We have been using the term "brand new" as a way to show that we're trying to approach the domain industry a bit differently than our 5-10 year old competitors. I think the biggest example is that we've open sourced our javascript frontend (http://github.com/badger/frontend) which exclusively uses our API (http://badger.github.com/). We think the domain industry is ripe for disruption and we think we have the right team and ideas to execute.
As you pointed out though we don't have a proven track record. Unfortunately, there's not a lot we can do about that. Service guarantees and long-term contracts might seem nice on the surface but wouldn't really change much if we went out of business. I believe the quote goes something like: "The only two things guaranteed in life are death and taxes. (Benjamin Franklin)"
That said, we're a startup in San Francisco with an office and employees and have been around for over a year. We previously were a domain reseller (rhinonames.com) but have spent the last six months becoming ICANN accredited and building badger.com. We think we can build the best registrar around and we're here to stay.
As you pointed out though we don't have a proven track record. Unfortunately, there's not a lot we can do about that. Service guarantees and long-term contracts might seem nice on the surface but wouldn't really change much if we went out of business. I believe the quote goes something like: "The only two things guaranteed in life are death and taxes. (Benjamin Franklin)"
That said, we're a startup in San Francisco with an office and employees and have been around for over a year. We previously were a domain reseller (rhinonames.com) but have spent the last six months becoming ICANN accredited and building badger.com. We think we can build the best registrar around and we're here to stay.