[timhargis]

I've bought a number of domains aftermarket before - all .com. I think .com is important if you can get it a reasonable price but not at the expense of other more important things centered around building the actual product itself.

If your company grows the .com name only goes up in perceived selling value then...ala Facebook, Dropbox, etc.

A lot of people on HN are used to different extensions because that's the world we live in but the general public is used to .coms so I agree that it depends on your audience but if it's a consumer mass market product, I think .com is important. I've spent up to $5000 on different names and I've always been able to get them for about 30-40% of asking price.