Picking a domain name for your hedge fund website
Start up hedge fund managers always have the difficult task of thinking up a new, good names for their management company and hedge fund (see Naming Your Hedge Fund). This difficulty is compounded by the fact that the desired name may not be available to use in the state which the management company resides (or with regard to the fund, in Delaware). An added difficulty is thinking of a name that also has a good available website domain available.
Why Have a Hedge Fund Website?
Website domains are now an integral part of the hedge fund package. Hedge fund investors are becoming more technology savvy and many communications can be done over the internet or through a website. This means that the process of setting up a fund can potentially be more demanding (depending on the launch and the needs of the potential hedge fund investors) – not only must managers have all of the back end business operations and legal infrastructure in place, but the manager must also understand, implement and maintain an appropriate web presence. The foundation for a strong web presence starts with the domain name.
Finding a Hedge Fund Domain Name
While we would all love to have a great one word domain name, it probably is not going to happen (unless you want to shell out a ton of cash). Even good two word domain names are going to be taken. To find out if a desired domain name is taken, you can go to any domain agent like www.godaddy.com. If you search for your domain and don’t find what you are looking for, there are a couple of different options to get a domain you are happy with –
1. Modify your search parameters – if the domain you are trying to get is taken, you can change the wording of the name you are looking for. If you cannot find a suitable
Company name: XYZ Capital Management, LLC
Desired domain: www.xyz.com (not available)
Other options: www.xyzcapital.com, www.xyzcapitalmanagement.com, www.xyzcapitalmangementcompany.com, www.xyzcapmanagement.com, www.xyzcapitalmgmt.com, www.xyzcapmgmt.com
For other thoughts on changing the name or spelling, see this Business Week article on company domain names.
2. Buy the desired domain name – if the domain name is taken by a person or a company, you can contact that person or company directly or through a domain agent and try to purchase the domain. I would expect that for a good domain name it will cost at least $2,000 upwards to $10,000. Premium names of course can be sold for much higher amounts. There are also a number of groups out there which domain squat – one group that has a number of hedge fund management company domain names is www.namethat.com.
Other notes
- Price – the domain name will cost about $10 a year from a group like GoDaddy.
- Length of time – I recommend buying a domain name for long period of time. I would say the minimum length should be 5 years.
- .com or .net? – always go with a .com domain name
- Compliance – there are no compliance issues which jump out at me right away, but I will keep thinking of this issue. Obviously if you host a website at the domain you will need to make sure that all marketing done is within the rules, see Hedge Fund Website Rules
- Hosting – there are a number of ways you can host your domain name and I will be dealing with this issue in a later article on technology for hedge fund managers
****
Please contact us if you have any questions or would like to learn how to start a hedge fund. Other related hedge fund law articles include: