Good News! friend Paid $1.8 million For Their Domain
Great news! Those naysayers who claimed that startup culture (and those software development jobs associated) is over have just been proved wrong.
The Hyper-growth Startup Era Continues
The startup culture buoyed by investment has been declared dead as software development enters the mature stage.
It was thought to be a relic of the past, and that type of funding was no longer available to startups.
That might have been true until the AI hype train entered the Chat.
A Creepy AI
A recent wave of AI wearables (hello R1, Humane) has failed to answer the question Why isn’t it an app?
The trailer categorically answers the question with a resounding: “It’s not creepy enough”.
An always listening pendant that will decide to give you irrelevant or irreverent text messages when you least expect? That’s certainly the stuff of nightmares.
Sure, Friend claim that data is encrypted and not stored — but it’s EVERYTHING you say and hear. Let’s hope for Boomer’s sake that they don’t partner with Facebook on this one.
They have the idea for the product. Hype around it. They raise funds. There is only one thing they can do now. Blow the cash.
friend.com
What self-respecting hype product goes without an outstanding domain name? Friend couldn’t let this marketing opportunity pass them buy and put down $1.8 million to reserve the domain friend.com.
x.com
This is the type of behavior that we thought died with the dot-com bubble.
It’s a bold move certainly and we’ll see if it pays off (spoiler: it won’t). But it demonstrates a new confidence in the startup ecosystem. You no longer need to be Tesla to spend enormous resources on domain names.
The New Era
Acquiring friend.com for nearly $2 million freedom dollars marks a return to the audacious, high stakes moves of startup culture. It signals that investment is around for the right ideas and marketing opportunities.
AI has reinvigorated the landscape. Innovation and risk-taking are alive and well, and the spirit of the startup is far from dead.
Take that skeptic who said the brodacious moves of the past were over.
Conclusion
Now it’s over to you to rewatch Black Mirror, come up with your own episode idea and make the product real. Like Friend.