Transcription
Okay, this is going to be a fun one. Today, I just need to get something off my chest. I think that the name of a startup is more important than ever. There's a lot of bad names out there, so I don't want you to be naming your startup something bad. I want you to name it something good. And why does it matter more than ever? It's because you need a name that's going to be scroll-stopping.
So, in today's podcast, I'm going to just walk you through how I think about names, some of my frameworks, uh, and if you stick until the end, I'll even tell you a few of some names that come from my list that you can have. Um, so this is going to be a tutorial on how to name your startup, uh, how to come up with a good [Music] name.
Um, I believe that there's three types of names: um, bad names, good names, and what I call tofu names, which are kind of like mid names. So what I mean by that is it doesn't really stick out. You know, tofu takes on the sauce of whatever is around it; it's kind of bland. So it's kind of a bad name, but it's not, you know, it's not offensive.
And I do have a framework for naming. I, I took this from our membership community, empire.co, and there's three ways where you can actually, you know, I come up with names. So the first thing is I come up with a descriptive name, a phrase, or a funny name, and I'll explain exactly what I mean by each name.
So a descriptive name is something like the Instagram account @somewhereiwillive. So if you go to that Instagram account, uh, and we can put it up on the screen, I think it has like millions of of users or millions of followers—838,000 followers. Um, and what does it mean, you know, when I quick-follow, like what am I getting? Well, I'm getting beautiful photos of somewhere I would live. So, uh, this is also a takeaway, which is the name of your startup could be the name of your handle, um, and you know, or could not, and you could have a separate process for uh coming up with the name of your handle. But having almost a million people uh who are interested in somewhere I would live, you can sell them a lot of things. You can sell them real estate, you can sell them furniture, interior design services. So I think that having a descriptive name uh is really important um nowadays and just works really well um because uh people see it and they're like, "Somewhere I would like to live. Yeah, I could use some, you know, furniture, interior house inspo in my Instagram. I'm going to click follow." So descriptive names—super underrated, um, and something I use uh a lot.
Phrases. So, uh, what do I mean by a phrase? So, uh, a phrase could be something that is starting to take off in the cultural Zeitgeist. So, um, you know, a few years ago, I'll just pull up Google Trends, uh, there was a popular term, uh, and is now less popular, but uh was called "boss babe." So as you can see, um, on my screen, let's go to Max, and this is uh, you know, Google Trends, um, and I use a tool called Glimpse to just give you some more information and just some uh related related uh terms. So a friend of mine, I think it was like around 2013, sort of picked up on this name "boss babe." She grabbed the handle, created a meme page, theme page uh called "boss babe" on on Instagram, and it's just, you know, started started to, you know, grow. As searches for "boss babe" grew, and she started sharing uh, you know, quotes, you know, for female entrepreneurs and empowerment, female empowerment, um, and just really started to to go up, and uh, she she created an account with millions and millions of uh of followers. I think it's about 6.6 or so million followers and was able to create, you know, a five plus million dollar a year business on the back of it. So, uh, a phrase, when you know, when a phrase starts um being on the come up, uh, you really do need to to to just take stock of it, see if you can grab that handle, um, see if you can buy that handle, uh, create a business around it. I think phrases are underrated.
Um, I've had another—and he's actually been on the Pod—I had a friend of mine who had a phrase that he owned called "The Most Famous Artist." So he was an artist; no one no one was sort of listening to him for a while, so he he just just decided to be called "The Most Famous Artist," uh, so that when you would Google him, um, he would come up—The Most Famous Artist. Just Google him for a second; he's literally the number one person that comes up ahead of Pablo Picasso, ahead of Rembrandt, ahead of Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dalí, Michelangelo—these people—he's the first person. His name is MD Mo. And uh, phrases, you know, if you own a phrase, uh, it's super super valuable.
Uh, and then there's humor. The internet um revolves around funny uh memes and stuff like that. So if you can pick a a funny name, um it will go far, and you will get a lot of uh dividends of that. Um, there's a lot of examples of that. Um, I think the uh like the whole Manscaped brand, um, you know, is they their their content is, you know, their social is a little bit around around humor and stuff like that. I think they did uh a pretty good job at it and and just leaning into it.
