---
title: "Why Your Domain Is Your Credibility in the AI Era"
episode: 141
podcast: "The LeanScale Podcast"
publisher: "LeanScale"
guest: "Matt Overman"
guest_title: "Chief Revenue Officer, Identity Digital"
date_published: 2026-10-16
date_modified: 2026-10-21
duration: 00:47:27
word_count: 7754
topics: ["brand-positioning", "gtm-strategy", "ai-in-gtm", "demand-generation", "pricing-packaging"]
canonical_url: https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/podcast/matt-overman-identity-digital-your-domain-is-your-credibility/
source: "LeanScale Knowledge Hub — https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge"
license: "Free to quote and cite with attribution to The LeanScale Podcast."
---

# Why Your Domain Is Your Credibility in the AI Era

_Matt Overman on the trust recession, why you can vibe code a website but can't fake a domain, what publishing on someone else's platform costs you in SEO and AEO, the .agent round coming in 2028, running 270 TLDs as a channel-only business, and why AI pushed his team back to in-person events_

**Episode 141 · The LeanScale Podcast**  
Matt Overman, Chief Revenue Officer, Identity Digital · Hosted by Anthony Enrico  
Published October 16, 2026 · Updated October 21, 2026 · 00:47:27  
Canonical: https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/podcast/matt-overman-identity-digital-your-domain-is-your-credibility/

**Topics:** Brand & Positioning · GTM Strategy · AI in GTM · Demand Generation · Pricing & Packaging


## Executive summary

Matt Overman is Chief Revenue Officer at Identity Digital, the registry behind the world's largest portfolio of top-level domains: 270 extensions, sold almost entirely through a channel of more than 500 partners. He has spent close to two decades in the domain industry. He built NameJet into the industry's leading auction marketplace and ran Rightside's premium domain business before it was acquired by Donuts, now Identity Digital. He started in advertising, says he has never been an engineer or in product, and was named a 2026 CRN Channel Chief.

His core argument is about trust. AI has made it hard to tell generated content from human content, and anyone can now copy the look of a professional website in minutes. Anthony Enrico describes the change from his own side: when he started LeanScale in 2021, a well-designed site and deck were an investment that proved the company was real, and now they can be vibe coded in two seconds. What can't be generated is the address. Matt calls the domain a trust anchor, the one point a business controls that ties its website, its email and its advertising together, and he points to scams such as the toll-road texts that exploit people's inability to tell where a link really goes.

Most of the practical advice follows from that. Publishing on a third-level domain, a Facebook page, a Squarespace or Wix subdomain, or a Netlify or Vercel deploy link builds brand equity for the platform instead of for you, and makes the content harder to find in both SEO and AEO. A bit.ly link on a billboard at SeaTac airport, or a hundred-character URL on a wedding invitation, wastes the offline-to-online moment that a short, memorable domain would capture. .com is still the best-known address, but for a startup Matt cares more about consistency and an extension that says what you do, such as .ai for AI companies or LeanScale's own .team. Owning the domain also protects the audience: no one can take it away as long as the registration fee is paid, which is not true of a social handle or a platform like Vine that shuts down.

The episode also explains how the domain market works. The best names in any extension are worth more than ever, while hundreds of extensions give buyers cheaper options. ICANN's next round of new TLDs, the first since 2012, closed its application window in August, cost $227,000 per application, and should bring extensions such as .agent to market around 2028, with a sunrise period for trademark holders and auctions where several companies apply for the same string. Brand TLDs such as Amazon's .aws show what a fully trusted namespace looks like.

The second half is about Identity Digital's own go-to-market. Matt describes the company as the Procter & Gamble of domains: hundreds of products sold through a limited number of storefronts, from registrars such as GoDaddy and Namecheap to vibe-coding platforms, website builders and company-formation services. The job is to show the right name at the right time, for example .yoga or .studio to someone who has just built a yoga site, because a relevant name renews and keeps the partner's customer longer. AI now drives search recommendations and a pricing engine that tests first-year promotional prices across thousands of extension-partner cohorts. But with automation everywhere, Matt says relationships matter more than ever. The team has stopped cold calling, and it will spend more on in-person partner and industry events in 2027 than it ever has.


## Key takeaways

1. **AI has created a trust recession, and buyers are looking for proof** — Matt says it is becoming hard to tell what is AI-generated from what is human. When every company has the same tools, and Claude is doing much of the writing, people gravitate toward brands, communication styles and even ads that feel more authentic and where they can understand and trust the offer.
   _Why it matters:_ Polish no longer signals legitimacy. Teams need trust signals that can't be produced in an afternoon, and Matt argues that the domain is one of them.
   _For:_ Marketing Leaders, Founders, Revenue Executives

2. **You can vibe code a website, but you can't fake a domain** — Anthony recalls that when he founded LeanScale in 2021, a well-designed website, deck and PDFs were an investment that showed the company was real. Now anyone can tell an AI tool to copy a site's look and drop in their own content. Matt, who calls himself non-technical, says he could vibe code a business over a weekend, but every domain name is unique and how you present yourself is attached to it.
   _Why it matters:_ The cheap parts of looking credible have become free. The address is the part that still distinguishes one business from another.
   _For:_ Founders, Marketing Leaders

3. **The domain is the trust anchor that ties website, email and ads together** — Matt describes the domain as the one point you control where your brand lives: it is the call to action, where you send people from ads, and the identity on your email. A site on one address with email from a Gmail account gives the recipient no way to confirm the person belongs to the company. Bad actors exploit exactly that gap, as in the toll-road text scams.
   _Why it matters:_ Use the same domain across site, email and advertising, and show it clearly, so customers can check that a message really comes from you.
   _For:_ Marketing Leaders, Founders, Sales Leaders

4. **Publishing on someone else's platform builds their brand, not yours** — Matt is surprised by how many people launch on a third-level domain, a Facebook page, or a yourname.squarespace.com or .wix.com address. You may have part of your brand in the URL, but you are building brand equity for the platform, and the address is not one you control or can tie to your email.
   _Why it matters:_ Treat a platform subdomain as temporary. The first real go-to-market step is putting the project on a domain you own.
   _For:_ Founders, Marketing Leaders

5. **Sharing AI-built assets on Netlify or Vercel links costs you in SEO and AEO** — Anthony admits he has done it himself: build a landing page or blog post with Claude, deploy it to Netlify or Vercel, and share the link. Matt says anything not published on your own domain is unlikely to rank as well in traditional search or AI answers and is harder to discover. A trusted URL is one of the signals the LLMs look for, alongside the content.
   _Why it matters:_ Teams producing a lot of AI-built content should publish it on their own domain or a subdomain of it, so every asset adds to their own search and answer-engine presence.
   _For:_ Marketing Leaders, RevOps Leaders, Founders

6. **Deploy platforms now sell domains in two clicks** — Vercel, Netlify, Replit and Lovable began by letting users connect a domain through several steps. They are now domain resellers: on Vercel you can search, buy and attach a domain to a project in two clicks. Selling domains isn't their core business, but they saw that their builders expect it and that not offering it is a point of friction.
   _Why it matters:_ There is now almost no friction between building something and publishing it on your own domain, so leaving AI-built assets on platform links is a choice rather than a constraint.
   _For:_ Founders, Marketing Leaders

7. **.com is not the only trust signal; consistency and fit matter more** — Most Fortune 500 companies still run their main site on .com, but one-word .coms have been taken for years and often cost millions. Matt says a one-word name with a meaningful extension can say what you do: leanscale.team describes LeanScale's model as an extension of a client's team, and .ai, technically Anguilla's country code, has become a signal that a company is AI-focused.
   _Why it matters:_ Choose the extension that fits your industry and use it consistently. Matt's view is that it isn't all about .com.
   _For:_ Founders, Marketing Leaders

8. **A short domain is the best bridge from offline to online** — Matt has seen wedding invitations with hundred-character URLs and a sign at the SeaTac airport parking garage whose call to action is a bit.ly link. QR codes help, but they show only the root domain, so a code that leads to Facebook shows only facebook.com. Amazon's get.on.aws campaign in the New York subway, he says, is still memorable years later.
   _Why it matters:_ Print, outdoor and event materials should carry a short, branded domain people can remember and trust, not a generic shortener.
   _For:_ Marketing Leaders

9. **Own the place your audience comes back to** — As long as you pay the registration fee, no one can take your domain away, and you control what's on it and how it is used for email. Matt contrasts that with X handles that have been taken away and Vine, which closed almost overnight and forced creators to rebuild their audiences elsewhere. He doesn't argue against using social platforms, since that is where the audience is, only for sending the call to action back to an address you own, even if it is just a link-in-bio page on something like a .bio domain.
   _Why it matters:_ Every platform presence should point back to an owned address, so the audience survives a lost account or a closed platform.
   _For:_ Marketing Leaders, Founders

