To Austin, Charts Growth — NameDrive Moves

Domain firm plants flag in Texas.

Last month I hinted that a domain name firm was on its way to Austin. Now it’s official: domain parking and sales firm NameDrive has set up shop in the capital of Texas.

The firm has leased space north of Austin, which it is right now readying for move-in. Four employees are by now in Austin, with three more on the way. That may grow to 20 by the end of the summer.

NameDrive is the first major domain name firm to call Austin home. Parked considered moving its U.S. offices to Austin following Hurricane Katrina, but decided it enjoyed hurricanes and moved to Florida instead. But Austin has a number of firms with killer domain names, such as CreditCards.com.

Although I have nothing confirmed, I’ve also heard that NameDrive is right now testing a “professional grade” parking product. A few big portfolios have been on the fresh platform with good results, although there’s no information available on NameDrive’s web site regarding it. Big portfolio owners might want to drop them a note, though.

So Welcome to Austin, NameDrive. Now I have no excuse – there will be a domainer meetup in Austin this year.