Sherpa Founders Series: Making Bank: An Evolution of Opportunities with Banks.com – with Chris Snyder

DomainSherpaSeptember 23, 2020 0

Chris Snyder’s career, in essence, has been creatively providing bespoke solutions for clients. Chris speaks about the evolution of opportunities he encountered with Banks.com, the network effects and marketplace models that challenged him during development, and how he is hoping to build a $50M+ company!

After Chris had negotiated a licensing agreement for Banks.com and personally invested $750,000, the rug was pulled from underneath him and he was informed the domain was for sale for $2-$5M! With his unique focus, savvy and authenticity, Chris managed to negotiate and acquire the domain, and is now reaching for the stars! We hear about:

Lessons learned from a 6 month negotiation just for licensing agreement in 2017 – with publicly traded company
How leveraging an EMD (Exact Match Domain) fundamentally changed his entire business model.
- Out the gate with a Premium Domain: anyone will take your call!
- How the EMD opens doors, but when/how to utilize that…
Recognizing when you’re not solving a market problem, but rather an execution problem: and how that uniquely requires time, team, and capital.
Building authentic relationships: ASK MORE!
How he valued the domain name strictly on the market opportunity and what other companies in the space are worth.
Vital Lessons from Chris Snyder & Drew Rosener:
- DEAL STRUCTURE: Allows buyer to de-risk some of that uncertainty. Price is less important than an alignment of interests between company and domain. Ensure you have a business commensurate with the value of the domain at hand!
- CAPITAL: having the domain is only step 1; next is development, which is riskier!
Mistakes made, particularly trying to do too much. And after 1/3 of his funds were lost to a learning curve in the first year, Chris reflects on surprises encountered & overcome:
- Contracts took months to close
- GDPR/CA privacy changes
- Regulatory challenges

This show is fantastic for ANY entrepreneur, developer, or domain investor! Jam packed!

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This Show’s Sherpas

Chris Snyder

Chris Snyder is an entrepreneur, bootstrapped and self-funded since 2008. Chris' lead gen experience as president of Juhll, the performance and growth consultancy, lead to his chance encounter with Banks.com, which he then acquired in June 2019.

More shows with Chris Snyder »

Andrew Rosener

Andrew Rosener is the CEO of the industry-leading domain name broker Media Options.

Andrew is widely considered a thought leader and expert on domain name value & methodology as well as domain name sales & acquisitions. With 20 years experience with domain names, Andrew has leveraged his knowledge and expertise to make MediaOptions the go-to domain name firm for startup & company domain acquisitions as well as high value domain name sales.

More shows with Andrew Rosener »