10. **Premium names are worth more than ever, and a new TLD round arrives around 2028** — Each time apps or other shifts threatened domain values, the best names kept rising in value, and they now cost more in the aftermarket than ever. At the same time there are hundreds of extensions to choose from. ICANN's first new-TLD round since 2012 closed its application window in August, with a $227,000 application fee, and extensions such as .agent, which is expected to have several applicants and go to auction, should launch around 2028.
   _Why it matters:_ Brands should watch the new round. Trademark holders get a sunrise period to claim their names before general availability, and some companies may apply for their own brand TLD.
   _For:_ Founders, Marketing Leaders, Revenue Executives

11. **Identity Digital sells 270 products through other people's storefronts** — Matt compares the company to Procter & Gamble: hundreds of products on a limited number of shelves. It is almost entirely a channel business with more than 500 partners. One team runs programs with large registrars such as GoDaddy, Namecheap and Squarespace, and another builds new channels such as vibe-coding platforms, website builders, hosting companies and company-formation services such as LegalZoom.
   _Why it matters:_ For a channel-only business, merchandising at the partner's point of sale is the go-to-market. Matt's teams lead with the TLDs that have more built-in demand and run promotional programs for them.
   _For:_ Revenue Executives, Sales Leaders, Marketing Leaders

12. **Show the right name at the right time, because relevant names renew** — Matt doesn't expect GoDaddy to put .taxi or .plumbing on its homepage in place of .com. The goal is to surface the relevant extension in context: .ai for a tech search, .restaurant or .menu for food, .yoga or .studio for someone who has just built a yoga site. Partners want this too, because a name that matches what the customer built makes the whole offering stickier.
   _Why it matters:_ The business is recurring revenue at micro scale, $10 to $30 transactions repeated millions of times, so the aim is to sell names that renew, not just more names.
   _For:_ Revenue Executives, Marketing Leaders, RevOps Leaders

13. **AI runs pricing and recommendations; humans run relationships** — Domain search results at partners are now heavily AI-assisted. Identity Digital uses machine learning and AI to analyze first-year promotional pricing across 270 extensions and 500+ partners, a large number of cohorts, to find which are most price-elastic and which entry price maximizes lifetime value. It also automates CRM work and SDR tasks. Matt says this frees time for the relationship side, which matters more than ever.
   _Why it matters:_ Automate the analysis and the busy work, and put the freed time into the partner relationships that automation can't replace.
   _For:_ Revenue Executives, RevOps Leaders, Sales Leaders

14. **In-person is back because trust needs two humans** — During COVID the domain industry boomed and Matt wondered whether anyone would go back to events. It has come full circle: the team spends more time and money meeting partners face to face, has stopped cold calling, and plans to spend more on new partner and emerging industry events in 2027 than ever. Anthony adds that trust needs a human on each side who is on the hook for making it work.
   _Why it matters:_ With inboxes and LinkedIn flooded with automated messages, showing up in person is one of the few remaining ways to stand out with partners and buyers.
   _For:_ Revenue Executives, Sales Leaders, Marketing Leaders

15. **Agents are starting to choose and buy domains** — Matt says who buys domains, and how, has changed. People now ask agents in tools such as Claude Code or Copilot to recommend domains, or to go ahead and buy them. Why people buy has changed too: twenty years ago keyword domains mattered for type-in traffic, and now buying is brand-centric.
   _Why it matters:_ Domains, like other products, increasingly need to be discoverable and purchasable by agents acting for a buyer, not only by humans browsing a storefront.
   _For:_ Founders, Revenue Executives


## Frameworks

### The Trust Recession (04:26)

**Definition:** As AI-generated content becomes indistinguishable from human work, buyers trust less of what they see and move toward signals that are harder to fake and more authentic.

Matt says everyone has the same tools and Claude is writing much of the copy, so people gravitate to brands, communication styles and ads they can understand and trust. Anthony adds that the old markers of a real company, a well-designed website and deck, can now be generated in seconds. Owned domains and in-person relationships are the two responses the episode returns to.

### The Domain as Trust Anchor (05:44)

**Definition:** The domain is the one brand asset a business fully controls that connects its website, email and advertising, so it is the point where customers can check who they are dealing with.

Matt describes it as the call to action and the place you send people from ads and email. Using it consistently and showing it clearly builds trust. A Gmail address next to a company website, or links that hide their destination, leave room for phishing and scams such as toll-road texts.

### Rented Address vs. Owned Address (08:12)

**Definition:** Content published on a platform subdomain, social page or deploy link builds the platform's brand equity and search presence. Content on a domain you own builds yours and can't be taken away.

Matt lists Squarespace and Wix subdomains, Facebook pages and third-level domains, and Anthony adds Netlify and Vercel deploy links for AI-built assets. Anything not on your own domain is harder to find in SEO and AEO. Owning the address also protects against lost handles and closed platforms like Vine, as long as the registration fee is paid.

### The Offline-to-Online Bridge (12:28)

**Definition:** A short, concise, memorable domain is the best way to move someone from a physical touchpoint, such as a billboard, invitation or subway ad, to your site.

Matt contrasts a bit.ly link on a sign at SeaTac airport and hundred-character URLs on invitations with Amazon's get.on.aws subway campaign, which he still remembers. QR codes help but show only the root domain, so they don't tell people where they will end up.

### Right Name, Right Time (36:44)

**Definition:** With hundreds of extensions, a registry's channel job is to surface the relevant extension at the moment a buyer is making a related choice, not to compete with .com on the homepage.

Someone who has just built a yoga website on a partner's platform should see .yoga or .studio. Someone searching for an AI name should see .ai. Because a relevant name makes the partner's offering stickier and renews at a higher rate, the registry's and the partner's incentives line up.

### The Procter & Gamble of Domains (34:50)

**Definition:** A channel-only go-to-market for a large portfolio of products: hundreds of SKUs sold through a limited set of storefronts, where the work is merchandising, co-marketing and promotion at the partner's point of sale.

Identity Digital sells 270 extensions through more than 500 partners. One team runs programs with established registrars such as GoDaddy, Namecheap and Squarespace, and another opens new channels such as vibe-coding platforms, website builders, hosting and company-formation services. It leads with the extensions that have more built-in demand and runs promotional programs around them.

### Two Humans on Either Side (42:54)

**Definition:** Trust in a sales or partnership relationship requires a person on each side who is accountable for making it work. It can't be one human trusting an AI or a nameless entity.

Anthony states it after Matt describes his team's return to in-person events. Matt adds that the team has stopped cold calling, that inboxes are flooded with automated outreach, and that meeting even new partners at events is far more effective. He plans to spend more on events in 2027 than ever.


## Quotes

_Speakers inferred from an undiarized transcript — verify before attributing._

> "There's less busy work than ever. We have AI automating a lot of the things behind the scenes, interactions with CRM."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (02:14)

> "Domain names are one of those points that you can control where it is your brand. It is that sort of trust anchor where you establish a connection to your user."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (05:44)

> "Now you can vibe code that in two seconds. So some of those barriers aren't there anymore, but you can't fake a domain, right?"
>
> — Anthony Enrico, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (07:24)

> "I can vibe code a business over a weekend and you can take it to market in any number of ways, but a domain name, every domain name is unique and how you actually want to convey yourself is really attached to that name."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (07:58)

> "You might have part of your brand there, but you're really building brand equity for that other platform and it's not the actual domain name that you control."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (08:36)

> "I don't think it's all about com. It's about what industry you're in and being consistent."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (11:42)

> "People don't always make the connection that a short, concise, memorable domain name is often your best gateway to take someone from offline to online."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (13:15)

> "Publishing anything that's not on your own domain name, you're not going to necessarily rank as well. It's harder to be discovered."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (16:20)

> "That is really your first step of the go to market by publishing it on the web on a unique domain. This is not just something that I was coding over the weekend. I'm publishing it for the world to see."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (18:20)

> "The best domains, regardless of the extension, are worth more today than they've ever been."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (20:00)

> "Owning your own sort of sovereign digital identity has never been more important."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (21:44)

> "When you make a choice, you're almost stuck with it. You're making a pretty big commitment."
>
> — Anthony Enrico, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (29:53)

> "As long as you pay the registration fee, no one's ever going to take that domain away from you."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (30:45)

> "We're sort of the Procter and Gamble of domain names. We have hundreds, hundreds of products."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (34:50)

> "What we're trying to do at any of our partners with so many extensions is to show the right name at the right time."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (36:44)

> "Our model is a recurring revenue model at a micro scale, you know, 10 and 20 and $30 domain transactions at hundreds of thousands of times, millions of times."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (38:41)

> "The relationships matter now more than ever."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (40:47)

> "In order for that equation to balance out, it does have to be two humans on either side."
>
> — Anthony Enrico, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (42:54)

> "We're not cold calling. There was some of that years ago, but that doesn't happen, at least for us anymore."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (44:10)

> "We're going to spend more money in '27 on new partner events and emerging industry events than we ever have."
>
> — Matt Overman, The LeanScale Podcast Ep. 141 (44:36)


## Practical advice by role

### Founders

- Treat the domain as a long-term commitment. Check that the name is genuinely available and not just parked before you build a brand on it.
- If the one-word .com is out of reach, pick a one-word name with an extension that says what you do, then use it everywhere.
- Move projects off platform subdomains and deploy links as soon as they go to market. Publishing on your own domain is the first go-to-market step.
- Send email from the same domain as your website so prospects can tie the person to the company.
- If you hold trademarks, track the 2028 TLD round so you can claim your names during sunrise.

