An interview with Neil Bostick the founder of Graen.com
Q1) Tell us why you created Graen.com Neil?
Good first question! I guess first and foremost I really wanted to make a private platform for investors to buy & sell high value domains as I thought that was what was missing from the current domain sales options.
Within that, I specifically wanted to scale the work that I do with my domain brokerage, QEIP.com, as I realize that by having a more automated platform I could get the inventory of a marketplace with the quality of a broker. I’ve been a buyer, a seller, and a broker in the super-premium domain aftermarket for many years and through that, I’ve gotten perspective on what each party wants and needs …and how the current market options just don’t cut it. Everyone knows there are like 50 domain marketplaces so why would I set out to create another one???
The answer is that none of them did the single most important thing that I wanted in a domain marketplace: be private and not publicly disclose offer and sale prices (and in general just be suited for high value domain sales). So I set out in August of 2020 to start building this platform based on this idea and from the feedback I got from dozens of top ‘domainers’, we launched our beta version over a year later in September of 2021.
Through that lens, I like to think I created the perfect platform with our launch, but in truth it is far from being finished as we are adding new features to it each week.
For those that don’t know the benefit of being a private marketplace, privacy is one of the biggest ‘defenses’ in high value domain investing as sale and offer prices will get used against you if they are made public. In this, a lot of brokers and marketplaces will disclose sale and offer prices to drive traffic and use for marketing but this is often at the detriment of the buyers and sellers behind the domain (as it makes it harder for them to sell in the future).
Trying to minimize exposure risk, many marketplaces and brokers try to solve this problem by listing a given domain but not price, but there are trust problems here because buyers get price gouged and often end up bidding against themselves when trying to figure out price. We flipped the model and showed domain qualities and price but not the domain itself – with this, we are able to keep buyers and sellers safe in a way that no other platform does.
For many top level domain investors knowing domain qualities gives 51%+ the knowledge they need for a purchase decision (especially when it is as targeted as what we show on our listing pages) so when they finally uncover the domain name behind the listing they can quickly access whether they want to close or not. 100% private domain marketplaces are what I believe to be the future of high value domain investing (and maybe domain investing in general) AND we are the first one.
Q2)You will no doubt get flooded with a lot of potential clients, what should they know about the quality of inventory that you will accept?
Short answer: we only list the top domains (yes really only the top – like 3 letter .COM, 1 word .COM, or better). Graen.com takes the best qualities of a domain marketplace and the best of a domain broker and puts it all in one exclusive platform – so we have the scale & technology of a marketplace while giving the experience & attention of a broker. With all of this, we can handle large quantities of domains but for the sake of differentiation (and our target buyers), we only accept super-premium domains like 2/3 letter and 1 word .COM.
Our aim is to have a maximum of 1000 domains on the platform at any time and of these we want only the best domains possible at their best prices possible – this is because we want the reputation for being the best marketplace for high value domains through having the highest sell-through rate of any marketplace or broker (so we only want to take in domains which there are a lot of buyers for). There may only be 50k-100k domains in existence that fit the qualifications of domains we can sell, so when we have 1k on the site, it won’t be a small market share (and we already are 5%+ there!).
Q3) What separates Graen.com from the other marketplaces out there, what if a customer wants to announce their sale? Are they bound to confidentiality when joining the site?
Absolutely everything differentiates us! It is all custom tailored to help get high value deals done without regard to how all other platforms function. Buyers and sellers are bound to confidentiality unless they mutually agree post-sale that they want the sale public.
Here are a list of features that differentiate the platform:
all listings are confidential and need to be uncovered individually (through buyer agreeing to listing ‘NDA’s),
all domains listed need to be approved by admin (to maintain quality),
proprietary algorithm for dual domain valuations (to get market pricing),
free escrow for all listings (with no risk of deals closing without buyer paying),
low tiered commission rates from 3-9% (with big discounts for brokers who want to list),
buyers and sellers can’t talk to each other (to save time negotiating), unique framework that gives ability to get 7 figure deals go from start to finish in 12 hours, no exclusivity for sellers (while still not allowing deals outside of platform),
vetting of all sellers (so that we know sellers own the domains in question), the site’s user management is really powerful and allows you to manage everything (from offers, sales, applications, appraisal history, support tickets, investor passes, scheduled calls, affiliate tracking, and more),
buyers identity and fund verification through high technology APIs (so that serious buyers are pre-approved to negotiate and see the best deals), and the list that differentiates us goes on and on.
