These two entrepreneurs moved their websites to .AI domains.
.AI domain names have become a popular choice for technology-focused businesses, but how do real business owners feel about making the switch? In this episode, I speak with two entrepreneurs who migrated their brands to .ai domains. Both faced practical branding and marketing issues with their original domain choices and found .ai to better reflect what they do while resolving limitations they encountered.
First up is Felix Ingla of Pedra. He initially launched the business on a .so domain, which he found quickly exposed practical limitations in terms of recognition, user trust, and ease of use. Felix evaluated alternatives, including registering a getPedra.com address himself, but recognized that the “get” prefix is most natural for English speakers. With his primary customers located in Spain and Germany, he needed a domain that worked clearly across multiple languages and markets. After weighing options, he selected Pedra.ai. That change aligned the brand with his product’s artificial intelligence focus and simplified communication with his international audience. He explains how the new domain helped reduce friction, improved clarity in marketing, and better matched customer expectations.
Next, I speak with Angeli Angelos from Swipe. When the company first launched, it went to market under the name Post Protect, a name that ultimately felt limiting as the product and the company’s ambitions grew. Angeli decided to adopt a broader, more flexible brand name and settled on Swipe. Acquiring swipe.ai played a key role in that transition. He describes the process of securing the domain and how lease-to-own arrangements made the purchase achievable. For businesses that can’t immediately afford a high-value domain, lease-to-own can enable gradual acquisition while the company benefits from a brand-aligned address right away.
Both conversations highlight a few common themes for business owners considering new top-level domains. First, a domain is more than an address: it’s a part of the brand and affects how customers perceive the company. Second, language and market considerations matter—what reads naturally in one language may confuse users in another. Third, the mechanics of acquiring a domain (outright purchase, lease-to-own, or selecting a less expensive extension) impact both short-term budgets and long-term positioning.
The episode also touches on the broader landscape of top-level domain applications. New TLDs continue to be proposed and adopted, giving businesses more naming options but also increasing the importance of strategic choice. More TLDs mean more possibilities for concise, descriptive domain names, yet they also make it important for business owners to consider discoverability, user trust, and international recognition when choosing an extension.
Below is the podcast episode where these business owners share their experiences in their own words. In the conversation, they outline the practical steps they took, the trade-offs they weighed, and the immediate benefits they noticed after switching to .ai domains.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:01 — 25.7MB)
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