### Marketing Leaders

- Publish AI-built landing pages, blog posts and assets on your own domain rather than sharing Netlify or Vercel links, so each one builds your SEO and AEO presence.
- Replace bit.ly and other generic shorteners on billboards, print and event materials with a short branded domain people can remember.
- Remember that a QR code shows only the root domain. Make sure the destination is your own address, not a social platform's.
- Point every social profile back to an owned address, even a simple link-in-bio page on your own domain.
- Show your domain clearly and consistently in ads and outreach so customers can tell your messages from phishing.

### Revenue Executives

- Put the time AI frees from busy work into partner and customer relationships, which Matt says matter more than ever.
- Reconsider the events budget. Identity Digital stopped cold calling and is spending more on in-person partner and industry events than ever.
- In a channel business, merchandise at the partner's point of sale and surface the relevant product in context rather than competing for the homepage.
- Measure channel programs on renewal and retention, not just first-year volume.

### RevOps Leaders

- Use machine learning on promotional pricing data by product and partner cohort to find which products are most price-elastic and which entry price maximizes lifetime value.
- Automate CRM updates and SDR busy work so account managers spend more time with partners.
- Host internal tools and AI-built content on a company domain or subdomain rather than third-party deploy URLs.


## AI takeaways

**Thesis:** AI has made polished websites, decks and copy free to produce, which has created a trust recession. The assets that keep their value are the ones AI can't generate: an owned domain that ties site, email and advertising together, and human relationships. Meanwhile AI quietly runs the back office, from domain recommendations to pricing.

- **** — 
- **** — 
- **** — 
- **** — 
- **** — 
- **** — 

**Agent & automation ideas**

- A publishing agent that refuses to share AI-built pages on deploy-platform URLs and publishes them to a company subdomain instead.
- A domain-recommendation agent that suggests an extension relevant to what a customer has just built, such as .studio for a yoga site.
- A pricing-analysis agent that groups promotional price tests by product and partner and flags the most price-elastic cohorts.
- A brand-consistency checker that scans ads, print materials and email signatures for generic shorteners or mismatched domains.


## Operations takeaways

### Revenue operations

- **.** 
- **.** 
- **.** 
- **.** 

### Pipeline & marketing ops

- **.** 
- **.** 
- **.** 


## Metrics mentioned

| Value | Metric | Context |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 270 | TLDs operated by Identity Digital | Matt's figure for the extensions Identity Digital runs today. Anthony's intro gives roughly 300 TLDs and more than 28 million domains. |
| 500+ | Channel partners | Registrars, website builders, vibe-coding platforms, hosting and SaaS companies that sell Identity Digital's extensions. |
| $227,000 | New TLD application fee | What each applicant pays to apply for a new top-level domain in the current ICANN round, on top of financial and technical requirements. |
| 14 years | Gap between new TLD rounds | The last round closed in 2012. The current round's application window closed in August, with launches expected around early 2028. |
| $10–$30 | Typical domain transaction | Identity Digital's recurring revenue model at micro scale, repeated hundreds of thousands to millions of times. |
| 2 | Clicks to buy and attach a domain on Vercel | Matt's example of how deploy platforms have embedded domain registration. |
| 15–20 years | Matt's time in the domain industry | Matt says 15 to 20 years; the show notes say nearly two decades. |


## Entities mentioned

- **Identity Digital** (company) — Matt's employer, where he is Chief Revenue Officer. Runs the world's largest portfolio of top-level domains: 270 extensions by Matt's count (roughly 300 TLDs and more than 28 million domains in Anthony's intro), including .bio, .social and .restaurant, and it runs the technology for .ai. Almost entirely a channel business with more than 500 partners, it uses AI in its pricing engine and is spending more on in-person partner events than ever. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/company/identity-digital/
- **NameJet** (company) — Domain auction marketplace where Anthony notes Matt ran auctions. Per the show notes, Matt was its general manager and built it into the industry's premier auction marketplace. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/company/namejet/
- **ICANN** (company) — The body that governs internet names and numbers. Matt explains its new generic TLD rounds: the large 2011–2012 round that created extensions such as .team, .app and .online, and the first new round in 14 years, whose application window closed in August with a $227,000 application fee and launches expected around 2028. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/company/icann/
- **GoDaddy** (company) — One of the big domain registrars Identity Digital's channel team runs merchandising programs with. Matt doesn't expect GoDaddy to put niche extensions like .taxi or .plumbing on its homepage, only to surface them when they are relevant. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/company/godaddy/
- **Namecheap** (company) — Named with GoDaddy and Squarespace as one of the large registrars Identity Digital's channel team runs programs with. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/company/namecheap/
- **Netlify** (company) — Named by Anthony as a common place to deploy and share AI-built assets, which Matt says costs SEO and AEO visibility. Also one of the platforms that now sells domains and has become a distribution channel for Identity Digital. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/company/netlify/
- **Amazon** (company) — Matt's example of a brand TLD. Amazon worked through a long process, including with the people of the Amazon region in South America, to secure .amazon, and uses .aws heavily for internal systems. Its get.on.aws campaign covered the New York City subway. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/company/amazon/
- **LeanScale** (company) — Anthony's company, founded in 2021. Matt uses leanscale.team as an example of an extension that conveys the business model. Anthony tells how leanscale.com sat blank until two months after he chose .team, when its owners launched a site, which has caused confusion since. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/company/leanscale/
- **Matt Overman** (person, guest) — CRO of Identity Digital, the world's largest top-level domain portfolio; former GM of NameJet and a 2026 CRN Channel Chief. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/guest/matt-overman/
- **Anthony Enrico** (person, host) — Co-founder of LeanScale and host of The LeanScale Podcast. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/guest/anthony-enrico/
- **Vercel** (tool, Deployment / Hosting) — Deploy platform Anthony names for sharing AI-built assets. Matt says it is now a domain reseller and a distribution channel for Identity Digital: you can search, buy and attach a domain to a project in two clicks.
- **Replit** (tool, AI Dev Tool) — Named among the build platforms that now sell and configure domains natively and have become distribution channels for registries.
- **Lovable** (tool, AI App Builder) — Named among the vibe-coding platforms that now sell domains. Matt says builders don't want to share a random link to a Lovable project.
- **Squarespace** (tool, Website Builder) — Website builder whose yourname.squarespace.com addresses Matt cites as building the platform's brand equity rather than yours. Now also a domain registrar in Identity Digital's channel.
- **Claude** (tool, AI Assistant) — Matt notes Claude is doing much of the writing for many companies, part of why content is hard to tell apart. Anthony says everyone now builds pages and posts with Claude.
- **Claude Code** (tool, AI Dev Tool) — Transcribed as 'cloud code'. Matt names it, alongside Copilot, as a tool through which agents now recommend and buy domains, and as a place people generate files they then need to publish.
- **Bitly** (tool, Link Management) — The generic link shortener Matt sees as the call to action on a sign at the SeaTac airport parking garage and on wedding invitations, his example of a wasted offline-to-online moment.


## FAQ

**Q: Why does a domain name matter more in the AI era?**

A: Because AI has made most other credibility signals cheap. According to Matt Overman, CRO of Identity Digital, anyone can now vibe code a professional-looking website or copy another company's design in minutes, so polish no longer proves a business is real. A domain can't be generated: each one is unique, and it is the one point a business fully controls that ties its website, email and advertising together. Matt calls it a trust anchor. Using the same domain consistently lets customers confirm a message really comes from you, which matters more as AI-generated content and phishing scams make links harder to trust.

**Q: Does hosting content on Netlify, Vercel or a platform subdomain hurt SEO and AEO?**

A: Matt Overman says yes. Content published anywhere other than your own domain, such as a Netlify or Vercel deploy link, a yourname.squarespace.com or .wix.com address, or a Facebook page, is unlikely to rank as well in traditional search or in AI answer engines and is harder to discover. It also builds brand equity for the platform rather than for you. A trusted URL is one of the signals LLMs look for, alongside the content itself. Platforms such as Vercel now let you buy and attach a domain to a project in two clicks, so the fix is easy.

**Q: Is .com still the best domain extension for a startup?**

A: .com remains the best-known extension, and most Fortune 500 companies run their main site on one. But one-word .com names have been taken for years and often cost millions. Matt Overman of Identity Digital says it isn't all about .com: what matters is your industry and using the domain consistently. A one-word name with a meaningful extension can say what you do, such as leanscale.team, which reflects LeanScale working as an extension of a client's team, or .ai, which has become a trust signal for AI-focused companies even though it is technically Anguilla's country code.

