Think Watermelon Express is a silly name? How about BurcketFeet?
From major rebrands to accidental shipping label issues, some of your favorite Chicago startups have wild stories on how the settled on their name. A company's name sets the tone for its business. But finding something accessible, professional, and easy to remember isn't as simple as it sounds. Finding the right name is crucial for startups, but just how much is a name worth, anyway?
To Groupon, the answer was $250,000, and some serious haggling with a guy in England who wanted to start a "group coupon service." Groupon spawned from founder Andrew Mason's previous project called The Point, a social media platform to help people collaborate and solve problems. The website launched as Groupon.thepoint.com because it hand't yet owned the Groupon domain name, which it would eventually get in 2009.
GrubHub tried the "GrubHub Seamless" name for a while after the two companies combined, but eventually dropped the awkward title to revert back to its original name.
Braintree (which Pando Daily called a horrible name for a company) was decided on because founder Bryan Johnson wanted something that "sound[ed] stable, important, trustworthy and would enable [Johnson] to attract top developers," so he picked the birthplace of Presidents John Adams and and John Quincy Adams.
But every Chicago startup has a story of how it got its name, and many have second or third choices that (thankfully) didn't stick. We've curated a few below, but if your startup has an interesting story or a quirky backup name, let us know in the comments.
The guys at BucketFeet, a footwear startup that uses a network of artists to create one-of-a-kind shoes, were pretty set on their name, but a shipping error almost caused a major branding problem. Co-Founder Aaron Firestein picked up the nickname "Bucket" while in college and said he wanted to go with "Bucket-something" for the company's name, he told us. After working through a few iterations (one of which included the admittedly morbid Kick Buckets), he decided on BucketFeet. But a near-nightmare scenario came when the company received its first-ever shipment of shoes. As Firestein and co-founder Raaja Nemani opened the shipment they noticed that the name printed on the exterior of every single carton read “BURCKETFEET.” Fortunately, the actual shoe boxes and shoes had the correct name.
For Chicago startup BenchPrep, an online test prep platform for the GRE, SAT and other exams, its initial name was born out of the martini glass. Co-founder Ashish Rangnekar and his team were building a site that made it possible to study for tests on the go. They wanted the word "Express" in the title, but struggled for weeks to come up with a good name. One night, while drinking watermelon martinis, they decided, "Why don’t we just call it Watermelon Express." The name stuck for two years before the team started seeing clients questioning the name. It became a distraction and didn't reflect the seriousness of the product, they decided. They rebranded to BenchPrep after hiring a branding firm in 2011.
Hireology, a selection management platform to help businesses make better hiring decisions, had a handful of names it was considering, according to Margot Nash, VP of Product. As the story goes, under a deadline, CEO Adam Robinson locked everyone in a room and told them they couldn't leave until they decided on a name. They were choosing between Vertispect, SquareShot, Coral8, RebelSquirrel, or SagaSuite (yikes), and eventually agreed on Coral8. But two of the co-founders hated the name and the meeting was moved to a bar to stay up late and work on the name.
"The next morning they burst into the office and said, 'HIREOLOGY' and it was 10x better than Coral8, so it was settled; we were Hireology,” Nash said.
Firelily, a fundraising website dedicated to disaster relief, wanted something that conveyed its mission in an obvious way to potential fundraisers and donors, said co-founder Tamara Habib. The company decided on ReliefLink, and they bought the domain names for .org and .net, but .com was a bit pricier at $8,000. They did some fundraising, and after a few months they were ready to pull the trigger. Just before they bought the domain, Habib did a quick Google search and found that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration had recently launched an app for suicide prevention called "ReliefLink." Not wanting to compete for name recognition against a large government organization, they decided to let it go.
"It ended up working out for the best when we found our current name, Firelily," Habib said. "Firelilies sprout up after disasters to revive the ecosystem, similar to our goal of reviving local economies through crowdfunding. We're thrilled with it and love this name just as much, but I think we'll always have a place in our hearts for ReliefLink."
John Cifelli, founder of GigScout, an app that helps you find local live music, said he was initially set on LoCo--short for Local Concerts. "I shared it with friends and family, and everyone thought I was working on an app for caffeinated alcohol distributor 4loko," he said. "Needless to say we went with something else. Lesson learned: branding is powerful."
Alazzo, an online customized clothing retailer for men, took out a domain for the rather boring name Custom Cut Tailors and later wanted 'the9s' (like dressed to the nines), but that domain was taken. "We were almost a few different names before we became Alazzo," founder Nick Tzoumas said. "It actually took a really long time to come up with a name. So, in a sense, we've come a long way."
Got a story about how you decided on your startup's name? Know of any other second or third option stories out there? Drop us a note in the comments.
