Grit Discusses Domain Acquisition of Alively.com w/ CEO - Andrew McConnell

In this episode, Grit Brokerage discusses helping Alively acquire the domain Alively.com with co-Founder and CEO Andrew McConnell. He shares about the mission behind Alively, how they determined the name, the process to acquire it, and the profound impact having this domain has had on their business. Enjoy!

Brian Harbin: All right, well, welcome to today's episode of the Grit.org podcast. I'm your host Brian Harbin here today with Maureen Sullivan and super excited about our guest Andrew McConnell. So I want to give you guys a bit of background on him here in a second but I want to give a shout out to our sponsor today, Escrow.com the most trusted online escrow service in the world and we use it for all of our domain transactions and really the domain name says it all. Just ultimate credibility and trust with escrow.com so but today excited about Andrew McConnell.

We're here to talk about the nitty gritty and kind of their domain acquisition. And so a little bit of background on Andrew McConnell. Just found out he actually graduated high school just down the road from where I am at Bowles here in Jacksonville University. I'm sorry in Jacksonville, went to Harvard undergrad and has law degree from Harvard Law and Cambridge Law. Also did swimming and water polo at Cambridge, was the founder and and CEO of Vacation Futures which then became rented and then they exited that company and then is an advisor for many companies and then recently co-founded Alively which is the company we're here to talk about today. So he's in Atlanta, my hometown. So, Andrew, excited for you to be on the call today!

Andrew McConnell: Yeah, excited to be here. Thank you for having me! It's funny. You're where I'm from, I'm where you're from, and yeah, you mix it all up.

Brian Harbin: Yes. Very cool! And welcome, Maureen! Excited you can join us today as well.

Maureen Sullivan: Me too.

Brian Harbin: All right, so, Andrew, let's kind of get started with. Just tell the listeners about Alively.com and what you guys do and the mission for, for what you guys are doing there.

Andrew McConnell: Yeah, the mission at its most basic level is to help anyone and everyone live healthier longer. Live your best life, your entire life. And it stems from this idea that 90% of people will say health is my top priority or one of my top priorities. And yet if you look at the U.S. 93% of people have a diagnosable metabolic dysfunction. We're not delivering on that promise of health. Not just health as an absence of disease, but health is in truly living with vitality.

And Alively is a new kind of marketplace specific to health and wellness across all five pillars. Because it's not just how you move your body. It's not just to what you consume in your body. It's not just how you sleep and recover, how you manage your mindset, or how you engage with others. But health requires all of those.

And so Alively is the first marketplace bringing all those together under one roof and then taking it to a next level of not just aggregating goods, but helping through from data that you're already capturing from your Apple Watch or your Whoop or your aura. Give you very targeted and specific recommendations, insights and advice.

So since you bought this or since you started doing this, you're now seeing eight minutes more of deep sleep at night. And that's really, really important. But you know, what's now missing is you aren't moving your body enough. So let's try to get your step count up another 1500 steps a day, because we see that action may have a bigger impact. So let's work on that.

So Alively doesn't try to make you someone you're not. They try to help you live the life you're capable of every day of your life by leaning into who you already are and the things that you're more likely to do and stick with.

Maureen Sullivan: Andrew, how did the company come to be named Alively? And why is that brand name important to you?

Andrew McConnell: So it literally I woke up and just talking about sleep in the middle of the night. When we were trying to work through the name of the company and we had. I want to say I'd already bought 45 different domain names, right? Like cheap ones, because you can get some for 9.99 or 12.99, whatever.

So I bought a bunch of domains and we're trying to misspellings and different things you could do or you would have a hard time pronouncing them and just woke up in the middle of the night one night and got a library, right? Like alive meets lively. Live a lively life like this. Says what we want it to say what we want to do for people. And ran it by Michael Khan. What do you think of this? And saw it was not being used and was potentially available for sale. So like, I think this, this could be one.