**Q: When will new top-level domains like .agent become available?**

A: Around 2028. ICANN opened its first new generic TLD round since 2012. The application window closed in August 2026, and each application cost $227,000 plus financial and technical requirements. Where several companies apply for the same string, as is expected for .agent, the operator is chosen by auction. The winner then launches the extension, starting with a sunrise period in which trademark holders such as Nike or Apple can claim their names before general availability. Some brands may also apply for their own brand TLD, as Amazon did with .aws.

**Q: How does a domain registry like Identity Digital go to market?**

A: Almost entirely through channel partners. Matt Overman describes Identity Digital as the Procter & Gamble of domains: 270 extensions sold through a limited set of storefronts across more than 500 partners. One team runs programs with large registrars such as GoDaddy, Namecheap and Squarespace, and another builds new channels such as vibe-coding platforms, website builders, hosting and company-formation services. The goal is to show the right name at the right time, for example .yoga or .studio to someone who has just built a yoga site, because relevant names renew. It is a recurring revenue model at micro scale, with $10 to $30 transactions repeated millions of times.

**Q: Why are some sales leaders spending more on in-person events because of AI?**

A: Because automation has flooded the digital channels. Matt Overman says Identity Digital uses AI heavily behind the scenes, for CRM work, SDR tasks, search recommendations and pricing, but relationships with partners matter more than ever as a result. The team no longer cold calls, inboxes and LinkedIn are full of automated messages, and meeting people at events, even new partners, is far more effective. Identity Digital plans to spend more on new partner and emerging industry events in 2027 than it ever has. Host Anthony Enrico's view is that trust requires two humans on either side, each accountable for making the relationship work.

**Q: What is the best way to bridge offline marketing to a website?**

A: Use a short, concise, memorable domain you own. Matt Overman points to wedding invitations with hundred-character URLs and a sign at Seattle's SeaTac airport whose call to action is a bit.ly link as missed opportunities. QR codes help, but they show only the root domain, so a code leading to a Facebook page shows only facebook.com and doesn't tell people where they will land. A branded domain on a billboard, menu or subway ad is easier to remember, easier to trust and reinforces the brand each time someone sees it.


## Timeline

- **00:00** — Cold open + intro: Matt Overman, CRO of Identity Digital
- **01:39** — What's changed: AI, new channels and agents buying domains
- **04:26** — The trust recession
- **06:58** — You can vibe code a website. You can't fake a domain.
- **09:28** — Is .com still Park Avenue? .ai, .team and trust signals
- **12:08** — Red flags: bit.ly billboards and the offline-to-online bridge
- **15:06** — Shipping on Netlify and Vercel subdomains: the AEO cost
- **18:38** — Domain economics: premium names worth more than ever
- **20:49** — The next wave: .agent and the 2028 TLD round
- **29:05** — leanscale.team, and why you should own your own address
- **33:38** — The Procter & Gamble of domains: a channel-only GTM
- **38:57** — AI in the pricing engine, and why relationships matter more
- **42:14** — Two humans on either side: why in-person is back
- **45:52** — Wrap


## Related episodes

- **Ep. 56: Your Website Isn't Built for AI** (Kevin White (Scrunch AI)) — How AI answer engines read your site, the other half of Matt's point that content on your own trusted domain ranks better in AEO. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/podcast/kevin-white-website-built-for-ai/
- **Ep. 72: AI Search Is Changing Everything—Here’s the New Go-To-Market Playbook** (Mike Head (PartnerStack)) — The wider AI-search playbook behind Matt's warning about publishing on someone else's platform. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/podcast/mike-head-ai-search-playbook/
- **Ep. 126: The Agents Are the Easy Part** (Bastien Botella (Fountain)) — Another view of how to win in AEO, publishing quickly on real signals, to pair with Matt's view that where you publish matters.
- **Ep. 120: AI Made Outreach Worthless. Events Are What's Left** (Alex Reynolds (Vendelux)) — The case for events once automated outreach stops working, which matches Identity Digital's move away from cold calling toward in-person partner events.
- **Ep. 137: 90% of Reps Don't Prep: The LEGO Booth Playbook** (Shani Shoham (OpenObserve)) — How to make in-person events memorable, for teams following Matt's plan to spend more on events in 2027.
- **Ep. 33: Why AI Won't Save Your Bad Brand** (Mario Paganini) — Brand as the thing AI can't generate for you, the same argument Matt makes about the trust recession. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/podcast/mario-paganini-ai-wont-save-brand/
- **Ep. 53: AI vs. Human Connection: The Future of Sales & Marketing** (Khurram Kalimi (VinnCorp)) — Why human connection gains value as AI automates sales and marketing, echoing the episode's two-humans-on-either-side argument. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/podcast/khurram-kalimi-ai-human-connection/
- **Ep. 12: Are Partnerships a Complete Waste of Time?** (Tim White (Wealth.com)) — Partnerships as a go-to-market motion, set against Identity Digital's almost entirely channel-driven model. · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/podcast/tim-white-partnerships-waste-of-time/


## Full transcript

_Machine-transcribed and not diarized; speaker attribution is inferred._  
_Transcript only, as a separate file: https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/podcast/matt-overman-identity-digital-your-domain-is-your-credibility/transcript.md_

