unclear whether Ribbon bought Ribbon.com outright or whether this was a lease-to-own deal. An email sent to Next Navigation Pty. Ltd. wasn’t responded to.
Regardless, acquiring a one-word .com domain name following just a year in business is an impressive feat that many founders dream of but most never achieve. The purchase shows intent and ambition from Ribbon and gives the firm a perfect launchpad for its future.
Ribbon’s efforts to brand around the common word ribbon is part of a general trend that Crunchbase commented on in 2020 in a blog post entitled “Startup Names Are Still Getting Less Silly.” The article notes a continuing trend of firms branding around single words, citing numerous examples.
A testament to the popularity of ribbon as a brand name is evident at Crunchbase, where 40 firm names contain the word ribbon.
It’s surprising that Ribbon.com hasn’t been snapped up ahead of now by another firm named Ribbon. Especially considering one of those firms, Ribbon Home, has raised $555 million in funding since launching in 2017.