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So a funny name, you know, I'll give you a couple of examples of what that could look like. When COVID happened and people couldn't get their haircuts, I actually, as a fun side project—24 hours—I launched this thing called "You Probably Need a Haircut," and it was basically a tool that connected barbers in Brooklyn to people who needed haircuts, um, and they would like coach you on how to cut it yourself, um, and it was funny because obviously you needed a haircut, um, because um, you know, it had been a couple months, and and it got picked up by like Good Morning America and everywhere—millions and millions of visits to the website, um, all from making people laugh and smile, um, and that was that was a really fun one. So and we actually used that same idea; we created a a sort of an AI automation business called "You Probably Need a Robot," which is that same idea, um, and we've gotten free traffic, you know, the same way. So humor, you know, goes a long way, um, and these are like the three sort of ways to think about how I think about creating a name for the internet that's going to go super super far.
Um, and then I want to just show show examples of what could good names be, what would bad names be, what would tofu names be, um, and then uh I'll talk more about hacking your way to a novel name. But uh, let's go into some bad names.
Um, so I actually think WhatsApp is a garbage name. Um, it's a garbage name because first of all, it's like when they were first starting and they were trying to get product-market fit and you know, it just basically didn't pass the telephone test. Now what's the telephone test? It's when you call your friend and you're like, "You need to download this app called WhatsApp," and then they go to the app store and then they try to download it and uh they spell it wrong—"WhatsUp," right? Um, so you know, passing the telephone test is pretty important—just easier. Obviously, now it's a success, so kind of doesn't—once you're like mega-successful, it doesn't really matter what your name is, but it is probably one of the worst names.
GameStop is a pretty bad—gamestop.com is a pretty bad name. So, um, "game" is good to have in the name; they sell games, although now they're selling like collectibles, so it's not perfect, but um you want you don't want to stop; you want to, you know, it should be "game start" of anything. You want to play the game, so the the "ne"—you don't want to have negative vibes, negative uh sort of—you don't want people not to do the thing that uh you want them to do. So GameStop I think is actually a pretty pretty bad name. This name was changed, but Google Gemini, their ChatGPT competitor, was originally called Google Bard. "Bard" literally sounds like I'm throwing up. Um, when I throw up, I sound—I just barf all over the place. Um, so I'm happy they changed it. Gemini, to me, is a a tofu name. We can we're gonna talk more about tofu names in a second, um, but just yeah, just not a really good name at all.
Um, I just tweeted about this app called Social AI, um, which went viral, which is this idea around uh it's basically like a Twitter app except uh you know, you have zero human followers, and they just give you like a million AI followers, and you post, and then you get like thousands of replies—all AI generated—but it's called Social AI, and it's like the least social thing it is. Um, to me, you know, what what's a sort of phrase like what would I call this? I would I'd probably use a phrase, and I'd call it "Main Character.a." It makes you the main character. So, um, I just think that this is this feels a bit tofu to me; doesn't really, you know, I don't really get it. Um, but "Main Character.a," you know, I I totally get.
Cloe—clodoai is, you know, on one hand is good because it's like a person and a brand, and you can kind of see it, and it's French, so maybe it's like I don't know, higher quality, um but it's hard to spell for the for Americans; they don't really get it, you know. So I think I think that they were on the right track, but um, you know, maybe pick "Pierre" over "Cloe"—easier to spell, and also like, come on, "Cloe," people like, where's the where's the vibe here? Like, where is the brand? Um, this just feels so lame. It's like that gray could be so much more. They could be like making a bigger brand, you know, a more lovable brand, minimal, lovable product. Here, and by the way, I'm sharing all this stuff so you just get in my head so you become like the biggest, best name expert on the planet. Um, I have some of the biggest brands call me up, and they're just like, "Hey, Greg, I need a name." They know I'm I'm the name guy. So uh, trying to give you all that alpha free.