### 00:00 — Cold open + intro: Matt Overman, CRO of Identity Digital

**[0:00]** Domains have really discontinued to go up and to the right in terms of their value

**[0:04]** to a business. And because of that, that's driven the value in the aftermarket.

**[0:09]** My guest today is Matt Overman, Chief Revenue Officer at Identity Digital, the company behind

**[0:15]** the world's largest portfolio of top-level domains with roughly 300 TLDs and supporting more than

**[0:22]** 28 million domains. One of the topics that we brought up that I think is really relevant

**[0:30]** to almost anyone is what you've called the trust recession with the noise and the volume of AI

**[0:40]** generated everything. What do you think is happening there and how does that impact the

**[0:45]** domain world? AI has proliferated all aspects of our life and you mentioned a bit in the intro,

**[0:52]** but it's becoming indistinguishable often. You can literally just say, copy this website,

**[0:57]** make it look exactly like that, same aesthetic everything, and just put like this content in it.

**[1:02]** What you're trying to do that they trust you and you're building programs that are honestly

**[1:08]** win-win programs for them, showing up in person really does one life. I've been seeing that trend

**[1:14]** quite a bit with CROs, CMOs that I'm interviewing. The old school is the new school, in-person,

**[1:21]** personal connections, relationships. I think there's been so much saturation. I don't think

**[1:27]** it's all about comments about what industry you're in and being consistent.

### 01:39 — What's changed: AI, new channels and agents buying domains

**[1:39]** Matt, you've been in domains for almost 15 years running auctions at name jets, premium sales to

**[1:46]** a portfolio of 300 TLDs. What does the job look like today that would have been unrecognizable

**[1:53]** to you five years ago? Yeah, a lot. Anthony, first, thanks for having me. Excited to be here.

**[2:02]** A lot is different and it's really changed dramatically in the last few years more than

**[2:07]** anything. As with many, I think, that are on your podcast and just in sales in general,

**[2:14]** AI has really transformed many aspects of our business. There's less busy work

**[2:22]** than ever. We have AI automating a lot of the things behind the scenes, interactions with CRM.

**[2:28]** Many companies are using that for prospecting. We have a lot more time to focus on the relationship

**[2:34]** side of it. That strategy and relationship side matters more than ever. It always has,

**[2:39]** but we're spending more and more time on that. That's been a big unlock, I would say.

**[2:45]** The distribution channel that we have and go to market through is very different. Years ago,

**[2:52]** it was only through traditional registrars and hosting companies. That's where you would go to

**[2:58]** buy domains, where users buy domains today. It takes all shapes and sizes, vibe coding platforms,

**[3:04]** cloud hosting. There's new platforms launching every day, SaaS platforms, where domains are

**[3:09]** natively embedded into them. The go-to-market channels that we use and what we would consider

**[3:16]** a channel partner are very, very different. Even who buys domains and how they navigate them.

**[3:23]** We have agents now starting to go and make choices through prompts, through cloud code or

**[3:30]** co-pilot. People are asking their agents to go navigate and recommend domain choices to them or

**[3:37]** go actually take the step and buy them. It's not just humans buying it. It could be agents

**[3:42]** doing it on their behalf. Those were all very unforeseen many, many years ago. Even why people

**[3:50]** buy domains, fundamentally a big chunk of that people buy from an investment standpoint. When

**[3:57]** I started 20 years ago, you would buy domains from a type in traffic keyword domains really mattered.

**[4:05]** Flights.com, things that people would type in and expect to find results for that particular name.

**[4:11]** Now it's all about brand and the type of domains that people buy. It's very, very different. It's

**[4:18]** brand-centric. It's less about the type in traffic or the SEO or now AEO capabilities of that and

### 04:26 — The trust recession

**[4:26]** more about brand. Brand matters more than ever. One of the topics that we brought up that I

**[4:35]** think is really relevant to almost anyone is what you've called the trust recession with the noise

**[4:45]** and the volume of AI generated everything. What do you think is happening there and how does that

**[4:51]** impact the domain world too? Yeah, I think AI has proliferated all aspects of our life. You

**[5:01]** mentioned it a bit in the intro, but it's becoming indistinguishable often what is AI generated versus

**[5:07]** what is human generated. I think we're going to see increasingly a movement towards people

**[5:15]** gravitating towards things that are brands or communication styles or even ads that are a

**[5:23]** little bit more authentic where they can actually understand and trust what the offer is. When

**[5:31]** everyone has access to the same tools and the same, you know, Claude's doing a lot of the writing for

**[5:37]** many companies, how do you distinguish between what is real or what is more authentic and then

**[5:44]** taking it a step further to our industry, domain names are one of those points that you can control

**[5:52]** where it is your brand. It is that sort of trust anchor where you establish a connection to your

**[5:59]** user. It's the call to action. Ultimately, when you are sending people to your website, sending

**[6:05]** people to your digital identity in email, that's something that you control and people take it very

**[6:12]** seriously how you protect that. You know, obviously there's the whole doubt, the negative security

**[6:18]** side of it and how bad links and phishing and different sort of bad actors use that lack of

**[6:28]** trust I think that people have or the inability to distinguish rather to fool you into clicking

**[6:35]** on links and from our standpoint, like having like a very clear brand and using that, using the

**[6:41]** domain name clearly in your advertising and your materials and being consistent is really key in

**[6:48]** terms of building that trust. There's all sorts of scams that are run where, you know, you can't see

**[6:53]** what you're clicking on and people get fooled. The toll road scams I think are a really common one

### 06:58 — You can vibe code a website. You can't fake a domain.

**[6:58]** that people are aware of over the last year. Yeah, and I think what it used to be, so I started

**[7:06]** LeanScale in 2021 and something that was very important was to get a website that was designed

**[7:12]** really well. If I'm showing up with a deck or a PDF or anything, like we had to make an investment

**[7:19]** to make sure that things looked and felt professional. Like this company was real.

**[7:24]** Now you can vibe code that in two seconds and you can make it look, you can literally just say,

**[7:30]** copy this website, make it look exactly like that, same aesthetic everything and just put like

**[7:34]** this content in it. So some of those barriers aren't there anymore, but you can't fake a domain,

**[7:40]** right? You can't. I mean, there's a lot of different choice, but everyone has those

**[7:47]** sort of same tools in terms of being able to do that. As you mentioned, I over a weekend, I'm not

**[7:54]** technical. I've been on the commercial side, operational side for a long time, never an engineer,

**[7:58]** never in product. I can vibe code a business over a weekend and you can take it to market in any

**[8:05]** number of ways, but a domain name, every domain name is unique and how you actually want to

**[8:12]** convey yourself is really attached to that name. It never ceases to amaze me how many people will

**[8:22]** launch initially on a third level domain or someone else's brand or link to a Facebook page,

**[8:29]** or even if they're building a website, you know, in the early days with Squarespace or Wix using

**[8:36]** their name dot Squarespace dot com or dot Wix dot com where you're actually not,

**[8:41]** you might have part of your brand there, but you're really building brand equity

**[8:45]** for that other platform and it's not the actual domain name that you control. It's not tied to

**[8:50]** your email. It might be that's the site and then you're sending from a totally different email,

**[8:54]** a Gmail, and there's no consistency. It doesn't build trust when you're talking to someone from

**[9:00]** a Gmail address and you can't actually tie back that that person is associated with this website.

**[9:05]** So the domain name is really the the connective point where you can have your website sent on it.

**[9:11]** It can be tied to your email when you're driving traffic from an advertisement. It lands on that

**[9:16]** site. It's the way that the users that show up there can trust that it is who we thought it was,

**[9:22]** said it was, whether you're a big company, a small company. Yeah, so it's really central to

### 09:28 — Is .com still Park Avenue? .ai, .team and trust signals

**[9:28]** sort of all aspects of that. I'm curious your perspective. What part matters? Is it,

**[9:34]** hey, the dot com is still like the park avenue of domains or is it more important to be

**[9:42]** consistent and just have a brand that lives in the same place? In terms of building trust with

**[9:50]** your market, are there certain things that signal more trust than others? Yeah, it's a great question.

**[9:56]** I mean, certainly dot com is still the most well known and if you go to most of the fortune 500

**[10:04]** companies, you're going to find that their primary site lives on a dot com. But most

**[10:10]** companies that are starting out small businesses, they don't have the luxury of being able to go

**[10:15]** get a one word dot com. Those have been taken for a long time and they cost often millions of dollars

**[10:20]** and some will raise money and eventually do that. But what has transformed over the last 2015 to

**[10:28]** 20 years is there's an incredible amount of different naming choices and you can get the

**[10:34]** one word name that perfectly describes your brand name with something meaningful to the right of the

**[10:40]** dot that conveys either what you do, lean scale dot team. I mean, that is the business that you guys

**[10:46]** are in in terms of helping to go and work with companies and be part of their team and extension

**[10:53]** of their team. It conveys sort of an extension, your business model as an extension of their team.

**[11:00]** Dot AI is another one that has become incredibly popular. It is a trust signal or very much a

**[11:09]** both building trust that we are a legit AI focused company and tells you clearly what

**[11:16]** type of company it is. That is a domain. It's actually a country code. We run the technology

**[11:22]** for it. It's for the country of Anguilla. It is really blown up over the last couple of years

**[11:30]** with the emergence of AI. But it's absolutely a trust signal for companies in that space.

**[11:36]** There's many companies that gravitate to that over a dot com. They want to signify we are an AI

**[11:42]** company. I don't think it's all about com. It's about what industry you're in and being consistent.

**[11:50]** Having a shorter domain, there's a lot of different types of domains. A domain that

**[11:55]** fits whether you're an individual or a business that fits your personality. There's a lot of

**[12:01]** creativity that comes, but it really comes back to that brand consistency. You mentioned a few

### 12:08 — Red flags: bit.ly billboards and the offline-to-online bridge

**[12:08]** earlier, and that's super helpful of hey, here's some things to do. You have some options. Are

**[12:13]** there any major red flags that might not be as obvious to people when they're thinking about

**[12:21]** the domain to choose or how they're leveraging their domain? In terms of red flags, I think it's

**[12:28]** more like when you have a domain, how you put it out in the wild, or when you choose not to.

