The broker behind the deals
Joe Uddeme
Director and Principal, Name Experts. 15+ years brokering premium domain names for startups, Fortune 1000 companies, and everyone in between.
About JoeNearly two decades inside real domain deals
Joe Uddeme is Director and Principal at Name Experts, a boutique brokerage focused on high-value domain name acquisitions and sales. Over more than 15 years he has personally brokered 200+ domain transactions totaling more than $150 million, including the names behind some of the most visible rebrands on the web.
His work spans both sides of the table: buy-side representation for startups and Fortune 1000 companies (including stealth acquisitions where revealing the buyer would multiply the price) and sell-side campaigns for owners of premium digital assets. Notable engagements include Monday.com's rebrand from DaPulse, bringing Max.com to HBO, the dual acquisition of Fan.com and Fans.com, and enterprise work for brands like TripAdvisor and HubSpot. He operates on a success-fee model: no fee unless the deal closes.
The guidance published on NameExperts.com draws directly on those transactions: the negotiations, the numbers, and the mistakes Joe has watched buyers and sellers make for nearly two decades.
Track recordDeals you already know
Rebrand from DaPulse to a one-word dictionary .com
Proactively brought the Max.com opportunity to HBO
Enterprise domain acquisition work
Corporate acquisition, eight-person deal team
In Joe’s wordsStraight answers from 200+ deals
Q.What's the biggest misconception clients still walk in the door with?
Most buyers still grossly undervalue the domain name aftermarket. Buyers are programmed to buy at the lowest possible price — no matter the commodity. With domain names, many buyers have a hard time understanding these assets are extremely valuable. Monetized properly, they are foundational brand assets, built on the beachfront — lasting a lifetime. On the sell side, patience and timing are everything. End-user sales take time to find the right buyers for most assets. Be patient! My favorite clients are the ones that understand the inherent value and power of short domain names. Clients that are not in a rush to make a decision and will allow the market to dictate pricing on domain assets.
Q.Have you ever advised a client not to take a deal?
This happens often! A buyer looks for the best deal possible, while the seller looks to maximize their gain or sell at the highest level possible. I work to find common ground for my clients. Recently, I represented an owner of a highly valued short, generic .com domain name. They had received an offer that, in my professional opinion, represented about 1/3 of the total value of the asset. I instructed my client to decline this offer and wait for something stronger. As their sell-side broker, I was selectively marketing the asset to other end-users for sale, and within 60 days I had a buyer on the hook at the full, fair-market value for this domain name.
Q.How does a stealth acquisition actually work?
A very well-known logistics company was expanding their reach into a new sector and needed a new three-letter acronym domain name ending in .com. If they had gone direct, that would have exponentially increased the ask price for the owner. As the buy-side broker, I was able to casually connect with the rightful domain owner and negotiate a fair-market price for the three-letter .com domain name. The price would easily have been 3-4 times the cost the Fortune 1000 buyer paid for this asset.
Put 200+ deals of experience on your side.
Success-fee model: no fee unless your domain deal closes.
Work with Joe