Brian Harbin: That's fantastic. And what's funny too, I just, somebody was, was doing an interview the other day talking about domains and I said, you know how we have a really, really good domain is if it makes you lose sleep, right. That's usually a good indication that that's the one. Right?

So, yeah, anything else with that decision? So, and, and then, you know, obviously you knew, hey, this is something. Even though you saw it was for sale, you're like, hey, you know, we need to enlist some help. How did you come about that decision to enlist the help of a domain broker?

Andrew McConnell: Yeah, so you referenced one of my former companies was rented.com and it was a very similar thing of that one was actually my co-founder said, hey, this, this domain's available, we should go with that. And I was cheap. And I was like, look, I've never paid more than $10 for a domain. I'm not going to do it. And we kept trying to find other ones and do it.

And then it just kept coming back to, man, this, this is such a perfect name for what we do. The tagline, you could do it, like everything from it. Our investors were behind it. And so we did it. And I mean it just almost overnight, like transformed the credibility of the business, the customer base we could access, the ease to get people in. We had one person in the entire history of the business said, oh, we like the other name better. Everybody else was like, yeah, that's the obvious choice. Go with that.

I think it was valuable in the ultimate sale and so knew that path. And typically in that situation when it's for sale, right, like if they find in that situation, we would raise money from VC, like if they know that and they might squeeze you in a different way.

So it's just better to go through somebody and manage that and with Alively. I didn't know, but my co-founder has a pretty prominent background. I have a prominent background. Even though we hadn't raised outside funding, like we'd sold how many we'd done stuff so wanted to keep it separate from us. And look, I hired a banker to sell my rented. Right? 

There's certain things that I am great at. There are certain things that I could go do, but just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Like I could get scissors and cut my own hair, but I'm not going to do it. There are people that are better to do that than me and so let me pay the experts to do it.

Maureen Sullivan: Great! So how was the process of buying the domain through Grit Brokerage? Did you feel by having our help, it streamlined the process for you?

Andrew McConnell: 100%. I mean it's the same of if you're changing your oil, like knowing that you have somebody that's going to take care of it that does this. I may do it five times in my life. This person may do it five times a week, you know. Right? Like they're really expert in the thing that they're doing. Can go back and forth. I still remember when we were emailing back and forth and I was out on a walk, I know near the house because I got WiFi back on. So my phone gave me the update and the email, oh my God, you know, we can get it. And I was so excited. So I thought it was a great buzz.

Maureen Sullivan: Yeah, yeah. And I remember working with you, Andrew, you wanted to move this really fast and so that's what I'm good at doing and that's what I focused in on for you and I think we ended up getting this domain within 3 weeks time and you know, we moved it through as quick as we could.

Andrew McConnell: Yeah. I mean this is back to the point Brian made before. It's a really good domain if you're losing sleep. So just to have it done. So I wasn't losing more sleep on are we going to get it? Are we not? Like, do I need to keep thinking about what the name is and design logo and do all that, having that done, paying a little bit more and say, look, this is going to be the domain for the life of this business and this business is my life for a good chunk of time. It's worth the investment. Let me just go ahead and pay up front to not pay on the back end.

Brian Harbin: Yeah, one of the things we find a lot too in our business Andrew, is that once somebody's had the experience of having a premium domain and working for the company with a premium domain, they just understand all the benefits that come with it. So like you said, kind of your experience with rented and knowing that hey, there's automatic credibility that you know, it probably gets you quicker to that decision with Alively sure, you guys could have started with a cheaper domain.

At the same time it might have been a slower start. And you mentioned too, you know, always like to give the analogy where you know, kind of like in Atlanta you've got 75 and 85 the main thoroughfare fairs coming through and, and a great domain is like a 10 car highway. Right. It's just everything is easier and more efficient to get to, you know, downtown which is your customer. Right?

Your clients getting in front of them, all these side streets, neighborhoods, sure that can get you where social media. But to get that, you know, direct it's that you know, 10 lane highway which is that, you know, perfect exact match.com for your brand. So you were talking about with funding. Have you seen that? It's that having a premium domain helps with investors and just showing that hey you're serious at the next level if you have a premium domain or what are those conversations like in terms of if they know you have a premium domain that is more likely to get funding or buy in from investors.