Test out the platform and you will see. If we don’t have a key feature, request it and we will.
Q4) Customers are more concerned today than ever when it comes to their data. Does Graen.com have a thorough information security plan in place?
Definitely, the safety of the site reflects what I would want as a user if my data was at play (as it is!) – with that, we don’t take any key personal information as all important information we deal with goes through 100% secure APIs from established partners.
In this, we use WithPersona.com to verify users Identities via a pop-up where you take a picture of your face with your ID and it can instantly verify you.
Then we use Plaid.com for users to provide proof of funds (to uncover higher priced listings and get access to more deals). The way it works for Plaid.com is that you just login directly to your personal bank account on it via a pop up from Plaid.com and after you do so, we just get a number about the total assets in your account (nothing more). After that, we just have it internally listed that John Doe is approved for up to $XXX,XXX priced listings.
Even though we don’t store any key information (bank details, SSNs, credit cards, etc.), our site is encoded with AES-256 bit encryption so that all internal data can’t be accessed by outside parties. As we don’t host any key proprietary data ourselves (and our partners that do are multi-billion dollar tech-forward corporations), any users should not have a thread of doubt about our security. But if you do have any concerns, schedule a call via the website and we can explain more!
Q5) If I list my name at Graen.com can I have it listed at other marketplaces as well?
Yes! This is another way that our platform is different than any other platform – we have NDA’s on every listing (with a couple additional terms) which enable us to be the first platform with ‘buyer exclusivity’ as a differentiator.
To give some insight, seller exclusivity is important so that a given broker doesn’t run the risk of a buyer going to a seller directly. We flipped the model and made it so that instead of the seller agreeing to not sell anywhere else, we made the the platform so that the buyers agree that if they see a domain they like, they can’t try to buy it anywhere else.
This is a creative way to ensure people don’t try to ‘cut out’ the platform without requiring exclusivity from the seller.
Besides that, it also enables us to protect the seller by ensuring that the buyer doesn’t publicize any pricing in any way that hurts seller’s ability to offer it up to a future buyer at a higher price (if it doesn’t sell). If it does sell, the buyer can be confident knowing that the sale price won’t be public and they won’t have it used against them if they try to resell in future.
Thank you for your time Neil
Thank you Raymond
As an investor with a budget that could cover a lot of names listed, I can only unlock 5 of them to view during my first visit. If you’re telling me that you only sell the best and allow me to unlock only 5 domains to view and to judge that for myself, only to determine that they’re not all that they were cut out to be advertised as (can’t repeat them as I am respecting the NDA), how long do you think I’ll stick around?
I am aware that I can email you to get more investor credits to view more names (taking more time), but I have already made my decision with the first 5. What is stopping the likelihood of near all your visitors contributing to a bounce rate to a marketplace that shows the name without a price? This is because the name comes prior to pricing.
But, I’m also not going to verify my identity or show you my bank account to prove I can buy a name—that’s ridiculous. This is almost like Zillow making someone get a pre-approved loan so that a buyer can only view properties within their budget while ignoring the fact that variables of that loan, such as downpayment and interest rates to even job changes can change at any time, but they are confined to those viewings only until a second loan is approved.
Perhaps this will fill a very small niche of the buyer market. Just my thoughts about it on the surface, as that’s all that I could scratch.
All the best, if you want any more constructive criticism, you know where to find me.
Thanks for the feedback. I do agree that the bank account verification may prove difficult to get from the majority of interested buyers. I will try to get Neil to weigh in on that here in the comments.
Who wants marketplaces to be private I don’t see any benefit of that this just seems something for the elite keeping their transactions back and forth which let’s be honest a lot of us question I believe there are so many high-end shady transactions.
This seems very niche, like a special group of the very rich. I too would never let you see into my bank account, I mean that’s f ing crazy. Does Kate Buckley or Andrew Rosener ask me for that?
How many people are going to do that, out of 100 I would say high mark would be 20 out of 100. That’s a bad ratio.
