I have a good friend who I've known for many years. Very smart. So I ask him if he would be interested in coming up with a domain and told him he would be rewarded if we became successful. His response was that he would, but he wanted me to write up a contract. I thought, You've got to be kidding me. So I put on my lawyer hat and spent several hours writing up a contract making sure the language was as sound as could be. He was impressed by the contract (remember, very smart) and wanted just a couple things worded differently. Fine. After all of that effort, he did not come up with an acceptable domain name. Maybe the contract was a smart move, but that kind of thing seems over the top sometimes.

If you promise a reward based on 'success', then your friend was right to get a contract from you.

For such a small contribution though the whole thing sounds rather silly. Better to pay something upfront and/or ask for pro bono.

True. But I don't think he would have been satisfied with some fee -- he would have been prudent enough to realize the possibility of success so the contract was inevitable.

The woman who designed the Nike Swoosh was simply paid. Several years later the founder of Nike gave her stock to show his gratitude for helping define the brand.

I think he or you are overstating the importance of the domain name. There's nothing inherently special about the Nike swoosh. It just happen to be on shoes that people like to wear.

Yeah, you're way off on that. The swoosh is Nike. When people were mugging each other for Air Jordans, think back: each commercial ended with a silhouette of Jordan about to dunk, and below him, the Nike Swoosh.

Show anyone the swoosh and they either associate it with "Just Do It" (again, Nike's trademark) or Nike itself.

You might as well claim that Apple's startup chime is just another beep.

Mike made the swoosh, not the other way around.

No, Nike made the swoosh. MJ was also just $45 million of marketing spent wisely. But the swoosh remains. It was a brilliant strategy. Tie the two together, but after so many years, when the athlete retires, you still have the swoosh.

If it was the Nike cube, there'd be muggings over the cube.

Everyone loves the Nike Companion Cube...

Aesthetics. Marketing, including domain names, is terribly important. Why did all of the Facebook clones which existed pre-Facebook fail? Is it because of the unwelcoming black screen of ConnectU or ConnectU's name itself? Were Zuckerberg or the co-founders connectors? Was it what Facebook did right or what ConnectU (OK, or houseSYSTEM) did wrong? Domain, logo, look and feel all play a factor in brand and they all matter -- at least to some degree.

Yeah, but consider the alternative: you can have a successful venture for many years, and earn a lot of money, only to have one party find a loophole that allows him to attain and exploit 51% control, and screw the other completely.