Dan Martell - How to Name Your Startup

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.

Dan Martell - July 01, 2019

How to Name Your Startup

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