This feedback is really helpful guys! We got a lot of positive feedback about our model from investors thus far but your constructive feedback is valid (we will use it to improve the platform in the future).
We designed the platform to be the most seller friendly in the industry – these extra bank and identity requirements were to make sure sellers feel safe giving the very best deals on the platform.
Verification is not a core part of our model (even if it definitely makes itself known) so I guess my main question is if we take away verification requirement, would sellers still feel safe giving good deals? If we have users sign NDAs on every listing but we don’t verify their identity it seems there is less accountability.
Yes the platform is relatively niche (and only for high value investors currently) but in the near future we plan to offer more premium services for the everyday domain investor (like exclusive landing pages w/ broker representation for less commission than anyone else).
Anyways, please keep up with the negative (or positive) feedback as we are happy to take in your suggestions about how to improve the platform in the future. We can’t become the perfect platform if we don’t adapt to our users wants/needs.
FYI, if you let me know your email via hello@graen.com then I’d be happy to pre-approve you so you can uncover more listings. As we are just starting our journey, we’re looking for more sellers than we are buyers (as we’re overwhelmed with buyer demand) – remember all 3 letter .COMs & better are guaranteed offers (for November only).
premium services for the everyday domain investor (like exclusive landing pages w/ broker representation for less commission than anyone else).
That would be interesting Neil.
I have a question…
What does GRAEN.com stand for? I swear I won’t remember that come tomorrow.
Unless it has a very specific meaning you may have thought a little harder on what domain to launch on. I know you can buy nice pronounceable 4 letter domains like EFTY.com for pretty cheap.
Efty is a classic example of a company branding a 4 letter.
I’m not trying to criticize your business motto, I’m just having a hard time understanding why the name?
Maybe I am missing what the acronym means but it should not be this difficult. Maybe a tag line of some sort would be indicated.
Good question! So main goal of using Graen was to have something short, slightly mysterious (I thought Graen matched up with that vibe), and (most importantly) we wanted to do was make sure that there wasn’t many other companies using the term.
It also fits perfectly in the separation of the three companies I’ve founded – Graen.com (Private Domain Marketplace), QEIP.com (Private Domain Broker), & FIH.com (Private Business Marketplace). One is 5 letter, the next is 4 letter, & the last is 3 letter (all are ‘made up’ terms that I can more effectively ‘take control’). I thought having one pronounceable domain of each domain type fit well into my portfolio branding strategy.
Oh to get more valuable feedback, I’d like to ask 1 question to all high value domain owners reading this:
If you were listing a 3 letter .COM (or better domain) at Graen at your best ‘investor’ price (which you wouldn’t want to see made public), which of the following 4 options would you have us require for all buyers to uncover deals listed our site (including yours!):
(FYI investor passes are used to uncover domain names behind listings.)
1. Give buyers 5 free investor passes a month just for signing up but require them to verify identity or provide proof of funds to get more than that (up to 30). *This is what we do NOW.”
2. Not give any free investor passes and require verification of identity and proof of funds to uncover up to 30 listings a month. *This is what we USED to do.*
3. Give buyers 30 free investor passes a month (more than 30?) just for signing up with no verification requirements. *This is something we are CONSIDERING.*
4. Give unlimited investor passes to all users that sign up with the caveat that the site is invite-only – ie. you can’t sign up without someone referring you to sign up (as we now have almost 500 users, this is possible). *This is something we are CONSIDERING.*
Please post the option you think is best (along with why you think it is) in the comments below.
Thx a million! -NPB
I just did a LinkedIn poll and 57% of high value sellers said that they’d prefer buyers show proof of funds. 29% said they wanted identity verification and only 14% said that they wanted no verifications at all (0% said they want invite-only). Do you agree with this preliminary data?
*To note: currently, you get 5 investor passes a month without any sort of verification so anyone can become a buyer on our platform (they just need to be picky with the value attributes listed or they need to take the time to get verified).
I’ll show you proof of funds
When you show me names
Not before
And telling a buyer he can’t buy elsewhere
Laughable
A service without a need
Thanks for the feedback Mr. Butternut! I have to say you ‘squashed’ my poll hehe 🙂
The investor pass is a simple agreement – if you uncover a listing on our site, you agree to exclusivity on the domain. If you don’t want the exclusivity, don’t uncover and try to find the domain on a another site (based on the domain qualities listed).
