Dan Martell - July 01, 2019


How to Name Your Startup


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

200.07237

Word count

1,843

Sentence count

119

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Dan Martell talks about how to name your startup and why it's one of the most important things you can do to get your startup off the ground. He also shares some tips and tricks on what to call your startup.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 Hey there.
00:00:00.500 Dan Martell here, serial entrepreneur, investor,
00:00:02.380 and creator of SaaS Academy.
00:00:03.920 In this video, I'm going to share with you
00:00:05.840 something I thought I shot a long time ago,
00:00:08.120 and it seems like I never did, how to name your startups
00:00:11.560 with some tips and tricks.
00:00:12.920 And be sure to stay at the end where
00:00:14.340 I'm going to share with you how to get access to my Idea 2
00:00:17.280 Exit mini course.
00:00:18.480 If you're thinking of starting a software company,
00:00:21.120 you're going to want to get access to this training.
00:00:30.000 So the other day I was riding in an Uber with my buddy Kevin and I said, hey man, you working
00:00:40.720 on a new startup? And he's like, actually I am. I was like, awesome. What's the name of it?
00:00:46.560 And he's like, well, I'm toying with a few different names. I haven't really figured out
00:00:50.280 the one that I'm, that I'm settled on. I was like, oh cool. So you're trying to name startup. It's
00:00:53.620 like, yeah. I was like, and then he goes, so do you have any ideas? And it was funny because I
00:00:58.840 to realize I had never shot a video
00:01:02.080 on probably one of the first and most important steps
00:01:05.240 in building a company, which is naming your startup.
00:01:08.240 So I started walking him through the different things
00:01:11.020 that I've always kind of done for my different companies,
00:01:13.840 from Clarity to Flowtown to Spheric.
00:01:15.600 And look, I'm not saying that I got it right.
00:01:17.500 I'm just saying there is a process,
00:01:19.680 and I've, you know, as an investor in over 40 other companies
00:01:22.960 and talked to literally 5,000 plus other tech companies,
00:01:27.840 I feel like I've got a unique angle and approach.
00:01:30.900 I'm going to share with you in this video
00:01:32.700 some tips and tricks that I shared with Kevin
00:01:34.920 that he took action on right away and that are not obvious.
00:01:40.400 That's the key.
00:01:40.980 I do not want to share things that are obvious with you.
00:01:43.560 So here are five strategies for naming your startup.
00:01:46.540 Number one, align with your customer.
00:01:49.180 I mean, at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself,
00:01:52.540 whoever you're serving as a core customer or focus,
00:01:55.200 is does this name hurt you?
00:01:57.240 You know, if I was building a security company
00:01:59.220 and I called my startup WeakSauce.com,
00:02:03.160 you know, it's like, hey, welcome to,
00:02:05.080 or the future of firewalls and we are WeakSauce.com,
00:02:08.880 I mean, it would just not work.
00:02:10.600 And I think sometimes, I meet these founders
00:02:13.020 that are going after mid-market enterprise customers
00:02:15.060 and they've got these playful kiddish Fisher Price names
00:02:19.000 and I get it when you're doing consumer that makes sense
00:02:21.120 or even SMB software, but it does not make sense
00:02:24.800 when you're trying to go after the Fortune 2000.
00:02:27.580 So just think about aligning your name
00:02:29.620 with your customer's expectations or sentiments.
00:02:32.580 Number two, don't be too specific.
00:02:35.080 You know, one of my friends was sharing with me there.
00:02:37.980 One of the ideas for the new company, one of them
00:02:39.820 was Auto BDR.
00:02:40.880 Well, BDR stands for Business Development Rep, which
00:02:43.560 pretty much has the customer name or the type of customer
00:02:46.760 you serve in the name, which to a lot of people would be like,
00:02:49.160 well, that makes a lot of sense because then people
00:02:50.720 know exactly what we do.
00:02:52.180 Yes, but in the early days of technology and startup,
00:02:55.600 what I've discovered is there is like a 90% chance
