Some domain names support a business. Others become the business.
That is what makes the journey of David Timmis especially interesting. He founded the company that would become Leasing.com in 2000 and spent years building real traction on the long, descriptive domain ContractHireAndLeasing.com. The business grew, the market matured, and eventually the name caught up with the ambition. Securing the exact-match category domain was not just a rebrand. It was a shift in positioning, perception, and long-term brand authority.
Few founders get to operate on both sides of that equation at scale. From the early internet grind to mainstream recognition, this is a story about timing, conviction, and what changes when a company finally owns the name that defines its industry.
Mike: When you first launched the business, what made ContractHireAndLeasing.com the right name at the time?
Dave: The name of the business that I incorporated in February 2000 was Really Good Domains Ltd. As the Internet so new, to me, it seemed logical for a website to be memorable, pass the radio test and do what it said on the tin. All the domains that I registered were simple, memorable and generic. The back pages of magazines and the classified pages of newspapers were where brokers advertised contract hire and leasing deals at the time and the pages were titled “Contract Hire & Leasing”. Admittedly it’s a bit of a clunky, long name but it made sense and that’s what I chose to launch the website. We didn’t own the co.uk for many years until we acquired it several years later, but we’re not too concerned if we had the .com which we did.
Mike: At what point did you realise the company would eventually need a simpler, category-defining domain?
Dave: We invented car leasing comparison in the UK, have always led the market and been the go-to for consumers looking for the best choice and prices. Likewise, we have always been the trusted platform recognised by the industry. Along with our car leasing marketplace we also operated websites in vans, fleet, car supermarkets, green cars and new / nearly new cars. Operating a relatively large portfolio of websites was constantly becoming a bigger demand on resources and in 2016 we made a strategic decision to focus the business exclusively on the leasing space. As the leasing market matured and car leasing started going mainstream we wanted a consumer friendly, category defining domain that we could build a big brand around. The brand needed to define the space, not just describe it. We could never have built such a strong brand with the original name that we are doing with Leasing.com
It was also important for the company name and brand name to be the same. We’ve won many awards over the years and there was always confusion as to what to refer to us as. Many listings or people would refer to us as Really Good Domains T/A ContractHireAndLeasing.com! So, part of the re-brand was a change of company name to Leasing.com Group Ltd and that’s what we did in 2019.
Mike: Was Leasing.com always on your radar, or did the opportunity come unexpectedly?
Dave: It was always the dream. You can’t get more category-defining than the exact match domain. But names like that rarely come available, and when they do, it’s serious money. I’m always looking at domains and when I revisited the topic I came across leasing.com. When the chance finally came, we moved quickly — because opportunities like owning Leasing.com don’t come twice. As a separate transaction, over the same period, we also acquired leasing.co.uk, but we would never have rebranded as we did, even to a shorted snappier name like leasing, without owning the .com.
Mike: What did acquiring Leasing.com represent to you personally after building the company for so many years?
Dave: It felt like the moment the brand caught up with the journey. It was a huge opportunity to own the leasing space online. We’d spent nearly two decades building the category — now we owned the name that articulated that leadership in one word. Pride plays a part, of course, but mostly it was clarity. The brand finally matched the scale of the business and the ambition behind it. Leasing.com has the opportunity to be the global brand and central marketplace for leasing in all its forms – starting with automotive and expanding into other areas of huge opportunity such as property, consumer products, equipment, technology, plant and so on.
Mike: What changed most after the rebrand: traffic quality, conversion rates, partner perception, or something less obvious?
Dave: All the above. A single word .com English dictionary domain makes for a so much better and more trustworthy brand. The Leasing.com brand is so much more memorable. Our name can’t really be misspelled, passes the radio test, oozes credibility and as I often say, ‘You’d have to be stupid to forget it!’ Upgrading & rebranding to Leasing.com was a significant but worthwhile investment and one that makes the marketing budget deliver a significantly improved ROI, and extremely strong visitor to enquiry conversion rates. Partners can see that we have and continue to invest in our brand. With so much noise in the market and everyone shouting about being ‘The Number 1,’ ‘The biggest’ and ‘The best,’ it’s easy for people trust us and to see that we actually are. Our brand, reputation and website demonstrate that…trust and credibility with consumers are key. The shift in credibility and opportunities that a premium domain like ours bring cannot be underestimated!
Mike: Did owning Leasing.com make media coverage and partnerships easier to secure?
Dave: Without question. Journalists, partners, event organisers — everyone instantly “gets” what we do and remembers the name. It’s so easy to refer to Leasing.com either verbally or in writing
Mike: What surprised you most after operating on the premium domain for a few years?
Dave: The rebrand took the best part of a year and the launch of leasing.com was now 6 years ago, but Leasing.com sounds and feels like it’s always existed. Consumers quickly adapted to and trusted the new brand. As I said earlier the name oozes credibility and is easy to trust. Part of the rebrand was a big launch campaign starting with a national outdoor billboard campaign, a fleet of promotional trucks, radio, TV, and of course online and social media. Our new brand opened a lot of doors, created a lot of interest and new commercial opportunities such as sponsorship of the English Football League and the Leasing.com Stadium. Opportunities present themselves that hadn’t done before. Brands want to be associated with you.
Mike: How do you evaluate whether a premium domain is worth the price tag?
Dave: I would look at brand credibility, ease of recall, does it pass the radio test, the long-term strategic value and of course the purchase price.
Does the domain communicate trust, credibility, position you as market leader, give a significant uplift on return from your marketing spend, increase site conversion rates, improve paid search efficiency, shorten your marketing funnel? The right domain will do all of this if you invest in the brand and will be worth multiples of whatever you paid.
Mike: What advice would you give founders deciding between a descriptive domain and a category brand-defining one?
Dave: I’m a big fan of simplicity and it being easy to immediately understand what a company does. Descriptive/generic domains are fine and served us well for a long time. Investing in a category-defining domain and building the brand though is game-changing. A great brand name removes friction, builds trust, and gives you room to grow. If you want to lead a category, own the name that defines it
Mike: From a long-term brand perspective, what does owning Leasing.com allow you to do that was harder before?
Dave: It lets us think bigger and grow bigger. A brand like ours can expand internationally, partners take us more seriously, and consumers trust us immediately. It also future-proofs the business — no matter how the market evolves, Leasing.com will always feel relevant and authoritative. It’s a platform you can build anything on and has huge, untapped potential
Howard Fellman, a highly respected educator and domain expert, draws compelling parallels between domain names and prime real estate. Just as a Manhattan or beachfront property commands extraordinary value due to its limited supply, visibility, and prestige, so too does a one-word, industry-defining .COM. Furthermore, as he often states, “If you don’t own the .COM, you are simply helping the one that does”—a truth especially pertinent to a term as universal as “Leasing.”