How to Name Your Startup

Sup. Today I want to share my approach on naming startups and side-projects.

Let’s have a little experiment. I’ve gathered some real names of real projects for you to check out. Those are website generators. Let’s glance at the names:

• Webflow
• Webydo
• Jimdo
• Unicorn Platform
• Weebly
• Landing Page Maker
• Layout It
• Ucraft
• Webnode
• Weblo
• Landing Lion
• Webstarts
• Mobirise

Now tell me which ones did you memorize? For me, it’s Unicorn Platform and Landing Lion. (Disclaimer: Unicorn Platform is my project).

The reality is that the Internet is full of products of any type. It’s most possible someone has already made something you are making. If you want to stand out, you should be creative.

FYI: finding a tricky combination of the root of your main keyword and a suffix is not creative anymore.

What I offer is to choose one living and memorizing noun that somehow illustrates the strong parts of your product. It can be anything: a plant, an animal, a planet, a lake, a mythological creature etc.

Then append or prepend one neutral word.

For me, it’s “unicorn” because unicorns are awesome, they can do magic things and are rare. And “platform” because my product intends to grow into a huge platform for solving many problems. Associations is a powerful marketing tool and I’m glad to have it in my armory.

Let’s see which additional benefits this approach gives.

Domain and Usernames

You will most possibly find a suitable .com free.

As well as Twitter, Github, Facebook and all other social networks usernames. It saves time both for you at the stage of signing up and managing those and for your customers when they want to find you.

Emoji-driven Marketing 😂

I promote my product via Emoji. I have placed “🦄” everywhere on the web next to my name and people remember the project when they see my posts.

Mascot

A mascot is a great way to make a connection with your audience. Those can be placed on your website, printed on Tees and as stickers. You can also make a sticker pack for messengers.

Of course, you can create a mascot without having its designation in the name, but it will work better together.

One might say that name doesn’t matter, and a maker should focus on the product instead of wasting time brainstorming the name.

I would agree. Naming is not crucial.

But a catchy name will give you a nice marketing boost. And if you are just beginning with your project and don’t have any ad budget, each little trick matters.

P.S.: I spent ~40 seconds on the task “come up with a name for my landing page builder”.

P.P.S.: I’m 100% sure putting a keyword in the domain name brings insignificant SEO benefits. Thus squeezing one in just doesn’t worth it.