# Writing a teaser for a TLD without naming it
> How a holder or adviser writes a blind teaser for an onchain TLD: what the page says, what it withholds, and when the string is disclosed.
Source: https://hush.partners/writing-a-teaser-for-a-tld-without-naming-it
Category: Selling
Published by Hush Partners.
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The first document a possible buyer of your TLD reads is usually one page long, and it does not contain the one word the buyer most wants to see. That page is the blind teaser. It describes the asset well enough for a serious reader to decide whether to sign a confidentiality agreement, and it holds back the string itself and the identity of whoever holds it.
Writing it is harder than it looks. A TLD is a single word, and a single word is easy to guess. Say too little and the reader has no reason to answer. Say a little too much and the description narrows to one candidate, at which point the teaser has named the TLD while pretending not to.
This article is for the holder who is about to write that page, and for the lawyer or adviser who will write it for them. It covers what belongs on the page, what stays off it, how to test a draft for leaks, and the moment at which the name is finally given.
## What a blind teaser does for a TLD holder
A teaser has one job: to let the right reader qualify themselves in two minutes. It is not a sales document in the usual sense. It does not argue, and it does not ask for a price. It gives a reader enough to answer a single question, which is whether this is the kind of asset their organization would spend time on.
For an onchain TLD, a short reminder of what is being sold helps frame the page. An onchain TLD is a top-level name, such as `.yoursector`, recorded on a blockchain as a token that sits in a wallet. It resolves outside the ICANN DNS root, so software has to support it for it to work, and support is partial. Whoever holds the token is the only party able to issue names under it, such as `name.yoursector`. That is the asset, and the teaser describes it in those terms.
The teaser is blind for three reasons, and it helps to keep them apart because each one shapes a different part of the page.
- **The holder's privacy.** Many holders do not want it known that they hold a given name, or that they hold names at all.
- **The value of the asset.** A name that is known to be for sale and does not sell quickly picks up a history. The next reader asks who else saw it and why they passed.
- **The fairness of the process.** If one possible buyer learns the string before the others, they can form a view, talk to colleagues and move while the rest are still deciding whether to sign.
A blind teaser serves all three at once. It also has a limit worth stating early: it works for a TLD that several organizations could plausibly want. Where a TLD matches the name of one organization, there is in practice one natural reader, and a page that hides the string from that reader makes little sense. That case is handled by a direct, plain note under a confidentiality agreement, and it is a different exercise from the one described here.
## The four things the page says
Every useful teaser for a TLD answers four questions. They are the same four whatever the name, and a draft that skips one of them tends to produce a reply asking for it, which costs a round of correspondence before anyone has signed anything.
| Question | What the teaser says | What it avoids |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What type of TLD is it? | A generic sector word, a place word, a short coined term | Length, first letter, language detail |
| Which sector does it serve? | The broad field and the kind of organization it fits | A niche so narrow it has one word |
| What is included? | The TLD, any names the seller holds under it, any site or records | Counts and dates that can be matched to a public record |
| How does the process run? | NDA first, then the name, then questions, terms and escrow | A deadline invented to hurry the reader |
Two of these need care. For the type, begin with the form of the asset and the registry, which are not sensitive, then give a category of word broad enough to contain many candidates: "a common English noun used across an industry" is a category, while "the standard term for a specific financial instrument" may be a single word. For the sector, two sentences should let an operator of a membership body, a trade platform or a professional network recognize whether the page is addressed to people like them.
The process line matters more than it seems. A reader who knows the path, from confidentiality agreement to disclosure, questions, terms and closing through onchain escrow, is more willing to take the first step on it.
## What the teaser withholds, and why each item matters
Two things are withheld by definition: the string and the holder. In practice the list of things to leave out is longer, because several other details lead straight to one of those two.
The string is withheld in every form. That means the word itself, any translation of it, any abbreviation of it, and any example of a name under it. A teaser that offers `name.yoursector` as an illustration with the real suffix in place of the placeholder has named the TLD. Use a neutral placeholder throughout, and say on the page that it is one.
The holder is withheld as a person or organization, and also as a wallet. A wallet address is a public identifier. Anyone can look at what else it holds and what it has done, and from there the string is one search away. The same goes for a transaction reference, a token identifier, or a link to a block explorer. None of them belongs on a teaser.
Then come the indirect identifiers:
- **The creation date.** The date a TLD was created is part of its public record. A precise date, or even a narrow period, can be matched against that record.
- **Exact counts.** "Names have been issued under it" is safe. An exact number of names can be matched in the same way as a date.
- **A website address.** If a site is published under the TLD, its address contains the string. Describe the site, do not point to it.
- **The asking price.** A figure on a teaser travels. It anchors a negotiation before it starts, and it gives a reader who never signs something to repeat. Most blind teasers say that terms are discussed after disclosure. This is a choice for the holder, and there are sellers who prefer to state a range so that only readers in that range reply.
- **Who else has seen it.** Never. A reader who learns that a named competitor has the same page has learned something about that competitor, and the next reader will assume the same is said about them.
## The guessing test every draft must pass
A description is blind only if a reader who wants to guess cannot get to one answer. Holders tend to judge this badly, because they already know the word and cannot read their own draft as a stranger would.
