Debridge.com: The 4-Year Chase That Ended with a $51K Auction Win

In 2021, fresh off a $5.5 million seed round, Alex Smirnov of deBridge tried to buy Debridge.com through DomainAgents. He bid $10,000. Rejected.

He raised the bid to $25,000. Rejected.

He went to $50,000. Still rejected.

The owner—someone in the US who had registered the domain back in 2008—wouldn't respond to any offers.

So Smirnov did what any determined founder would do: he set a Google Calendar reminder to check the expiration date. Every year. Just in case.

The Waiting Game

Every year, the reminder popped up. Every year, Smirnov checked the WHOIS record. And every year, the domain was renewed.

Debridge settled for a .finance domain, like many early-stage crypto projects. It worked fine. The business grew. But Debridge.com remained out of reach.

After four years, Smirnov had almost stopped paying attention. The reminder had become background noise—just another notification to check and dismiss.

Then, in 2024, the reminder popped up again.

This time, the domain wasn't renewed.

The Auction Battle

Once deBridge confirmed the domain was expiring, they started researching how domain auctions actually work. It wasn't simple.

Expired domains go through multiple stages: grace period, redemption period, pending delete. Eventually, domains hit auction platforms like NameJet—an old-school site where winning requires:

• Manual account verification
• KYC verification by phone
• Funding bids (with a $15K card limit)

deBridge placed a backorder and waited for the auction to start.

When it went live, they discovered they weren't alone. Over 40 bidders were competing for Debridge.com.

Every bid extended the auction timer by 5 minutes. The auction stretched late into the night. Bid, counter-bid, bid again. It became a war of attrition.

Hours passed. Dozens of bidding rounds. Finally, deBridge's bid of $50,999 held as the final one.

They'd won.

The Payment Failure

Then came the twist: the payment failed.

NameJet's system was outdated. The credit card transaction didn't process. An email arrived: if they didn't pay within 24 hours, the domain would be forfeited to the next highest bidder.

Four years of waiting. A multi-hour auction battle. And now a payment processing failure threatened to blow the whole thing.

deBridge jumped on calls with NameJet support, figured out how to do a wire transfer, and scrambled to get the payment through before the deadline.

The wire processed. The domain transferred.

After four years, Debridge.com was finally theirs.

The Persistence Premium

The final price of $50,999 was almost exactly what Smirnov had offered four years earlier. But this time, he was buying at auction against 40+ competitors, not making a private offer.

If the original owner had taken his $50K offer in 2021, they would have saved themselves the risk of forgetting to renew. Instead, they held on, let it expire, and deBridge got it for essentially the same price—but only after a 40-bidder war.

The story illustrates a key truth about exact-match domains: startups will chase them for years. Set calendar reminders. Watch expiration dates. Wait for the owner to slip up.

For deBridge, the four-year wait was worth it. The domain wasn't just a URL—it was their brand match, their credibility upgrade, and their rightful digital home.

The Calendar Reminder Strategy

What makes this story notable isn't just the persistence—it's the system. Smirnov didn't just hope the domain would become available. He set up a recurring reminder to check every single year.

Most founders would have given up after the third rejection. Smirnov treated it like infrastructure: set it, forget it, check annually.

When the opportunity finally came, he was ready.

After four years of checking, one failed payment crisis, and a bidding war that lasted until late at night, deBridge finally got Debridge.com.

Sometimes domain acquisition isn't about money. It's about patience, systems, and showing up every year until the opportunity arrives.