I think Perplexity is uh a really good name—"Perplexity.ai," the uh search engine, because like, you know, being perplexed is, you know, you don't have the answers, so here is where the answers are. And I think I don't know if you all have seen, but the Perplexity ads are like they go hard. Um, like here, look at this—Perplexity—Know it all. Search and discover with AI. So this is their I guess their, you know, splash—well, it's not a splash screen; it's really just like a yeah, it's a kind of a logged-out screen on on web, uh, and it's beautiful, and it gets you connected to the Perplexity brand. I think it's they do a really really really really good job here, and probably one of the reasons why they're, you know, I think their last valuation was three billion—like the brand matters, the name matters.
This is an app uh called Bump. It's a location-sharing app, and when you're with your friend, you you like shake your phone, um, and you bump, and basically that sends a notification to all your friends who um who are following you. So you bump when you're together. Uh, I think this is—and it's starting to take off—like 79th in social networking in the US. I think this is really cool as a name because it's the action that they want you to do. Um, so thinking about if you're doing an app, you're doing a consumer, you know, consumer app, consumer software, like picking the verb is a pretty smart way of of naming uh an app.
I had to throw this one in here. When when I was like, "Claude" is like kind of a not great name—most of you probably don't remember this—this search engine—it was in the 90s—it was called Ask Jeeves. And they took out all the branding here, but like back in the—it was this dude; it looked like this. You showed up, and you you went to Google something, and you had this legend right over here, and it was like Ask Jeeves, and he was like handing you the the the the results on a silver platter. Um, love that name; can do a lot with the brand and definitely goes viral.
This is an app I'm actually going to bring um the founder on on the Pod as well. So depending on when this is um this goes live, uh check it out. His name is Chris Joseph's. So Autopilots is a really cool thing. They started off um with like a Twitter account like the Nancy Pelosi tracker where they would see what Nancy Pelosi would trade uh and all, and then they started doing Michael Burry—the dude from the the the Big Short. So they created an app based on these, you know, Twitter uh I guess and Instagram um uh handles, and they said like, "Do you want to copy these people's trades? Like, go for it." And I think "Autopilot" is such a good name because it's like just—you're not gonna—I don't care how good of an investor you are—you're not going to outcompete Nancy Pelosi. We all know this by now; don't even try. So uh, pressing a button and just copying trades, I think is really really smart, um, and calling it "Autopilot"—just like, I get it.
Last good name—this is is a it's like a sauna, ice bath, SL, like breathwork company. They started off in Toronto; now they're in New York City, um, and then they built an app that became quite popular, which is, you know, just you can tune into these breathing exercises, and it's called "Othership." And "Othership," uh, I have no idea really what it means. Um, I just know that like the people that go to this are the types of people that are sober, that care about their health, that talk about clean living, um, and it just feels like "Othership"—it's like a ship that's like another ship that you probably should be on; it's leaving, you know, it's leaving the marina—go jump on—um, and it's just like another lifestyle that you can go ahead and have and and and you know, I've been I've actually been to one of these, and the Toronto one, and it it is like a very unique experience—not just like a a a it's not just like a steam sauna place; it's more than that, um, and uh it's it's just like an "other" experience. So I think they did a good job.
Now what's an example of a tofu brand? Aloe. It's like—what? It doesn't speak to me. I don't I don't really connect to it, and I know I'm not like the target audience obviously for this, um, but uh I just don't think it's like a memorable name. Um, and when you don't have a memorable name and you have a tofu name, your job gets harder; your job gets a lot harder. And who needs it? Building a startup is hard as it is; you need all the luck on your side. So I think that's uh that's a pretty pretty tofu name. I also like—we actually changed the name. We had uh before uh we were designscientist.com, which is like a design agency that is like part copywriting agency, part marketing agency, part design agency—like we create design assets that convert—and um before we did that, we were called—such a tofu name—it was called Dispatch. "Dispatch" could be like literally a coffee shop; it could be a recruiting agency; it could be a design agency. So uh it didn't mean anything, and we changed it, and as soon as we changed it, revenue, conversion, everything went up. So so put together a little kind of checklist around how do you hack your way to a novel name.
