I wonder what people would have thought of when they first came across the name "Google"? Today it has world-wide name recognition with what was once quite a weird name.
But how about all those innovators and disrupters that faded from the scene? Was the name a part of the issue?
It is a fundamental critical success factor that any start-up must have a compelling answer to a significant business or organisational problem. Not that many start-ups seem to know that but let's leave that to one side for today.
Then they have to be able to describe the problem get agreement that it is a priority problem to solve and explain succinctly how they address the issue- to decision makers.
Most startups do not get to that point which is why 90% typically die.
Does a startup's name get in the way? The name & logo are generally the first visual clues a potential buyer experiences. What do you think these startups offer?
- Marshmallow
- Wurk
- Aunt Flow
- Mush
- Swytch
I was wrong on each count- see how you do in the linked article below.
If I have 10 startups a day trying to get my attention and only have time to consider one, which name gives the lucky one a better chance of getting my attention?
What's in a name? A great deal by all accounts
For years, decades even, startup names have been getting weirder. This isn’t a scientific verdict, but it is how things have seemed to someone who spends a lot of hours perusing this stuff. Startups have had a long run of branding themselves with creative misspellings, animal names, human first names, made-up words, adverbs, and other odd collections of letters. It’s gone on so long it now seems normal. Names like Google, Airbnb, and Hulu, which sounded strange at first, are now part of our everyday vocabulary. Over the past few quarters, however, a peculiar thing has been happening: Startup founders are choosing more conventional-sounding names.
https://news.crunchbase.com/news/startup-names-may-have-passed-peak-weirdness/
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