**[12:37]** Certainly one of the things that we've seen, and I know that you've probably experienced this as

**[12:42]** well, many individuals, small businesses, events, brands have a hard time making that offline to

**[12:50]** online connection. I've received wedding invitations or seen out-of-home advertising where there's a

**[12:59]** bit.ly link, or there's a the not forward slash a bunch of stuff forward slash the wedding name,

**[13:07]** and it might be a hundred character URL, and it's on a piece of paper, and I'm expected to

**[13:15]** type that in and somehow get it right to get to the site. People don't always make the connection

**[13:21]** that a short, concise, memorable domain name is often your best gateway to take someone

**[13:28]** from offline to online. Imagine on a billboard, or I always drive by them in the Seattle area,

**[13:35]** I drive by the sign as I'm leaving the parking garage at SeaTac and it's the airport, and it's

**[13:40]** this bit.ly link is the call to action. If you have any questions or comments here,

**[13:44]** go to bit.ly forward slash a bunch of stuff. That's just a generic short link. I'm supposed

**[13:51]** to remember that as the place that I'm driving by here. It's the offline to online bridge. Certainly

**[13:58]** QR codes play a role in that, but that requires you to put your phone up and scan it, and as you

**[14:04]** actually scan the QR code, you can only see sort of the root domain, and if it's going to a Facebook

**[14:09]** page, you're only going to see facebook.com. That doesn't tell you where you're actually going to end

**[14:13]** up, so that doesn't build trust in terms of I want to click on this and go forward. If you're sitting

**[14:21]** and looking at a restaurant menu, maybe you can trust that they're putting the right one here

**[14:24]** because I'm about to go on, but if it's just out in the wild, how do you actually know where you're

**[14:29]** going to end up? So being really consistent and purposeful about how you present your brand and

**[14:34]** make it easy for users to see it, to know what they're clicking on, and to again use that sort

**[14:41]** of branding opportunity as someone's seen the domain name and clicking on it to re-establish,

**[14:47]** build consistency there. I think it's critical. That is absolutely hilarious that there is a

**[14:54]** billboard with a bitly link on it. Next time in Seattle, I'm going to be looking out for that

**[14:58]** because I can't believe that. If you pay attention to it, it happens far more often than you would

### 15:06 — Shipping on Netlify and Vercel subdomains: the AEO cost

**[15:06]** believe, far more often than not. One thing that I've been seeing quite a bit recently,

**[15:14]** I've fallen a little bit victim to this too, so everybody's powered with Claude now. It's

**[15:20]** pretty easy to build web pages, landing pages, blog posts, and anything. You can build things

**[15:26]** really, really quickly. One of the most popular ways to share them is to deploy it on Netlify

**[15:33]** or Vercel. You take the asset, deploy it there, and go share it with people. What I think

**[15:39]** people really miss is if you're doing that, you're really compromising quite a bit of your

**[15:47]** AEO and SEO when you're sending so many assets and materials out that way.

**[15:54]** Can you share the magnitude of how detrimental that could be?

**[16:00]** Essentially, in terms of going to market on just a third-party platform as opposed to putting it out.

**[16:08]** Yeah, if you're sending materials out, yeah, exactly.

**[16:12]** Yeah, I think you hit it right there just in terms of your ability to be found in search,

**[16:20]** whether it's AEO or traditional SEO, publishing anything that's not on your own domain name,

**[16:28]** you're not going to necessarily rank as well. It's harder to be discovered.

**[16:34]** From that trust standpoint, being able to put it on a domain name, "This is my business. This

**[16:39]** is where my content lives," and have that be one of the signals that the LLMs are looking for,

**[16:47]** all sorts of stuff. A trusted URL is a component of it. Obviously, the content matters as well.

**[16:55]** What we're seeing within that, companies, you mentioned a few, Netlify, Vercel,

**[17:01]** Replit, Lovable, those are a lot of the platforms that I talked about in the beginning that have

**[17:07]** sort of come closer to our industry. Those are distribution channels for us now. When they

**[17:13]** started a handful of years ago, they allowed through a few different steps that you could

**[17:17]** connect a domain to it. Currently, they are actual domain resellers. They make it very easy.

**[17:24]** Some of the easiest ways to buy a domain actually in our industry are now through two clicks. You

**[17:28]** can go to Vercel, rapid search, buy a domain, two clicks, attach it to your project and you're

**[17:34]** published. They recognized on their end that their customers want that and that they don't need to

**[17:40]** necessarily monetize domain names to a meaningful degree. It's sort of an adjacent product. That's

**[17:46]** not their core business is selling domains, but allowing their builders to publish their projects,

**[17:53]** their apps, their sites in a really easy and clean way on their own domains is just a value add. It's

**[17:59]** a point of friction to not allow that. They've just embedded natively embedded domain registration

**[18:07]** and all the bells and whistles with that into their platforms. Seeing that customers expect that now,

**[18:13]** they don't want to go out and just share a random link on a lovable project or share a file that

**[18:20]** they generate in Cloud Code, putting it up and actually having it out. That is really your first

**[18:27]** step of the go to market by publishing it on the web on a unique domain. This is not just something

**[18:33]** that I was coding over the weekend. I'm publishing it for the world to see. It is that first step in

### 18:38 — Domain economics: premium names worth more than ever

**[18:38]** terms of building credibility on the conversation we already had. Are you seeing the economics of

**[18:45]** domains changing a little bit? I'm guessing, I'm assuming because there's so much more volume,

**[18:52]** people are building more, snagging up domains more. Is it making them more expensive for the good ones

**[18:59]** or because there's more accessibility and more diversity? Is it easier to get domains? What are

**[19:05]** you seeing in the marketplace of domains? Yeah, it's a great question. I think for

**[19:11]** the more premium domains and whether that is in dot com and the one word dot coms or other

**[19:17]** extensions like AI we mentioned and actually within any TLD, I can give some examples where

**[19:22]** they're really semantically relevant. The better names are more valuable now than they've ever

**[19:28]** been. There's been times throughout the history of the industry, I think the history of the industry,

**[19:33]** since I've been involved, which is 15, 20 years now, where domains where the sentiment in the

**[19:39]** market or speculation was, you know, is something going to disrupt the value of domain names when

**[19:45]** apps were launched? Is this going to take people away? Are they not going to go to websites? Is

**[19:50]** it going to devalue? And domains have really discontinued to go up and to the right in terms

**[19:54]** of their value to a business. And because of that, that's driven the value in the aftermarket,

**[20:00]** the pricing in the aftermarket. You know, the best domains, regardless of the extension,

**[20:06]** are worth more today than they've ever they've ever been. So that makes it that makes it harder

**[20:13]** to go out and get the most premium domains, but there's also more choice than ever at the same

**[20:18]** time. There's hundreds of extensions. If you don't want to pay for a one word dot com or a one word

**[20:24]** dot AI or some of the more expensive ones, you can find a top level domain that has a little bit less

**[20:30]** demand that's relevant to your industry and still get a really, you know, clear keyword that then

**[20:38]** adds, you know, to the right of the dot, some specificity about the industry you're in and not

**[20:43]** necessarily pay an arm and a leg for that. So there's more choice right now. And actually,

### 20:49 — The next wave: .agent and the 2028 TLD round

**[20:49]** we're about to embark on sort of the next wave of naming within the Internet. There's a whole

**[20:55]** another wave of top level domains that are going to enter the market. The process is running right

**[21:00]** now and they'll enter the market late twenty seven twenty eight. So top level domains that don't

**[21:05]** exist today will exist in the next couple of years. Ones like agent is one that a lot of people have

**[21:12]** have talked about or some of the Web three tlds dot BTC terms that weren't quite as popular and

**[21:20]** didn't get created back in 2011 during the last round will come to market, you know, circa

**[21:27]** twenty twenty eight. And so there'll be even more availability for people, more more choice, you

**[21:32]** know, to be able to find the domain that aligns with your industry, with your market, the most

**[21:37]** valuable names in any of those given namespaces and will continue to go up in value, you know,

**[21:44]** owning your own sort of sovereign digital identity has never been more important.

**[21:49]** I'm not super familiar with how that process works. Could you walk me and the audience through

**[21:59]** how do those get decided on? So how did I maybe take it for granted? I didn't know when dot team

**[22:05]** became available or dot AI. But what's the process of those coming into the market, getting approved,

**[22:13]** being available? What does it look like? Well, dot AI just to hit on one of the categories, any two

**[22:21]** character top level domain is a country code top level domain. And so every two character one that

**[22:27]** you see out in the in the world is attached to a country. Dot AI is for Anguilla. TV is associated

**[22:36]** with Tuvalu. You have dot DE is for Germany. UK is for UK. Some of them are very geographic specific

**[22:44]** where they're used by registrants in that country. And some of them have been essentially rebranded

**[22:52]** either purposefully or organically to be a more generic term. dot CO, it's the Colombian

**[22:58]** extension, but it's used as some order.com. It's kind of a generic domain. Certainly people in

**[23:04]** Colombia buy and register and utilize dot CO names, but people around the world do as well. Same with

**[23:11]** that AI. And so those are all governed where there's they're just assigned to that particular

**[23:16]** country. And they're administered by that country. Anything that is three characters or more

**[23:21]** has been, you know, a few exceptions like dot gov and dot edu. And some of the more restricted one

**[23:28]** are generic top level domains. And they go back to the really to the mid 80s with com and net being

**[23:34]** the first two. And there's been some that have been released in the early 2000s. Dot travel was

**[23:40]** an earlier one. And then the first large round were the governing organization for numbers and

**[23:48]** names. An organization called ICANN released around were many more, hundreds more of open generic top

**[23:56]** level domains and brand top level domains were brought to market in around 2011, 2012. And that's

**[24:03]** when the likes of dot team and dot live and dot life dot app dot online dot XYZ. Many that you

**[24:11]** would see in the market today were all created back then this next round. So that was into that

**[24:18]** closed in 2012. And it's taken 14 years to reopen another round where where companies could go

**[24:26]** through all the steps to apply for new top level domains. So that process has been running for the

**[24:31]** last year. Application window closed in August of this year. And really in the next couple months,

**[24:37]** we're going to figure out who ended up applying for what and which ones had multiple companies

**[24:44]** that have thrown their applications in foreign applications are both financial applications and

**[24:51]** heavy technological tech requirements to be able to operate them. And so that's all going to play

**[24:56]** out over the next couple months. And we'll start seeing some of those domains launch in early 28,

**[25:02]** I think is the approximate timeline. So it's an exciting time in our industry.