00:02:58.780 that the idea and the customer you focus on when you launch
00:03:01.880 is not the product or customer segment
00:03:04.700 that allows you to eventually succeed in business.
00:03:07.600 So the last thing you want to do is just pigeonhole yourself
00:03:10.620 into a very specific name that doesn't allow you
00:03:14.320 to explore the optionality of the product or the markets
00:03:17.820 that you might be able to serve.
00:03:19.320 Number three, outcome driven.
00:03:21.780 So what I mean by this is the best names
00:03:25.200 are the ones that essentially communicate the benefit
00:03:30.660 or outcome that a customer has using your product, OK?
00:03:34.000 And this is where I feel like I got lucky with Clarity.
00:03:37.140 And yes, it was Clarity.fm was my previous company.
00:03:40.780 But it was like a late night coding session.
00:03:43.680 And then all of a sudden, I was like,
00:03:44.880 hey, I really need to buy a domain for this project
00:03:47.340 I was working on.
00:03:48.440 And I just found this Clarity.fm.
00:03:50.820 I was like, oh, it's broadcasting, it's voice.
00:03:52.720 Clarity is kind of what the essence of getting advice
00:03:56.680 from other people over the phone would provide.
00:03:58.940 So I just call it Clarity.
00:04:00.320 And what has been amazing to see that go on
00:04:02.880 is that people keep saying, like, man,
00:04:05.020 I really got a lot of clarity from that call.
00:04:06.780 Clarity, Clarity.
00:04:07.560 It's like they can't even say, like,
00:04:09.420 you know, I got a mentor because he gives me Clarity,
00:04:11.360 or I need to find somebody to help me get Clarity.
00:04:13.920 Like, all of a sudden, the name ties back
00:04:16.820 to your product and solution.
00:04:18.100 It's like one of the best things you could possibly do.
00:04:20.780 So just think about what is the outcome or the feeling
00:04:26.260 or the benefit that the customer will
00:04:28.200 have by using your product and use that name.
00:04:30.560 It also allows it to be broad enough for you
00:04:33.160 to play around with it.
00:04:34.500 Think about PayPal.
00:04:36.920 Initially, it was PalmPilot money transfer,
00:04:40.000 but then they realized it's like, well, that's not really
00:04:41.780 going to work.
00:04:42.280 There's not a lot of people have PalmPilots.
00:04:43.620 It required you installing encryption software on both ends.
00:04:46.700 And they kind of went a little bit further
00:04:48.220 and discovered email money transfer.
00:04:50.720 So I think that names that allow you to focus on the outcome
00:04:56.260 and the benefit the customer is going to drive
00:04:58.320 allows you to really explore the solution to get them there
00:05:02.000 and really drives the mental movie that the customer makes
00:05:06.060 in their head around your product and their problem.
00:05:09.180 And that to me is like the ultimate.
00:05:11.340 When a customer has a problem and your name of your business
00:05:15.880 has entered in and labeled, like when I have this problem,
00:05:19.220 this is a company solving that,
00:05:20.400 that's when it becomes super powerful.
00:05:22.860 Number four, don't buy the dot-com.
00:05:25.780 I have so many entrepreneurs reaching out and saying,
00:05:27.400 hey, I've got this new company, here's what it's called,
00:05:29.780 and I can buy the dot-com for like $75,000.
00:05:32.200 Should I do that?
00:05:33.340 My answer, especially if you're starting off
00:05:35.460 and cash is tight, I do not think you should invest
00:05:38.580 more than really five to, on the high end,
00:05:41.340 maybe $10,000 for a really good domain,
00:05:43.640 which is probably gonna be rare,
00:05:45.420 because at the end of the day,
00:05:46.800 people are going to discover your business through links.
00:05:50.020 It's going to be word of mouth.
00:05:51.360 It's going to be from you.
00:05:52.520 Marketing, they're going to click an ad.
00:05:54.140 They're going to find a blog post.
00:05:55.320 They're going to read about you.
00:05:57.020 They're going to see you speak on a stage.
00:05:58.180 They're going to hear about you in a podcast.
00:05:59.860 And somebody's going to link up your website.
00:06:01.360 So what's more important is nail the name.
00:06:04.260 Find a domain that makes sense.
