At price of Congo.Com, is rebranding to a different .Com — Congo.io, miffed

Firm crowdsources an aftermarket domain name purchase.

A Reglike reader sent me an amusing press release issued on Friday.

Boulder, Colorado startup Congo is upset that Digimedia, owners of Congo.com, want an “egregiously overinflated valuation of $750,000” for Congo.com.

You see, Congo uses the domain name Congo.io for its site that connects people to attorneys. Apparently it realized that the .io domain name wasn’t working, and now they want a .com domain.

But Congo is the name of a country, and obviously Digimedia wants to be paid accordingly for this good domain name.

Congo.io only wants to pay $3,000 for Congo.com, “and not a penny more”.

Once you get past the ridiculousness of the firm’s feelings around the Congo.com domain name, I actually like what it’s doing. It’s holding a contest to find a fresh domain, and it’s willing to go to the aftermarket to get it — just at a cap of $3,000.

Look, this makes sense for the firm. It just raised $250,000. It shouldn’t try to buy a $750,000 domain name right now, let alone a $100,000 one, unless it’s willing to work out a lease option or equity deal. (Digimedia is very pro-entrepreneur, and has been known to work with firms to get them a great domain as a partner or equity holder.)

Still, Congo realizes that many good .com domains are available on the aftermarket for $3,000 or less. So it will drum up some publicity and crowdsource the naming. It’s sending people to GoDaddy to check on availability, and GoDaddy pulls up Afternic’s inventory with pricing.

The message, which I wish a lot of other startups would understand, is you can still get a great .com. It just make cost a few grand upfront.