Andrew McConnell: I mean definitely if it's your company name would be a premium domain and you don't have it, that's a problem because they know once they fund you that's going to be expensive to go acquire and how much of their funding is going to it. So locking up this gets back to the I'd rather pay on the front end than the back end. I've had so many friends that end up with premium domains and pay 25x what they could have paid for the first time they tried to do it because the company grew and like well now the company is doing so well we should go get it. But everybody knows the company's doing so well. So the price is very, very different.

So if they know at that stage you're five years into a company that you're not going to go change the name like they own your front yard. Do you want your own front yard? You probably should get it before you build the entire house because they know you're not going to move the entire structure later. Like you're going to pay up for it.

So I find more it helps in the absence of it hurting you. I don't know, from an investor side, especially later stage, it's so much based on the metrics like you have to have a good company, whatever the name. There's some companies that have terrible names, but if you're, you've already built a really good business and you got a ton of customers like that.

Brian Harbin: Right. But Kenny, to your point, if they see that, hey, you don't have your exact match domain, they know it's kind of like buying a house with a bad foundation. Sure, you can, you know, get it right, but it's going to cost you money. You know, the same thing.

Andrew McConnell: It's dangerous. It's truly dangerous.

Brian Harbin: Yeah, and I'm curious too. Like, you know, obviously in, in our business, one of the challenges is, you know, when we work with clients like you on the buy side and we're helping them acquire domain, you know, 99% of the time the domain is a lot more expensive than what our clients are willing to pay. Right?

So we're trying to help kind of bridge that gap and get the sellers down. And, and in your mind, you know, how do you kind of, you know, figure out what it's worth? Because a lot of times with domains, it's not like you've, you know, budgeted in. Right? It's one of the things that's got to come out of marketing or something else.

So yeah, you know what, what's kind of your thought process in that in terms of, you know, how should, how could you advise somebody else on knowing what would should or be the upper limit of what they're willing to spend for something like that?

Andrew McConnell: I know there are people that have map on this. There was somebody actually on a Tim Ferriss podcast that was like come in acquirer or something and he had math on like, here's how you should actually think of that. I think for me, I probably just succumb more to anchoring. So the price that was being asked for Rented.com, I thought was astronomical. One of my board members like, well, you know, I just wanted this other company that paid 5x that for this domain. So that seems like a good deal. Like, oh, well, okay, it's 1/5 of that, so that must be better.

And so we ended up going forward with it and I, I think as much as we paid, we got 10 to 20x the value out of it. Just the domain name on doing it. And Yeah, alively.com was expensive, but it again, was 1/10, maybe, maybe a little more of what I had paid for rena.com. so for me, I think it was more expensive. If I had started from 999 domains to where I ended up, it would have seemed really expensive. But because I was coming down, the last domain that I bought at the premium was a very different price of that. Like, yeah, no, this I'm happily paying. I will cut that check today.

Brian Harbin: And that you're referencing Drew Rose, there's a good friend of mine, he's a domain broker. And yeah, typically it's, you know, half a point to a point of the raise. Right. Would be something that they typically want to allot towards, you know, making sure they can secure that premium domain. So you're right. There is some math and I'm glad that, you know, people like, you know that that's, you know, typically what. What people look at and, and so kind of on that point, you know, I know you mentioned that you've seen 10, 20. What were some of the immediate changes that you saw, you know, once you started using Alively.com? anything that was immediate and then something that's kind of maybe shown up over time since then.

Andrew McConnell: I mean, I think it's both immediate and longer term, just giving a sense of larger than we necessarily are at the time and more permanence and oh, well, that's a real company. Right. Like, it's not a misspelling with a dash. And I have to explain, you know, how they actually get to the site. I mean, it is Alively.com. Just alive and lively. Just Alively.com. Oh, cool! Oh, wow! Yeah, this is really good.