00:06:06.260 I mean, .coms are still good, like get something or this now.
00:06:09.900 And there's a bunch of different variations
00:06:11.740 that you can find online that people are using today.
00:06:14.040 But to me, it's like nail the outcome or the benefit
00:06:17.740 and then just add whatever else you
00:06:19.120 need on the domain to get it to work.
00:06:21.460 And look, the truth is the .io's, the .fm's, the .tv's,
00:06:24.920 the .whatever, you can go there initially.
00:06:28.160 And eventually, if you grow enough, you can buy the .com.
00:06:30.760 But I just don't think it matters anymore.
00:06:32.840 I think that most of the traffic you're going to get
00:06:34.560 is going to be linked.
00:06:35.380 And in those link, the domain is going to be already referenced.
00:06:38.300 So you don't need to get a very expensive .com
00:06:41.740 for your startup.
00:06:43.020 Number five, have meaning.
00:06:45.660 If you are going to build this company,
00:06:47.780 it will consume your life.
00:06:50.100 And it would be awesome if you could come up
00:06:52.740 with a name that also has a deeper meaning to you
00:06:56.100 or to the team or to the problem that you want to solve,
00:06:59.460 the right you want to see solved or the right you want
00:07:02.020 to fix in the world.
00:07:03.660 So think about, is there a meaning behind this name?
00:07:06.920 Even if it doesn't match or accomplish the benefit-driven
00:07:10.420 or outcome-driven naming, I think
00:07:12.720 it's more important that for you, as long as people can spell it,
00:07:15.560 I see sometimes people use foreign words in other languages.
00:07:19.220 And for them, it has incredible meaning
00:07:22.500 around their heritage and their lineage and all these things.
00:07:25.280 But it is really hard to spell or it's not obvious
00:07:28.720 how to even discover it.
00:07:29.940 If I hear the name and I can't phonetically go to Google
00:07:34.020 and search and hopefully get it somewhat right
00:07:36.340 that I discover your website, then it's just
00:07:38.540 going to be a total fail.
00:07:39.680 So yes, have meaning.
00:07:41.600 Yes, try to connect a meaning to it.
00:07:43.180 Maybe take some different names of people
00:07:44.940 and put them together.
00:07:46.080 And because I will tell you, if this succeeds,
00:07:49.560 that will be your rally cry.
00:07:51.360 That name will be everywhere.
00:07:53.700 It's going to drive you.
00:07:54.620 You're going to wake up.
00:07:55.320 You're going to be not being able to sleep thinking
00:07:57.440 about your company and figuring things out.
00:07:59.580 And you want a name that has real deep meaning,
00:08:03.020 because it will consume your life.
00:08:06.480 So real quick recap on some tips and tricks
00:08:08.900 for naming your startup.
00:08:10.240 Number one, align with your customer.
00:08:13.060 Number two, don't be too specific.
00:08:16.000 Number three, outcome-driven names.
00:08:19.080 Number four, don't pay for the dot com. 0.96
00:08:22.000 And number five, ensure that it has meaning.
00:08:25.500 As I mentioned at the beginning, I
00:08:26.800 want to share with you an incredible resource
00:08:28.540 called the Idea to Exit mini course.
00:08:30.380 It's essentially a three-video series
00:08:32.780 where I unpack how to come up with the right software idea,
00:08:36.200 how to pre-sell it to your customer base,
00:08:39.040 to fund your development, to then
00:08:40.900 hire the dev and technical team to build it,
00:08:43.780 and then onward to eventually, if you want,
00:08:45.640 to exit the business.
00:08:47.140 You can click the link below to get access to that training.
00:08:49.600 That is a gift to you, just because if you're here
00:08:52.520 trying to name your startup, you're
00:08:53.660 probably looking for tips on how to scale and grow.
00:08:56.980 And if you like this video, be sure
00:08:58.360 to smash the like button.
00:08:59.860 Subscribe to my channel if there's
00:09:01.020 anybody you care about that you feel that this video can serve.
00:09:03.720 Feel free to share it with them directly.
00:09:05.360 And as per usual, I want to challenge you
00:09:07.000 to live a bigger life and a bigger business.
00:09:08.780 And I'll see you next Monday.
00:09:10.140 Tips, tricks, and other things that start with T.