We have hundreds of excited buyers on the platform already but only a couple dozen quality sellers, so we are really more concerned with feedback from sellers than we are from buyers.
Anyways, as per my question above, if you really think we shouldn’t require proof of funds, then please let me know which of the 4 options above you think makes the most sense (if you were a high value seller)?
This strategy is well beyond it’s prime. at least ten years. Rogaine on steroids. Good luck to you.
Big Boys should be able to justify the ask publically with tangibles.
Otherwise it’s a shell game with hoops and secret doors.
Nothing about it elevates the Industry.
I normally end with Cheers NOT this time
Owners should be able to justify pricing with intangibles but what you are missing is the psychological component of scarcity (which drives all investor purchases). If you haven’t read, I would recommend Robert Cialdini to explain it to you (wonderful book):
https://www.amazon.com/Influence-New-Expanded-Psychology-Persuasion/dp/0062937650/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TADEOQD6QBWM&keywords=influence+the+psychology+of+persuasion&qid=1636492260&sprefix=influence%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-1
For this specific application to the domain aftermarket, I believe that there are three main ways that high value domains can be listed for sale to sell to investors (I will use ‘URL.com’ as the example here to make my point):
1. URL.com – Make An Offer
Note seller doesn’t state price and waits for offers – in my experience, this has low chance of sale as buyers will be very wary of being price gouged. This has good scarcity component but it is lacking price anchoring for buyer.
2. URL.com – $10M
Note seller who posts high value domain price publicly will most always use really high pricing to mitigate his exposure risk – most buyers won’t make market offers if price is too high so chance of sale gets lowered. In classic scarcity format, domains w/ prices that are readily available are less attractive to buyers – you may be able to ‘anchor’ high pricing anchor for buyer but in my experience without any relationship building too, the listing is ineffective as most inexperienced buyers just think about domains costing $8 at Godaddy.
3. One Word .COM (w/ 480k Graen.com Appraisal) – 400k
Note seller is able to list his real price (to increase his chance of sale) because he knows future buyers can’t use the price against them – the cost is he can only recruit sophisticated investors who know value attributes and are flexible on the domain. More than that, buyer is forced to engage with domain (vs. just look from afar) which in classic psych sense will dramatically increase chance of purchase.
Note that only strategies 1 & 2 are constantly used in the market (& they work well for less quality domains which want to take years to sell) while strategy 3 has been 100% ignored in any marketplace models (even if it’s the best option to sell the highest value domains the quickest).
First and foremost, Graen.com is an investor platform (not an end user platform even if some may lurk in the corners) – if you think of any NFT marketplaces, those are also investor platforms (not catering to end users). With investors in mind, different models need to be executed to be the most efficient (we are allowing high value domains to be sold to investors more efficiently than any platform before – we are not competing with the likes of Dan.com).
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
Neil
168 -“Big Boys should be able to justify the ask publically with tangibles”.
NB -“Owners should be able to justify pricing with intangibles but what you are missing is the psychological component of scarcity (which drives all investor purchases).”
Seriously? Scarcity drives all investor purchases?
Like I said, Good Luck to you
168 answer-Convey an impression of reliable modernity, prospective buyers will translate appearance into confidence of tangible performance.
An alternate psych component.
The quality of intangibles tends to be less reliable than it might be, costs higher than they should be, and customer satisfaction lower than it need be.
Graen.com Appraisal-biased self interest
seller is able to list his “real price” – biased self interest
future buyers can’t use the price against them – self interest
he can only recruit sophisticated investors who know value attributes
OH, Sophisticated
buyer is forced to engage – barrier creation – great intro !
So you want to use force on a sophisticated investor ? Bravo!
Your final paragraph of condescending verbage suggests, Well I will leave it
to your vast understanding of left overs from an era long past it’s prime.
I sell confidence.
You sell scarcity. That is what you are missing.
I prefer transparent market approach.
You prefer secretive market approach. That is what you are missing.
Good Luck to you
Let’s talk – fill out the form at npb.com and we can schedule a Google Meets for you to propose changes for Graen.com. Thx.