And so I think whether it's for customers, for partners, we're a marketplace selling goods and do it. Oh, yeah, that's. That's exactly the branding and the name and like, that's what I want to associate my brand with. It was just so much what we were trying to do that for the ecosystem we work in between influencers, brands, consumers. It just gave us almost instant street cred.

Brian Harbin: Yeah. And you know, like you said too, you know, people makes you…. Makes your company seem larger and more permanent with that credibility and you know, any. Because I guess with the marketing that you guys do, you know, where do you feel like that, you know, you really see the best our eyes. If you're going to, you know, maybe do conventions, you're meeting people in person and you've got the sign and the banner is a lot of it more. How are you doing your marketing and where you see a lot of those conversions happening.

Andrew McConnell: Yeah, I mean, most of our marketing is through influencer partnerships. And so it's very much. I have a podcast on the healthspan where we talk to all the llamas influencers. And so a lot of it comes from social and so it's driving. But you see when people engage on social, a lot of times, like, okay, what's this company? They come back to the homepage. And so it's just, it's probably because they're coming from social initially, not the initial visit that is helpful. It's that…. it's so easy to know how to get back. Like, hey, how did I spell that? Where do I go again? It's when they're ready to come back, like, oh, yeah, well, that's you. I know that company, I know that brand, I know that site.

Brian Harbin: Yeah, it's an interesting point because that initial acquisition of the client, but then it's is getting them to come back. And, and I think what you said too, about, you know, you're doing influencer marketing, which a lot of companies are doing nowadays. And so a lot of it is going to be, you know, shared over radio and tv and it's. We have a thing with domains called the radio test. Right?

So if somebody can say it over the radio or online or on a podcast and not have to spell it out right, it's kind of a waste of energy and the correct spelling, you're going to be losing a ton of traffic to them. You're basically handing them free traffic on a platter, even though it may not mean anything to them. But again, like you said with. Especially nowadays, in the way that more and more companies are needing to get in front of their clients, being able to pass the radio test makes a huge difference.

Andrew McConnell: And that, that's where it's saying, what is the value? It's very, very difficult to do a counterfactual. You say, well, okay, I can just see what it is. A lot of the value comes in what you're not losing in costs. Right? Oh, would your conversion be 30% lower because people mistyped and just gave up? Would it be way more expensive to acquire this down the line because you didn't do it the first time? You know, there are all these costs that I think people don't necessarily factor in accurately when they're considering, is this worth it or not?

Maureen Sullivan: Andrew, how do you think owning Alively.com will help your brand and business grow over the next 5 to 10 years.

Andrew McConnell: Yeah. For us, it really is about building an ecosystem for all these partners and having…. not having to switch the domain because we did something cheaper. And like going from day one, this is the message we want to send. This is the brand we want to build. This is the home that we're going to create for all of this. It pays dividends every single day. They compound over days, months and years. So I think a lot of the value, again is things that you're not losing in cost, but it's also, it does accrue, even if it's a small benefit each day. It compounds over time.

Brian Harbin: Absolutely. And one of the things too, Andrew, when I'm talking to potential buyers or even and helping them understand the value of a domain name is, you know, a lot of times you get caught up in what they're paying for it. And I just say, listen, let's just say hypothetically the domain was in your account today. Don't worry about it, you pay for it.

But let's say two weeks from now, somebody came to you and wanted to buy the domain. Right? What would be the price for then? Because it happens a lot. So sometimes it's like, hey, go kick rocks is never for sale. Sometimes it's like 100x what they paid for it. And so it kind of helps them see it from a different perspective.

And so I was just curious to you. You know, we don't necessarily have to go into what you paid for, but in your mind, if somebody came to you today and said, hey, I want to buy Alively.com, you know, even though you've had it, only had it for, I think roughly a year now, what would you value it at in terms of 10x, 100x what you, what you paid for.