The test is simple. Hand the draft to someone who knows the sector and does not know the name. Ask them to write down every word the page could describe. If they produce one word, or two, the draft has failed. If they produce a long and varied set, and the real string is merely one of the plausible entries or is missing altogether, the draft is working.
Leaks through description follow a few patterns, and each has a plain correction.
**The synonym.** Describing a TLD as "the word people use for a place to live" hides nothing. Describe the sector, never the meaning of the word.
**The length.** "A four-letter word in the travel field" narrows a large set to a short one. "Short" or "a single common word" says what a buyer needs, which is that the name is easy to type and to say.
**The unique feature.** If the word is the only one in its field that is also a verb, or the only one that reads the same in several languages, that feature is a selling point and also a fingerprint. Keep it for the conversation after disclosure, where it will be more persuasive anyway.
**The combination.** Each fact may be harmless alone. A broad sector, a rough period of creation, a rough number of names issued and a registry can together single out one record. Read the facts as a set, as someone with a block explorer open would.
**The file itself.** Document properties, a file name that contains the string, a tracked change, a header copied from an earlier version that named the TLD. Check the file as well as the text, and export a clean copy.
## Describing what comes with the TLD
After the type and the sector, the reader wants to know what they would actually receive. For an onchain TLD there are five things to cover, each in a sentence or two and each without a figure that could be matched to the record.
**The TLD itself.** Say that the asset is the token that carries the top-level name, that it moves to the buyer's wallet at closing, and that from then on the buyer alone can issue names under it. If the registry is Freename, it is a fact worth one line that no yearly renewal charge attaches to the TLD, because a reader used to DNS domains will assume the opposite.
**Names the seller holds under it.** A seller often keeps a few names for its own use or as a reserve. By agreement those can move with the TLD. Say whether such names exist and that they are part of what is offered, without giving them.
**Names issued to third parties.** If names have been sold to others, say so plainly, and say that those names stay with the people who hold them. A buyer who discovers this only after disclosure will feel the teaser hid it. Whether a holder can change or withdraw a name already issued is a case-by-case matter and the teaser should not suggest otherwise.
**Royalty program terms.** Freename runs a program under which a TLD holder receives part of the registration fee for names registered under its TLD. Taking part carries a yearly cost set by the registry, and some TLDs were registered under earlier terms that include the program for life. If your TLD is in the program, the teaser can say so and should add that the terms that would apply to a buyer are confirmed with the registry before closing. Do not state a share or an income figure on the page.
**Anything built.** A published website, records set on names, a brand or visual identity, registrant terms already written. Describe the category and state that the detail follows disclosure.
A short statement of limits belongs here too. Onchain names do not open in an ordinary browser without support, and wallet and browser coverage is partial and changes over time. A teaser that says so in one sentence reads as written by someone who knows the asset. A teaser that implies the name works everywhere invites a hard question at the first call, and loses the reader's trust for everything else on the page.
## How the wording shifts with the kind of TLD
The four questions stay the same, but the safe level of detail depends on the kind of word. The narrower the natural set of buyers, the less the page can say before it points at one name.
| Kind of TLD | What can be said safely | Main risk of a leak |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Broad sector word | Sector, kind of operator, general use | Low, if the word has many peers |
| Narrow trade term | Wider field, not the specialty | The specialty has one obvious word |
| Place word | Scale of place, region in broad terms | Region plus scale gives one place |
| Short coined term | That it is short and coined | Any hint of sound or spelling |
The narrow trade term needs its sector widened by one step: describe the field that contains the specialty, and let the confidentiality agreement answer the request for more. The place word is the most delicate, because geography narrows fast, and geographic names can carry sensitivities of their own that vary by country and are for the holder's counsel to consider before any page is sent. The coined term will always produce the thinnest teaser, since its appeal lies in how it sounds and looks, and the conversation after disclosure carries more of the weight.
## Drafting the page, from first notes to clean file
A teaser is short, but it is not written in one sitting. The order below keeps the drafter from polishing sentences that later have to be cut for giving too much away.
Drafting a blind teaser for a TLD
Write the full description firstSet down everything true about the TLD, with the string, in a private working note. This is the source for the disclosure pack that follows the NDA, and it is never sent as it stands.
Sort each fact into three pilesSafe on the teaser, safe only after the NDA, and never shared. The string, the wallet and exact figures from the public record go in the second pile.
Widen every category by one stepReplace the specialty with the field, the exact period with no period, the count with a plain statement that names exist.
Draft the four answersType, sector, what is included, process. One short paragraph each, in plain sentences, with a neutral placeholder wherever a name would appear.
Add the limitsOne sentence on partial resolution, one on names held by third parties if there are any, one on registry terms to be confirmed before closing.
Run the guessing testGive the draft to a reader who knows the sector and not the name. Revise until they cannot narrow it to a few words.
Clean the fileRemove document properties, comments and earlier versions. Give the file a neutral name and export a fresh copy.
### Length and tone
One page is enough. A teaser that runs to three pages has usually started to argue, and argument on a blind page reads badly because the reader cannot check any of it. State what the asset is, what comes with it and how to proceed.
