Should I change my startups name, making it more memorable, less generic & better fits future services, but domain will be a .me vs our current .com?

I'm not a .COM purist. In fact I own quite a few .ME domains and have sold half a dozen of them or so. However, building a business or brand on a non-.COM extension like .ME requires some additional analysis.

It's impossible to advise you on which name / domain to choose in the absence of the name itself.

As for the strategy of partnering with someone else just because you want their name ... that sounds excessively complicated, prone to misunderstanding, potentially expensive, and (since you haven't even approached them) a bit pie-in-the-sky. Trademark overlaps might also invite litigation.

I think you could use some professional advice. Let's schedule a call.

When push comes to shove, it is not about the domain at all. It is about the trademark... and he who owns the trademark wins legally. Doesn't even have to be same products or services - if they are in same industry they may be covered by same registered or even unregistered common law rights. And no one can register or own a generic name anyway. Get yourself a unique name and build your own brand, on a .com or .net or .org or .biz or soon .hotel or .travel or .xyz or .corp or .shop or .web.... all of these will be here within a year... so unless it is about you (me) don't go there.

I think you may be looking too deeply into the issue. I would just keep whatever name you currently have and move on, focus on growth and sales. I've rebranded small start-ups and it becomes a.) costly and b.) a headache that's seldom worth it. Rebranding/renaming usually is being driven by someone's ego (I'm not saying that about you, I'm generalizing) and at the end of the day the market/consumer simply does not care. By the way, if you want to see the most extreme example of 'rebranding wasn't worth it', buy a used DVD of the documentary "Startup.Com"

It is very possible to build a site on an extension other than .com and have it be successful. Just know that in the future if you're startup get's lots of traffic the owner of the .com will receive some of the traffic and it may confuse your current customers. On top of that if you do decide to buy the .com at a later time the owner will know the value and have risen the price substantially. It's best to try and acquire the .com asap if you plan to buy it in the future.