Andrew McConnell: Would be minimum 100x. It might be closer to 200x just. And because 100x if I got that, like it wouldn't change that much at 200x, I think like, okay, we'd go through the rebrand, we could tell a story, I could make kind of justify it and then extra money like just by expanding other parts of the business at 100x, you know, I'm self funding the business right now. So like it's, it wouldn't be that different from your. Yeah, I wouldn't sell it at that.

Brian Harbin: So just an, you know, different perspective of looking at it like, look, this is your baby that you're building on and so you're adding value to it, you know. So I'll ask one more question in the marina if you have anything else you wanted to ask? But I wanted to kind of give you a chance to just plug anything.

So you know what I love about what you guys are doing is you really it sounds like with Alively you're taking where somebody is now with their help health and you're helping them get to that very next level. Right? And then once they get to that, you're getting to that next level. And I think that's really, you know, makes a ton of difference for people because you're really just helping them make baby steps of progress with their health. It's not going to happen overnight. Right?

If it's easy then everybody could do it. It's not going to be some magic fix, but it's hey, get to this next thing. So I love what you guys are doing. So just wanted to say anything, any direction of where you want to see the company be in two to five years, anything we can expect to see some see from you guys, anything that you know. Obviously people go to Alively.com to find out more but if somebody wanted more information, where would they go to get started or what's that look like?

Andrew McConnell: Yeah, depending what you're looking to do. So we have Alively.com. We also have a Alively AI. So a Alively AI is where today you can hop on the, the wait list for your wearable integration to get your personalized AI coach for what a Alively.com been dug. And so I would suggest check out both, see what resonates with you right now and then when you talk about kind of over the next two to five years. The goal, what we're working towards every day, what we're doing right now is for millions of people to say I am living a better life each day now than I was before thanks to what a life is doing for me.

And again, it's not, hey, here are 20 things that you're going to have to go implement because nobody does that. Here's the one thing today, let's work for a month or two on that to get oh, and here's wow, you see the progress you're making. So people, people to be able to know that they can succeed because I think at a certain level we all know it's eat better, exercise more, sleep better.

Everybody knows if all it took was knowledge, everybody would have six pack abs and sleep eight hours a night. It's not knowledge, it's you having the thing that you will actually do and stick with. And this is where the incredible Personalization and timeliness come into play and that's what Alively works with you on. And so where we want to be is impacting your life not to sell another cheap good and like hey, we turn your sales. It's wow. I can see where I started, I can see where I am now and that path to get here thanks to the help that I've gotten compliant.

Maureen Sullivan: That's great! It's all about data. Right? And seeing the progress and that's what helps people keep moving along and not getting discouraged. And what you're doing, Andrew, is amazing and I was so honored to be able to work with you and help you get this domain.

Andrew McConnell: Yeah, thank you! I am incredibly grateful!

Brian Harbin: Yeah. So and if you guys want to check them out, I know you've got a TED talk as well.

Andrew McConnell: Three now actually.

Brian Harbin: You've got three TED talks.

Andrew McConnell: The TEDx Atlanta TEDx Bermuda, and one month from today doing TEDx UAD in Birmingham, Alabama where I was.

Brian Harbin: Oh, that's fantastic!

Andrew McConnell: Yeah, yeah. And a book get out of my head.

Brian Harbin: Yeah. And what I love the fact too is I mean you are doing exactly what you're selling. I mean you're walking on a treadmill as we're doing this podcast interview.

Andrew McConnell: So I stopped it while we were doing that interview.

Brian Harbin: But yeah, no, so and again, really appreciate carving out the time to talk to us. And for us it's just super helpful. We love being able to, you know, get feedback from our clients and kind of their thought process and, and especially to see that, you know, obviously it's been worked out extremely well for you guys and glad we were going to help and, and definitely refer shout to anybody else we can help with in the future. So thanks again for being on the call today!

And that's a wrap for the Grit.org podcast. Appreciate you guys checking in today the episode of Grit Brokerage and getting into the nitty gritty with Alively.com, Andrew McConnell. Thanks again! Take care!