Write in the register of a factual summary. Avoid adjectives that claim value, such as "rare" or "premium", because every seller uses them and no reader gives them weight. Avoid any sentence about time pressure. A reader who is told that others are close to a decision will either discount the claim or resent it, and neither helps the process.
### One teaser, or one per reader
It is tempting to tailor the page to each recipient. Resist most of that. Equal information is the basis of a fair process, and two readers who later compare notes should find that they received the same facts. A sentence that explains why the page was sent to this kind of organization can vary. The description of the asset should not.
## The moment of disclosure: after the NDA, not before
The string is given once a confidentiality agreement is in place, and not on the strength of an expression of interest, a call or a promise. This is the hinge of the whole method, and it should be stated on the teaser itself so that no reader is surprised by it.
The agreement should be mutual. The reader is also taking a risk by showing interest, since their attention to a name says something about their plans. A mutual agreement protects both sides and is easier to sign than a one-sided one. A [standard mutual NDA](/nda) that both sides can read quickly removes most of the delay at this step. What the agreement must cover, and how it is enforced, depends on the countries involved and is a question for each party's own counsel.
A reader will sometimes ask for a hint before signing: the first letter, the language, a yes or no on a guess. The answer is the same each time, given politely and without exception. A hint to one reader is information the others did not get, and a confirmed guess is a disclosure. If a reader guesses correctly on their own, neither confirm nor deny, and point again to the agreement.
Once the agreement is signed, disclose in one clean step instead of in fragments. The disclosure pack normally contains the string, the registry, the public record of the TLD, the state of names under it and the registry terms that apply. From that point the buyer does not have to take the seller's word for the central facts. The registry record is open to anyone with a block explorer, which is one of the real advantages of an onchain asset over a description on paper.
Everything in the teaser must hold up against the pack. Blind does not mean vague about the truth, and a buyer who finds a gap between the two documents will reread every other statement with suspicion.
## Who receives the page, and keeping track of copies
A blind teaser protects the string only if it goes to a short, considered set of readers. Sent widely, it becomes a puzzle that enough people will work on until one of them solves it.
Decide the recipients before finishing the draft, because the readers shape the wording. A page written for operators of sector platforms differs in emphasis from one written for [funds and family offices](/funds-and-family-offices), even though the facts are the same. The first cares about what can be issued and to whom. The second cares about what must be true for the asset to hold its value.
Address the page to a role, not to a general mailbox. A teaser that reaches a legal or strategy lead with a sentence explaining why it was sent to them is read. One that arrives unaddressed is forwarded around until it lands with someone who has no reason to keep it confidential.
Keep a simple log: who received which version, on what day, who replied, who signed, who received the string. If two versions of the teaser exist because you corrected a sentence, the log should say which reader has which. This record is dull to keep and valuable later, both for running an orderly process and for answering a buyer's question about who else knows the name.
Lawyers and other advisers who bring a file to a desk will find the working arrangements set out on the page [for advisers](/for-advisors).
## What to do before you send the first copy
Write the private working note first, with everything in it, and sort its facts into the three piles. That exercise alone shows whether you are ready. If the second pile, the one for disclosure after the NDA, has gaps, fill them first. The [TLD Readiness Score](/tld-readiness-score) is a quick way to see which parts of a file a buyer will expect to find complete.
The teaser is only the visible part of the preparation. If a reader signs within a day and the disclosure pack takes weeks, the delay is read as a sign that something is wrong. A holder who has not yet formed a view on price can build one through a [private valuation](/private-valuation) before any page goes out.
Then draft the page, run the guessing test with one trusted reader, and fix the list of recipients. Send nothing until the agreement and the disclosure pack are both ready to go out the same day a reader asks for them.
Some holders prefer not to send the page themselves, because a teaser that arrives from the holder is no longer blind as to the holder. An intermediary is one answer. Hush Partners sells TLDs under [sell-side mandates](/sell-side-mandates) from their holders: the seller of a given TLD is never named, the mutual NDA applies to each exchange, a single named partner stays with the file until closing, and the transfer completes through [onchain escrow](/escrow-and-transfer). The stages are set out under [how a file runs](/how-it-works), and the desk is reached through the [contact form](/contact).
## Questions people ask
### Can a teaser say which blockchain or registry the TLD is on?
Yes, in most cases. A registry records many names, so naming it does not narrow the set in any useful way, and a buyer needs it to judge wallet support and registry terms. The exception is a combination: registry plus a narrow period of creation plus an exact count can together identify one record.
### What if a reader refuses to sign before knowing the name?
Then the process stops with that reader, courteously. Some organizations have a policy against signing an agreement about an unidentified asset, and a mutual text that is short and standard overcomes most of those objections. Where it does not, the holder decides whether that single reader is worth an exception, knowing that an exception for one is unfair to the rest.
### Is a blind teaser a legal offer?
It is generally written as an invitation to discuss and says so on the page, with wording that nothing in it binds either side until terms are agreed in writing. How such a statement is treated differs from one country to another, so the holder's own counsel should read the page before it is sent.