name.com is a domain platform that makes building simple at any scale. Pulse interviewed name.com VP and General Manager Sammy Ahmed to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Sammy Ahmed’s Background
Q: Can you share a bit about the company’s background?
name.com was founded in 2003 with a mission to help people and businesses get online. Over the past two decades, we’ve grown into one of the most customer-focused and community-driven domain registrars in the industry. Today, we are building the infrastructure for the next generation of web creators, operating on two core pillars.
First, we offer a powerful AI-ready API with Model Context Protocol (MCP) and OpenAPI support, enabling developers and AI agents to integrate domains in days, not months. Second, we serve solopreneurs and small businesses as a one-stop shop. We help people launch with confidence, offering a vast selection of domains, all-in-one tools, and transparent, upfront pricing with live 24/7 expert support.
Core Products
Q: What are the company’s core products and features?
name.com is a domain platform that makes building simple at any scale. We are the first registrar to modernize domain infrastructure for the AI-driven future, offering a powerful AI-native API alongside a full suite of tools for entrepreneurs. Our platform equips developers and agents to handle domain search, registration, and management with natural language commands, launching products in days, not months.
For entrepreneurs, we are the platform trusted to get online and grow. Offering everything from domains and email to websites, entrepreneurs enjoy simplicity and reliability, with upfront pricing, real support, and service they can trust. This complete suite ensures business owners can manage their digital presence from a single hub. It removes the complexity and fragmentation that traditionally burden small businesses.
Challenges Faced
Q: Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently?
The domain industry is currently contending with significant challenges, primarily from outdated registrar infrastructure that is struggling to meet the demands of the modern web and rise of AI. For enterprise partners and developers, legacy domain APIs are complex, poorly documented, and require lengthy custom development with ongoing maintenance. The result is engineering headaches. This outdated architecture is not sustainable for the agentic AI era, as legacy APIs often lack modern tooling like OpenAPI specifications and MCP support.
The bigger challenge is navigating a competitive market, but new businesses can take advantage of the opportunity to differentiate themselves by creating a cohesive brand and strong online presence from the start. As awareness around security, reliability, and cost transparency also grows, there is increasing demand for providers that deliver dependable, well-designed solutions. At the same time, the industry is entering a period of transformation driven by the adoption of AI tools that may change how people discover domains and develop websites. This necessitates a rapid shift from the hand-coded internet to a prompt-driven, AI-native environment.
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
Q: How has the company’s technology evolved since launching?
Since launching, our technology has evolved from a traditional domain registrar into a modern domain platform designed for how people build today. We’ve intentionally focused on meeting entrepreneurs, developers, and businesses where they already are, by integrating domains directly into the tools, platforms, and workflows they use every day.
As the first AI-native registrar, we’ve modernized domains to support the next generation of technologies. Our API is built to be simple, fast, and AI-ready. We enable partners to embed domain functionality seamlessly into their own products and services. This allows creators and platforms to ship robust domain integrations in days instead of months, unlock new monetization opportunities, and deliver more cohesive user experiences.
At the same time, we’ve expanded and refined our core infrastructure, supporting over 600 TLDs, transparent pricing, and 24/7 expert support. We’re embracing protocols and architectures designed for agentic AI and emerging use cases. The result is a domain platform that scales from individual creators to enterprise partners, making domains not just easier to buy, but easier to build with as part of modern, intelligent products and services.
Significant Milestones
Q: What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones?
Over the past two decades, name.com has reached several key milestones that reflect both product innovation and community impact. Paving the way as the industry’s first AI-native domain registrar platform, we currently manage over 2.4 million domains, providing an unmatched choice for users building their online identities. Our user base continues to deepen their engagement, email and website product usage grew from 27% to 37% year-over-year. And through our name.gives initiative, we’ve donated nearly $100,000 and hundreds of volunteer hours to over 100 charities since 2017, reinforcing our commitment to doing business with heart.
Differentiation From The Competition
Q: What differentiates the company from its competition?
In a space where impersonal, automated services are common, we take a human-first approach that prioritizes transparency, support, and meaningful partnerships. This means driving:
— More innovation, less complexity. We remove the technical friction traditionally required to launch and manage an online presence, eliminating the need for creators to navigate complex setup tasks like DNS record management, payments, and custom workflows. Through our all-in-one platform (utilizing one simple dashboard), we make building a digital identity more fast and accessible, allowing entrepreneurs to focus on creativity instead of infrastructure.
— One-Click-to-Publish. Offering AI-driven domain registration and deployment, we make it possible for anyone, not just developers, to bring ideas online instantly, transforming a once complex process into a simple, near-one-click experience. This shift unlocks greater agility for builders, expands access for non-technical founders, and paves the way for a more inclusive digital economy where anyone can launch a presence with ease.
— Creative domain extensions. We provide the support businesses need as AI brings more brands online and search evolves toward contextual, intent-based discovery, making it harder to stand out. Creative domain extensions like .dev, .ai, and .llc become essential differentiators in this environment. These unique, industry-specific domains signal relevance, strengthen brand identity, and help businesses surface more naturally, building trust and long-term digital ownership.
— A Smarter, More Intent-Driven Web. Domains are becoming more dynamic and personalized, and name.com empowers small businesses and entrepreneurs to control their digital brand experience from idea to launch. This includes offering AI-integrated tools (via partnerships with Wix and Google Workspace), 24/7 expert help, and clear, upfront pricing from purchase to renewal.
Future Company Goals
Q: What are some of the company’s future goals?
We’re focused on helping developers, creators and entrepreneurs thrive with powerful, easy-to-use tools. Our goal is to keep innovating while staying true to our values of trust, transparency, and simplicity. Key priorities ahead:
— Continue leading with trust, remaining transparent, customer-first, and values-aligned as we grow.
— Expand our product suite to make starting and scaling an online business even easier, from AI-generated websites to secure hosting.
— Grow our developer and reseller ecosystem through tools like the name.com API and MCP, helping partners embed seamless domain experiences in their platforms.
— Deepen strategic partnerships with web enablement and AI providers to keep delivering best-in-class tools to our users.
