TL,DR - too long, didn’t read? Listen on YouTube instead!

Is the most, and least, fun part of the process!

Equal parts “just do it” and “this is actually really important” - as shown by my own complete newsletter rebrand just recently.

In this issue I’ll cover:

Ready? Game on!

What you call your project should not hold up the project. The iterative approach should be “idea → basic product → test and review → double check idea”

With the top-level goal being that you make at least one full pass from concept, to outline, to test and revision, before settling on anything. The last thing you need is a brainstorming session, logos, colors, branding, all taking months while nothing gets built.

That’s much worse than going to market with a ridiculous name.

Like GoBoldr!

No pressure!

Your name is the most basic level of your marketing. More so than the logo, the colors, the elevator pitch - the name is what people (hopefully) will remember. It’ll go on graphics, promotional materials, Reddit posts, AI summaries. It should be:

“Descriptive” can mean either it actually says what you do (Home Depot), or that it expresses something about who you are as a company (beehiiv) or on some level very literally says what you do (PaveGen)

Here’s a handy checklist for deciding on a name.

1.) Does my name work?

Can you remember it? Is it something no other company or organization is using?

Is it a business centered around you and what you do? Your Name LLC. is always a solid fallback. Name & Name, or Name, Name & Name are also classic co-founder/team company names.

Inspiring? No, but they build off of name recognition, joint credibility, and your name will be as memorable (or not) as your company name. Something that’s actually an underrated point, as many companies become much more famous than their founders.

2.) What are your weaknesses?

Is your product niche crowded, hard to explain, or challenging to market? Each of those should drive you towards something punchier, that will stand out more.

If you have a ton of credibility in your space, and even some market traction, you can be riskier with this - but it’s easy to discount just how much work your company name can actually do on your behalf.

3.) What are your long-term goals?

If the company name is YOUR name, it’s going to be hard to sell (get your exit).

If the company name isn’t trademarkable, it’s going to be tough to market (something generic, like “Walker”)

If the company says or means something your company clearly doesn’t do, like “Tile World” by offers consulting services, that’s going to cause a lot of confusion - unless it’s part of your messaging, or something you plan to build towards in the future.

If you stop to think about it, you already know some great brands and branding.

You know what works.

While you’re thinking of which name/style direction to take, consider which brands you personally like the most.

It’s easy to skip that step, or understate how important that is to stop and consider for a moment. What are you trying to say? What are you trying to do?

The made-up name: Google

Here’s an easy one - it’s a completely made up word, but it reminds you of words like goggle, or “ooh,” (at least as an English speaker). It’s easy to say, it’s easy to remember, it’s infinitely brand-able, and it neatly evolved into a verb (Googling).

A lot of those were accidental, but we can look back on the past example and learn some lessons from what the company has become, in ways the original founders couldn’t.

Compare this to the now-parent company’s FAR less effective “Alphabet” which… I mean, it’s a name.

The symbolic name: Nike

Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, athletics, or other physical contests. An obvious choice as a short, memorable, impactful name that also has a deep symbolism you can explore to tell the story of who and what the company wanted to personify, as an athletic shoe company. On the branding side, apparently the famous “swoosh” is meant to be a stylized symbol of the goddess Nike’s wing (very cool).

There’s a cautionary tale here too, because apparently the runner-up for the company name was “Dimension Six” (…) which, like Alphabet, is also… a name.

Interestingly I found out for this article that Nike’s original name was Blue Ribbon Sports, the ribbon symbolizing the winner of a race or contest, and literally saying “sports,” which fits well in to the next category…

The literal name: Home Depot

I already referenced this earlier, but it’s hard to find a better example of “What we do is in the name” than the literal depot of home construction supplies. It is, in fact, a depot (or near enough) and is centered largely around home construction projects. Enough said!

It is what is says on the tin, and that’s especially powerful for startups. If someone searches for “Home Improvement,” Home Depot comfortably comes up in relevant search results. The same as tools like “FlowCV,“ as small AI-powered resume writing tool for, shocker, CVs. That was a terrific name!

The person’s name: Lowe’s

Named after the original hardware store’s founder, personal brand preferences aside, there are a LOT of reasons that “Lowe’s” is less effective of a name than Home Depot - that is, as a massive store chain. It was an excellent name for the Mom & Pop hardware store that it was founded as.