**[25:09]** How do you buy them? Is it a lottery system? Like how do you go buy up the Apple dot agent,

**[25:14]** Nike dot agent? How does that process work of who gets to buy them? There will be a company

**[25:22]** that ends up getting awarded dot agent. And in all likelihood, that will be that will go to auction.

**[25:29]** So to actually run the namespace for dot agent and administer all the whole, you know, any

**[25:37]** something dot agent, there's a company that will operate that that's what our company runs 270 of

**[25:42]** those today will run more in the future, but there will be a number of companies that throw their

**[25:48]** hat in the ring and spent $227,000 to apply and qualified through through all the application

**[25:57]** process. And if there are multiple applicants, which for dot agent that's expected to be one

**[26:01]** with multiple applicants, it's been one of the ones that have been talked about quite a bit in

**[26:06]** our industry. If there are multiple applicants, then they will end up ultimately in an auction.

**[26:11]** And the highest bidder will pay to operate that namespace. And so whoever ends up winning that

**[26:19]** and administering it will then bring it to market at some point, 2028 or later, depending on how

**[26:24]** long that takes, and we'll release it where you and I and anyone else can go buy whatever name dot

**[26:32]** agent. Now you gave some examples like Apple dot agent Nike dot agent. There are all of these as

**[26:39]** they go to market, the hundreds that will get released will run through a variety of launch

**[26:45]** phases. One of those phases is called the sunrise period that's protected for trademark holders.

**[26:51]** So the likes of Nike and Apple and any any major brands that have trademarks have the ability to

**[26:56]** go claim their names in a period prior to the general availability. You know, the idea is that

**[27:03]** brands can protect their brand names, and it's not for for you and I to go grab their names and do

**[27:10]** nefarious things with them. You know, they we want the brands to ultimately own their names and to

**[27:15]** use them. Some of those companies will not just go out and buy names in a generic namespace like a dot

**[27:20]** agent, but they might apply for their own. In the last round, we had many companies apply for their

**[27:26]** own brand names. And if you think about that as sort of like that, that trust anchor, Amazon was

**[27:32]** one they they had to jump through a lot of hoops to get that Amazon and work with the people of the

**[27:39]** Amazon region in South America to sort of unlock the ability. But Amazon is one that they use

**[27:45]** heavily. They have that AWS as well. And we don't you and I don't see a lot of that that doesn't make

**[27:51]** it out into the to their sort of customer facing advertising or products, but they use it heavily

**[27:57]** in terms of like their own internal systems. And so from like a trust standpoint, a trusted link,

**[28:03]** you know, if there is a domain that you see that is on a dot AWS,

**[28:07]** you are certain that it's legitimate. And it's been administered by the team at Amazon. And it's

**[28:14]** largely for internal, although they did run a campaign, I think it was get on if I remember

**[28:19]** correctly get on dot AWS, and they blanketed the entire New York City subway system with sort of

**[28:26]** advertising wrappers down in the subways of its get on AWS. So you see them occasionally the brand

**[28:31]** TLDs that are used in the wild like that. That sounds like it'd be a lot more effective than

**[28:36]** a bitly link on your subway campaign. Yeah, it was more than five years ago. And I still I think I

**[28:44]** have the domain right get on AWS. But yeah, it was memorable and easier to type in and bitly.

**[28:50]** What was it? Yeah, well, it's a fascinating process. And I think it's something that

**[28:58]** you know, it dictates quite a bit of business owners, people going to market for the first time.

### 29:05 — leanscale.team, and why you should own your own address

**[29:05]** I definitely I can share my story, I knew I wanted to name the company lean scale.

**[29:12]** So then immediately then I go to look for domains. lean scale.com was taken, but nobody was doing

**[29:19]** anything with it. So the website was, there was nothing there was just a blank page. And I was

**[29:24]** like, Okay, let me look around at different ones. And then I dot team was recommended. I thought,

**[29:28]** Hey, that just like you mentioned, that's reflective of what we do how we do it.

**[29:33]** Unfortunately, two months after that, then the lean scale.com folks launched a website. And then

**[29:39]** it's been a very confusing thing ever since I've reached out to them directly to try to buy their

**[29:42]** domain and everything. Anyway, so it's like this impacts your ability to go to market so much. And

**[29:53]** when you make a choice, you're almost here stuck with it. But you're making a pretty big commitment.

**[30:00]** You are. And I think like, it's not uncommon, you're not the only business that has the same

**[30:05]** name as another, as another company. I mean, there's, there's really big notable examples,

**[30:11]** and how many how many brands are named united in some capacity, and there's only one united,

**[30:16]** united.com, you take different permutations. And, and I don't think it's as much that there's one

**[30:22]** right answer in terms of how you need to name, there's different extensions that resonate,

**[30:26]** but it's the it's the consistency and actually driving that call to action, ultimately back to

**[30:33]** your domain name and a place that you control. This is something we talk about.

**[30:37]** That's not really a, it's not just an identity digital driven message, but just for our industry,

**[30:45]** really, the power of actually owning your own space, where as long as you pay the registration fee,

**[30:51]** no one's ever going to take that domain away from you, you own the content that's on it,

**[30:57]** the permissions of how you want to allow how you want to use it for email, what you want to host on

**[31:02]** it can't be taken away. We've seen examples in recent times, whether it's X handles that have

**[31:10]** mysteriously been taken away, or platforms that shut down, if I'm going to date myself and go

**[31:18]** back over 10 years to vine major short form video creator platform closed almost overnight. And all

**[31:25]** of those major early days vine creators had to port their audience that they built up on that platform

**[31:31]** had to pivot to another one, if that's all you're doing is trying to attract customers at a third

**[31:37]** party platform. I'm not saying you don't use that that's where the demand is that's where the

**[31:42]** audience is you have to go be on the various platforms. But it always boggles my mind when

**[31:48]** those users aren't ultimately trying to drive a call to action back to a space, a website that

**[31:56]** they own a domain name, ultimately that they own, where it doesn't matter, you might change what

**[32:03]** you want to put on that you might want to just redirect it somewhere. But it's a it's a, it is

**[32:08]** that call to action that you will, again, as long as you pay your registration fee will forever own,

**[32:14]** and no one's going to take away from from you. And it might be your primary website, it might be

**[32:19]** your foundation site, it might be that it's an aggregator, right? Lincoln bio platforms have

**[32:25]** become a thing, not just because Instagram only allowed one link in the bio, but that notion of

**[32:30]** actually aggregating all of the things that you want to share with people in one place, your link

**[32:36]** tree, there's tons of the platforms now, many of which have custom domains integrated into it.

**[32:42]** So we run dot bio and dot social, there's others like dot link, but it's not uncommon for someone

**[32:47]** to have, you know, you might have Anthony dot bio, and that's your call that you have a link to your

**[32:52]** Twitter page to your to lean scale dot team there to the, you know, latest funny video that you

**[32:58]** created your all your podcast archives, you can put it all in one place. And you're sharing that

**[33:03]** out as opposed to find me on these 19 different platforms. And here's all the the icons and they

**[33:10]** come and go or you get one of them hacked, and you lose it. And so that it's just back to that

**[33:16]** consistency and sharing that one sort of that one link that can be the central point can be trusted.

**[33:24]** Well, I think there's not I think I'm certain there's a huge under appreciation for the system

**[33:31]** that's in place. And also just the governance of this, so you can have a place that you own,

### 33:38 — The Procter & Gamble of domains: a channel-only GTM

**[33:38]** it's consistent. I think a lot of businesses take it for granted. I I'd like to get into a little

**[33:47]** bit what the go to market looks like for ID, how you have hundreds and hundreds of partners,

**[33:56]** I'm assuming channel partners are a big part of the go to market motion. But how are you going to

**[34:01]** market? Are you waiting for these big events where they're launching new things? Is that a big part

**[34:06]** of the strategy? How does it look like to go to market Friday? It's it's a great question. And

**[34:13]** I would say it's unique. We're unique in our industry for now, notwithstanding all the new

**[34:19]** extensions I just mentioned that are going to come out were the by far the largest portfolio applicant

**[34:25]** in that we run hundreds of these. And so that presents a lot of really fun and interesting

**[34:33]** opportunities for how you go to market and a lot of challenges, too. We have essentially 270

**[34:39]** different products that we're trying to sell at a limited number of storefronts. And those storefronts

**[34:46]** are expanding. There's there's new distribution points. But we still have a lot of different

**[34:50]** products. We're kind of to use an analogy to consumer. We're sort of the proctor and gamble

**[34:57]** of domain names. We have we have hundreds, hundreds of products. And, you know, at Walmart or a big

**[35:02]** store, how do we figure out how to how to merchandise them and which ones to run co-marketing

**[35:08]** with? It's it's we're never short on creative things that we can do. My teams run all the all

**[35:15]** the partnerships. We are almost entirely a channel, a channel go to market play. We have over 500

**[35:22]** partners. Many of them are existing partners. So we have a whole channel team that's running

**[35:26]** programs with those big notable domain registrars like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace is a