So step one: create a note on your phone. I call it "The Name Game," just like on your iPhone or whatever—call it "The Name Game"—and then as you're going along life, you're going to hear a word that is going to captivate you, uh, or you're going to be like, "That's super catchy." So, for example, maybe you get poured a Coke, um, and you start drinking it, and you're like, "Oh my God, that's a flat soda," and then you're like, "Whoa, 'Flat Soda,' that's a good name for a startup!" Boom, put it in. Now, once every two weeks, see if that name is available on places like IG, Twitter, X, TikTok, um, you know, go and grab as many handles as you can. You can be a a hoarder of of some of these of these names; don't worry—these handles, you know, nothing wrong with that.
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And then like test the name out at at dinner with your friends, uh, in conversation with your family, with your friends—is just like, "Hey, what do you think about this name for this thing?" And the ones that resonate—make a logo for them. Can the name be transferred into a visual representation of what you imagine? So that's like the path. Um, and if you don't—if you can't come up with names by just like walking, going for a walk, and things are not hitting for you, I would say start with the community—like what are you building uh for? Who like who is it for? So if it's for dentists, um what are the pain points that dentists have? What are some new phrases that they have? Um, and then what's the essence of these phrases? Um, and just start brainstorming from there.
Um, I usually go to Claude, um, and I'm say like I use this prompt—then you can have it—I'm I'm brainstorming names around XYZ topic. So you know, as an example, I'm brainstorming names around an AI software agent that answers uh restaurants and takes orders. Um, what are some interesting, clear, direct names that speak to this community? And we can just do it live because we're live cooking, and I know you all love the live cooking. Um, let's do this, do that—boom—and then let's see what what people what it comes up with. So we got like Dine Bot, Order Mine, Cuisine Assist, Menu Mate, Foodie AI, Serve Logic, Dish Decider, Bite Bot. Um, "Bite Bot's" like pretty good, um, because it's got that alliteration, um, but yeah, I think then you you see like, is this a phrase? Is this descriptive? Um, is it funny? And you could say like, "I want more of a funny one; I want more of a descriptive one. Can you make it one word versus two words? Um, do you want it three words? Is do you want it short? Do you want it long?" Um, and then you just use Claude as your as your naming assistant—as your Greg Eisenberg—it's just me, you know—make Claude me basically—and get feedback, and then put that on your name list and and get feedback.
So that's that's most of what I got. I wanted to give you a few names on my list, on my name my name game list, just as like you made it here, you know, you made it here—I'm gonna give you these names. Um, so one is called "Afterparty." I don't know what it's for or like what you'd use it for, but like the "Afterparty" is something that a lot of people uh, you know, want to go to; it's fun; maybe it's exclusive. I think there's something there. Um, and by the way, some of these you might not like, and they might be bad, and that's the other thing is on your name game uh list—it's okay to have bad names, um, and then you can just remove them or just keep them—nothing wrong with that.
"Pretty Perfect"—not sure what it be be for, but like the idea of "Pretty Perfect"—you got that alliteration—I think that it sounds uh pretty beautiful. Um, what else we got? "Invitation Only." You know, "by invitation only." I think I saw that on like a a wedding init invitation. Something something nice about that—maybe you create like a paid community that's invite-only for a particular uh group. "Incred"—it's short for "incredible." You know, you want to create something that's incredible—"Incred"—you probably can get that domain; probably can't get incredible.com. So that's kind of an interesting one. And maybe that's it for now. That's I think, you know, if you like this, I'll share more ideas, more names. Um, I want you all to comment on if you know what are some tofu names, what are some good names, what are some bad names. Hope this has been helpful. Uh, I love doing these tutorials because I think it really does hopefully make a difference in how you think about doing stuff, how you actually not just create startup ideas but actually go and build the startup ideas. So, um, that's what the channel is evolving to—it's not just about ideas; it's about tutorials about making things happen; it's about putting things into the world; it's about shipping; it's about getting customers; it's about building community; it's about building internet audiences. So if you like this, uh you can give me a little tip with a like, comment, subscribe, share, and uh I think that's it for today. Thanks for thanks for watching, thanks for listening, and happy naming.