Some questions about why $4k/mo (actually closer to $3300 now with some recent optimizations)
NameSnag processes about 200k expired and dropped domains each day. This is after filtering for popular TLDs and getting rid of obvious bad domains with some traditional code-based filters. At that point, each domain is then enriched with data from the Moz and Majestic APIs, then analyzed and scored with AI.
Moz, Majestic, and OpenAI are all not cheap at scale.
That said, while not cheap, they are relatively fixed and are based on the number of domains you ingest, which is constant and independent of usage.
To be clear, I knew these costs going in. They were actually higher and I've optimized them down quite a bit. Growing to a decent MRR which makes up these costs is probably < 100 customers, and that isn't a bad place to be.
The main challenge for a new owner is to find the right customers, though. Domainers, SEO folks, companies looking for a boost - these are all very different needs and NameSnag tries to cater to all. I suspect targeting one will bring some success. But I'm not the right person to do that.
tl;dr Someone else should take NameSnag and run with it. I bit off more than I can chew and I'm ok saying that I'm not the right owner. $15k OBO.
Quick update for everyone who cheered me on: I bought NameSnag about 3 weeks ago thinking I'd fix the low hanging fruit and iterate from there. Real talk - I overshot into a market I don't understand well enough, and I don't have the time to figure it out right now while there is a real burn rate at play.
The numbers: NameSnag has about $4k in monthly operating costs but has only brought in one new user since I took over. Most pre-sale users have churned. MRR sits around $400.
Why I'm selling: I stepped outside my thesis - profitable apps, 10k+ MRR, probably mobile, with that special something. NameSnag hit maybe 1 of those 4 criteria but I was excited and committed the ultimate investor's sin 😈 My core portfolio needs immediate attention and I'm splitting focus. Time to cut losses and let someone who actually knows the domain or SEO market take this on.
The opportunity: This could absolutely work for the right person. The infrastructure is solid, the market exists (with some small pivots I've identified), and there's a clear path forward for someone with domain expertise and time to execute properly. I'm just the wrong owner for this - someone else could do way better. With the monthly burn, sitting on this doesn't make sense.
Looking to get my $15k back ideally :) but I'll entertain the quickest reasonable offer. DM me if that's you.
Built with Insider.email