How Parachute bought Parachute.co: End User Stories
Delivery service decided .co was better than a longer .com domain name.
College campus delivery service Parachute recently purchased the domain name Parachute.co. In our continuing series on end user domain name purchase stories, Parachute co-founder Zev Lapin explains why his firm selected Parachute.co and how it bought it.
DNW: What is Parachute?
Parachute (formerly CourseLoads) is a last mile delivery layer within college campuses. We make it simple for students to get what they need, delivered directly to their dorm room; starting with laundry, snacks, and essentials. While most delivery services such as Seamless, UPS, or local pizza shops are prevented from entering dorms due to the required security clearance, Parachute hires ambitious students who by now have the necessary clearance to deliver the things their peers need.
DNW: You originally used the domain name GetParachute.com, correct? Why did you choose this domain name? Did you look into acquiring Parachute.com?
We recently decided to rebrand from CourseLoads (our initial name) to Parachute. The .com, .net, and .co TLDs were all taken but not being used, so we thought there was a good chance we could purchase one of those domains from their current owner. While considering next steps in negotiating a purchase of either parachute.com or parachute.co (our two top choices), we decided we needed a backup and quickly settled on GetParachute.com which was available as a fresh domain. We launched with GetParachute.com, while negotiating behind the scenes for the .co domain. Unfortunately, the owner of Parachute.com was not interested in even entertaining an offer for the domain, so we put all of our effort into obtaining the Parachute.co. The negotiation process took regarding three weeks via Sedo, and we were happy with the final purchase price (low four figures).
DNW: You just purchased Parachute.co, and now forward GetParachute.com to Parachute.co. Why the switch?
Our name is Parachute, so ideally a good business domain doesn’t have any extraneous words as that dilutes the strength of the brand. Many startups add a “get” to the name to create a domain when an ideal version is unavailable, but in my opinion there are more and more TLDs that are becoming common and accepted by a mainstream audience. We’d much rather have just our brand name in the TLD and using a .co versus a diluted brand with a .com.
DNW: What was the buyout process like acquiring Parachute.co? Did it take a long time? What do you think regarding the price?
The whole process took regarding three weeks from first offer to closing. The owner was parking the page via Sedo with an option to submit an offer. There were regarding 15 back and forth offers between us and the seller, but ultimately, we were happy with the final price. We truly believe the domain is going to be a key component to building a strong brand. I don’t agree that you need to own a .com, but you do need a brandable, easy-to-remember, and searchable domain, which I believe we now have.