**[35:34]** registrar now. And how can we merchandise our products at the point of sale there? And then

**[35:39]** a whole other team handling new partnerships and sort of the expanding channel and expanding

**[35:46]** landscape for domain distribution, the vercells of the world that we talked about. Our channel is

**[35:52]** getting quite broad now where you might go to find some form of web presence. More often than not,

**[36:00]** you're going to have a domain name offering at the very least a simple way to connect a domain.

**[36:05]** But now more often than not, the ability to buy and easily configure one too. So all of the website

**[36:10]** builders, vibe coding platforms hosting increasingly even registration company and corporation companies,

**[36:18]** you know, a legal zoom, a Zen business, you're setting up an LLC, you can also set up a website

**[36:23]** and buy a domain. So what distribution looks like today is very, very different than what it did

**[36:30]** before. I would say just to kind of put a pin in your question, we lead with certain TLDs that have

**[36:36]** maybe a little bit more inherent demand. And so we have programs and promotional programs that

**[36:44]** incentivize the sale of some of those. But ultimately, what we're trying to do at any

**[36:50]** of our partners with so many extensions is to show the right name at the right time.

**[36:56]** I'm not expecting that GoDaddy is going to plaster on their homepage.taxi or.plumbing or even.team

**[37:05]** in place of .com. But if someone is coming and they're looking for something that is relevant

**[37:11]** to one of those searches, and they're looking for something and they type in AI. AI should be

**[37:16]** shown or other tech related TLDs or they're searching for something food related. There

**[37:23]** are TLDs, I mean, we run .restaurant, other companies have .bar, you know, there's food and

**[37:28]** beverage related ones, .menu. And so how you serve the name at the right time based on a platform,

**[37:37]** you know, their domain search or their product search and how you bundle it with the other

**[37:43]** products. I mean, we sell through many partners now where the core offering is not a domain name.

**[37:49]** Someone is there because they're building an app or they're buying a website and they're adding a

**[37:53]** domain, not as the first step, but later on in the process. And so if someone has just built a

**[38:00]** yoga website, you better believe we want .yoga or .studio or something akin to that to be one of the

**[38:09]** offerings. You know, our incentives are aligned with our partners there. They want to find a

**[38:14]** relevant name that's very associated with the product that their customer has just self-selected.

**[38:21]** And if they can find a really good name that matches their studio name .studio,

**[38:26]** they're ultimately going to get a stickier overall offering and a higher retention rate. And

**[38:31]** that's really the name of the game for us. We're trying to find ways that not just we can sell a

**[38:36]** bunch of domains, but we can sell high value ones that are going to renew, that are going to retain.

**[38:41]** Our model is a recurring revenue model at a micro scale, you know, 10 and 20 and $30 domain

**[38:49]** transactions at hundreds of thousands of times, millions of times. That's how it works.

### 38:57 — AI in the pricing engine, and why relationships matter more

**[38:57]** Has AI played a big role in helping that matching process recommendation engine?

**[39:03]** Are there other areas you're leveraging AI as well, both on product and go to market?

**[39:08]** Absolutely. And not just us, but our partners as well. I mean, the way that products are served up

**[39:16]** and those search results are heavily influenced by AI recommendations now. So how you would go to

**[39:23]** any of the partners I've just mentioned and search for a product or a name, it's heavily AI

**[39:27]** assisted now. Sometimes you can choose a legacy search or an AI driven one, but it's always

**[39:34]** working behind the scenes to some degree. How we price names, I mean, our whole pricing engine,

**[39:39]** we have 270 extensions, like I mentioned, with many price points that we've tested in terms

**[39:46]** of first year promotional pricing across each of these, across 500 or more partners, you get down

**[39:52]** to, that's many unique cohorts. And so we're heavily leveraging machine learning and AI to

**[40:02]** analyze all the data, ultimately trying to figure out the ones that are the most price elastic and

**[40:06]** what the perfect entry point is to maximize the lifetime value. So all of our pricing engines,

**[40:15]** in terms of go to market and how we design programs and content and logo, I mean,

**[40:20]** AI certainly plays a major role. And on the sales side, I mean, I started, I think our conversation

**[40:27]** a while ago, we've automated a lot behind the scenes and we do from an SDR standpoint as well,

**[40:34]** but increasingly are really leaning into the human side of it. I mean, from a partner standpoint,

**[40:42]** many of these partners are ones that we've done business with for a really long time. They're not

**[40:47]** new partners. The relationships matter now more than ever. And if we and every other business in

**[40:55]** our industries using AI heavily behind the scenes or more of the content is kind of going AI, like

**[41:01]** who you are and how you show up and the trust side, not just from the domain names, but on

**[41:06]** the relationships that we've built over time matter more than ever. And so we really place an

**[41:12]** emphasis on that with all of our account managers showing up in person, you know, there was a world

**[41:20]** when COVID hit where some of us for like our whole industry is booming. People are sitting at home

**[41:25]** building websites, buying domains. Are we ever going to go back to the office? Will I ever see

**[41:28]** you at an event again? I might just live in my basement and sell more domains than ever for the

**[41:33]** rest. And that is, that has come full circle back to, we spend more time and money going to events,

**[41:41]** whether it's new partner events or our industry events to go meet our partners face to face.

**[41:45]** It's more critical than ever in this, you know, AI slop is a common term, but it's just in that

**[41:52]** trust building. We have to make sure those relationships, they know who we are and that

**[41:57]** we present ourselves, um, you know, authentic authenticity, sort of a, of an overused term,

**[42:04]** but I mean, it really, it really matters that your partners know who you are and what you're

**[42:09]** trying to do, that they, they trust you and you're building programs that are, that are honestly win,

### 42:14 — Two humans on either side: why in-person is back

**[42:14]** win programs for them showing up in person really goes a long ways. I've been seeing that trend

**[42:21]** quite a bit with CROs, CMOs that I'm interviewing where the old school is the new school in person,

**[42:29]** personal connections, relationships. I think there's been so much saturation in a lot of the

**[42:35]** digital channels that people really don't know how to sift through the noise and pick up the signals

**[42:42]** that are really relevant. Everybody's inbox in LinkedIn has been completely obliterated with

**[42:48]** automated messaging. So it's very, very difficult to stand out there. And one of the biggest

**[42:54]** competitive advantages is getting in person again. And I think the, the word you're using trust

**[43:02]** in order for that equation to balance out, it does have to be two humans on either side.

**[43:07]** So I can't just be one human on one side and then trust the AI to do something. I need to know

**[43:14]** somebody's on the hook for making this a success and making this work. It can't be a nameless

**[43:21]** entity for me to have trust. So I think when it comes to the function of sales, the function of

**[43:27]** BD partnership development, it's not even possible if you don't have humans on the other side.

**[43:35]** I agree. I mean, when, when was the last time, I mean, I, I'll, I'll respond occasionally or

**[43:43]** look at the email, the amount of emails we get and LinkedIn messages. Certainly always curious

**[43:48]** how people are selling and what products could help us do a better job on our end. But you're

**[43:54]** not, I assume when was last time you intentionally answered a phone number that you didn't recognize

**[44:02]** or, or certainly one that's labeled spam call. I mean, that just how you, how you go to market is

**[44:10]** very different. We're not cold calling. There was some of that years ago, but that doesn't happen.

**[44:17]** At least, at least for us anymore, you know, we're, we have to be very thoughtful about how we come

**[44:22]** across in a trustworthy way in terms of online communication. And if we can meet people at events,

**[44:28]** even new partners, that is by far a more impactful way. I think you had someone on recently that

**[44:36]** talked about the power of events now. And I agree completely. Like we're going to spend more money

**[44:40]** in 27 on new partner events than sort of emerging industry events than we ever have.

**[44:48]** I think it's the channel that's producing the most. And then everything else is for them to go

**[44:54]** learn more about your brand after they've met you. So any, any thing that you have as a digital

**[45:00]** presence is really for them to kind of go down the rabbit hole in your brand and learn more.

**[45:05]** And I just think that's, that's going to be one of the few channels that continues to have a

**[45:12]** consistent return. You may get a few hacks here and there, but I mean, to your point,

**[45:19]** I have an EA that sifts through all my emails, only tags the important ones.

**[45:25]** She's not tagging a single one that is a random automated outreach and she controls my LinkedIn

**[45:31]** inbox as well. So even those are sifted through and tagged to where I never even see them. And

**[45:38]** then on my phone, I have them go to auto voicemail if I don't have the number saved in my phone.

**[45:42]** So only like people I know can really get through. Otherwise, I mean, it's not even manageable to

### 45:52 — Wrap

**[45:52]** get through your day. Yep. Matt, I really appreciate everything you shared on the podcast. I think it's

**[46:01]** really, really eyeopening to understand how important your domain is. And there's all of

**[46:07]** these new ways that people are creating assets, materials, artifacts that are really pointing

**[46:13]** their market somewhere that isn't your domain. And it really is one of the last consistent

**[46:19]** ways to build trust in the market. And I think as you mentioned, having that consistency where they

**[46:26]** can see your brand, they can see your name, and then pointing people there is going to be really,

**[46:29]** really important. And I also appreciate your perspective on how to build trust in the market

**[46:34]** right now, because there really is, as you put it, a trust recession that's happening with the

**[46:41]** expansion of AI content, AI driven automation, and anything you can do to help build trust and

**[46:48]** credibility is going to go a really, really long way. So Matt, I really appreciate you being on

**[46:53]** the show. And I can't wait to see what you all do next. And I can't wait to maybe apply for my dot

**[47:00]** agent domain in the future. It's an exciting time in our space. So certainly happy to follow up and

**[47:07]** point you to some of the info as that comes out as the future becomes a little bit more clear,

**[47:13]** and we figure out who's running what. I'll send over some of that info. Amazing. Thank you.

**[47:21]** All right. Thanks, Anthony.


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_LeanScale Knowledge Hub. Free to quote and cite with attribution to The LeanScale Podcast (https://www.leanscale.team)._