I just got back to San Francisco after spending the evening in Silicon Valley at an event for angel investors. When I’m at events like this first I realize what a newbie I am when it comes to investing, and second, I can’t help but pay attention to the domain names that early stage startups sometimes gravitate towards.
When it comes to picking domain names, tonight I think I found a startup that can serve as an example of how not to pick a domain name. Out of respect for the startup I’m not going to share the domain, but instead I will share how the founder came up with the name.
To give you a bit of context, the domain itself is a common English word repeated twice, think wordword.com. This particular word relates to food, the startup is in a business completely unrelated to food.
When asked how they came up with the name they said they had a few drinks one night at a party, felt really happy, realized that they wanted their startup to be centered around happiness. Here’s where it gets interesting, they then thought – well what happens when you’re happy? You dance. And what’s the word for dance in another language.
Then they repeated the word for dance twice, slapped a .COM at the end and called it a day. The domain had nothing to do with what they do, stands out because it’s the same word repeated twice, and given that it’s a word used to describe food, makes you think they’re in the food space.
There’s a good lesson here, it’s a mistake that people make all the time. Rather than coming up with a name that will resonate with potential users, they come up with a name that ends up being an inside joke or something that has a specific meaning only to them.
While it’s true that you probably can’t come out of the gate buying a big juicy one-word .COM, you can think about who your customer is and what name will resonate with them. Coming up with a name that means nothing to your customer and steers the conversation away from what you do and instead towards – “how the heck did you come up with that name?!?” doesn’t exactly accomplish what you want from a branding standpoint.
The silver lining here. I’m going to help this founder find a better name, after going through the same logic with them they agreed. Like I said above, I don’t know much about angel investing, still learning a lot there, but I do know a bad domain when I see one and no, I can’t help but say something.
For startup founders reading this, remember – don’t pick a name that means something to you and only you – pick a name that will mean something to your users because at the end of the day you’re building a product for them, not you, right?
Since I travel alot and just received a free complimentary “clear” so I don’t have to wait for TSA, as you all know it is a pain in the butt waiting in line and especially this holiday season…
they are using clearme dot com instead of clear dot com, go figure.
Coming the next 2 years, there won’t be anymore printed tickets to get into your flights, it is all facial recognition and it is already happening in major sport events and international flights.
Get use to it!!