HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah actually bought Chat.com for $15+ million and resold for an undisclosed sum 2 months later [update]

In May 2023, we covered the story of Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, when he acquired the domain name chat.com for over $10 million. It was a big bet on the future of digital conversation that got many in the domain industry talking about it.

But what really had the tech world buzzing was when just two months later, Dharmesh said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that he had sold chat.com for a hefty eight-figure sum. The domain buyer and the exact figure were kept under wraps, leaving everyone to wonder just how much he’d scored.

Fast forward a year later, and the suspense is finally over. Dharmesh disclosed that he sold chat.com for over $15 million, making a profit of over $5 million in just two months. He made the revelation during an interview on the Lenny Rachitsky podcast. The deal was facilitated by Andrew Miller of Hilco Digital Assets.

In a LinkedIn post, Miller said: “A rare reveal on the price of my Chatcom deal with Larry Fischer. In over $600M of category-defining, exact match domain name transactions that I have been involved with as an investor or advisor, I respect and protect the confidentiality of the details (and most all are under NDA) on almost all of them, something that I believe strongly in. However, on the awesome Lenny Rachitsky podcast this week, as you can see below, our client, Dharmesh, who certainly has the right to do what he wants as the buyer, revealed the $15m+ price for Chatcom.”

Since chat.com changed hands, there have been speculations about the exact sale price. Dharmesh’s acquisition of chat.com came during a period of heightened interest in ChatGPT and other AI chatbot technologies. Many saw it as a strategic move, especially considering Dharmesh’s previous purchase of the domain Connect.com for $10 million in the summer of 2022.

Correction: We need to update you on a mistake in our article titled, “HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah bought Chat.com for over $10 million and sold it 2 months later for $15+ million.” Andrew Miller from Hilco Digital Assets, who handled the deal, got in touch with us and flagged some errors in the numbers we provided. As it turns out, Chat.com was sold for $15.5 million and later resold for an undisclosed sum. We’re sorry for the oversight and apologize for any confusion our mistake may have caused. We regret the error on our part.

Below are some of the emails Miller sent to TechStartups.

“We sold to Dharmesh for $15.5m not $10m… You say he bought it for $10m and resold for $15.5m. He BOUGHT it for $15.5 and resold for an undisclosed sum. please confirm”

Andrew later responded to our follow-up email, stating:

“I’m sorry but that is not correct. He initially referenced the 10,000,000+ the day after we close the deal but last week was on the Lenny podcast and said 15,000,000+ please see the attached video and please make corrections.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/066h19oLBbpxONJQlnf6FBX4A”

Below is a short YouTube video of Damesh’s interview with Lenny Rachitsky.