Old hands in the domain name aftermarket business have set up a new business that is to focus on selling premium domain names as brand building tools for businesses.
Brannanâs is a new domain name auction house and brokerage service that is the brainchild of David and Toby Clements.
To begin, Brannan’s first value proposition is to develop and staff a strategic business unit to market domain names to small and medium businesses (less than 500 employees).
For their start-up, the Clements brothers are requesting the submission of up to ten quality domain names with good reserve prices to market to SMEs before their upcoming auction that starts on 2 April.
The company is named after Samuel Brannan, who with his pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit, was a newspaper journalist and publisher, real estate speculator and a wildly successful merchant. On the Brannanâs website, a bit of a history of the man is given.
Brannan was born in Maine and died in California, where he spent most of his adult years developing various business ventures. One such undertaking was the opening of a general store in 1847 at Sutter’s Fort, near the property of Sutter’s Mill, where the California gold rush originated. In March 1848, Brannan went to Sutter’s Mill, witnessed gold fever for himself, and made a decision that would change his life forever.
But it was not gold prospecting that made Brannan, rather he quietly bought up all of the prospecting and mining supplies in the region. He bought everything. Every shovel. Every pan. Every prospecting tool he could find. And then he set up shop to sell those gold prospecting supplies. On 12 May, 1848, Brannan ran an article in his newspaper about the gold then he ran through the streets of San Francisco carrying a vial of gold dust and shouting, “Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!” In an instant he created a market in desperate need of his mining supplies.
Brannan’s plan worked. By mid-June three-quarters of the male population had left town for the mines. In the first nine weeks selling mining goods, Brannan made a $36,000 profitânearly $900,000 in today’s dollars. In 1849, Brannan’s Sutter’s Fort store sales were $150,000 a month. Brannan, at the age of 29, became California’s first millionaire. He eventually went on to become the wealthiest man in California.
For more information on Brannanâs, or to submit domains for auction, or even to find out more, check out brannans.com.
For the second week running a two-letter domain name has topped Domain Name Journalâs list of top reported sales in a six-figure sale in the week to 6 June.