Notably, choosing the name Lowe’s represents the original legacy of the company, and celebrates the history and family ties of the company (see also Walmart, after founder Sam Walton).

It’s important to highlight that, because the name itself really doesn’t mean much to most shoppers. And, it’s just not as strong of a business name for what they do as Home Depot.

BUT, the company’s strength is that family, Mom & Pop legacy, and a lot of people will respond to that. It’s part of the company’s story, it’s a branding and marketing angle, and (possibly most importantly of all) it mattered to the people who started the company.

That’s a really important line to end on. Because your company name should matter to you. It should carry some combination of pride, function, utility, memorability - but you are the person who should feel something for the name. It will show if you don’t, and it will show a lot if you do.

Here’s your consideration checklist:

I just worked on three company names, here’s a quick breakdown of each conversation -

For my own GoBoldr, I love the boldness and pioneering aspect of startups. The combination of “Go” and boldness reference of “Boldr” is something that appeals to me, reflects my work style, and the startup/innovation focus of my specialties. It’s also made-up, being a mispelling of “bolder” and a single word. It’s short, punchy, memorable, and I have a cool T-shirt logo in mind (one day!)

…it also works very well for when I finally open that co-working space/rock climbing gym fusion. That was a non-zero factor in settling on it.

The second company is far more practical, if refers to exactly what it does. I can’t share details about that one (yet) because it’s very early-stage, but think a digital crossover with physical books called “Paper back.” It’s a digital tool, of course, but one that lovingly appreciates hard copies of written work. We’ll talk more about that soon!

Third, this is also an active conversation, but my personal suggestion was around symbolism. Something that was short and memorable, but like Nike, highlighted the goal of the company through shared symbols. It’s an easy comparison to Loblolly Creamery, whose founding and growth I had a front-row seat to in Little Rock.

The Loblolly is a kind of pine tree, native to the region (Southeast United States). It’s a cool quirky word (and name), that carries a lot of regional symbolism, emphasizing the locally crafted and community roots (see what I did there?) of the company, while adding “…creamery” is a pretty solid way to tell people what the business does.

All three of these examples share a combination of broadcasting intent, they’re varying degrees of quirky and literal, combining uniqueness, symbolism, and a does-what-it-says-on-the-tin level of passive marketing.

If someone sees your name on a sign, a business card, a bumper sticker - just your name - it’s excellent free marketing.

…if the viewer can read it (underrated point), remember it, and have juuuuuust enough of an idea what it means to know if they want to dig further, or think of someone right away who would (like that 6yo in the back seat who is begging for ice cream).

I’ve been tremendously fortunate to meet with a lot of truly extraordinary founders across all sorts of industries - that’s one of the best things about working with startups - and founder-led growth is one of my favorite things to witness.

Ilai is, I think, THE strongest example of founder-led company growth I’ve seen yet.

Seriously, just check out his LinkedIn presence.

Punchy, but clever. Technical, but digestible. Excited, energetic, always working, and highlighting the humanity of the product, the what, the why, and publicly talking through what they’re learning and doing. Every day.

What Pretty Prompt does is act as an in-browser prompt engineer for AI tools. You tell it “I want to make an app, that does this, in this tool,” and it crafts a highly detailed prompt to guide whatever tool you’re using to do exactly that.

It’s one fewer step between concept and execution, but catches things that most tools miss unless explicitly told - like make sure the database is secure, make sure the entire app uses the same code language, make sure XYZ interface tool is available for users.

We’re not all prompt engineers. In many cases we just don’t know what we don’t know.

Pretty Prompt is one more layer that gets you that much closer to actually doing what you’ve been dreaming about, but making those first steps that much easier.

And, bonus, by reviewing the prompts it suggests, you can learn a lot about each different AI platform, how they read, and what kinds of details to include in your future prompts.

Double bonus, it’s a Chrome extension. Something that just lives in the top of your browser, so it’s always there just a click away if you need it in the window you’re using.

Ilai (and his co-founder, Charlie Day) are an amazing duo building something very practical, and deceptively simple.

Great team, great product, amazing founding team!

Startup recruiter Zaharo Tsekouras gives some very good startup recruiting advice, dressed up in absolute sass, satire and sarcasm.

Who says good advice can’t be funny?

Come find me on LinkedIn

See more (and listen to this issue) on YouTube