The 2nd post is a personal account of a long and exhausting journey, involving diligent exploration of an adequate company name.
I guess most of the start-ups will attest to the challenges associated with finding the most suitable name for a company. All that we were looking for was a generic, yet sophisticated, name that would allude to our activity of endeavor, would be easy to spell, would not be lengthy, AND that would end with .com (is it a lot to ask?). We chose to elect a name that would capture the underlying qualities that define our system. So, we have provided a statistical tool for analyzing, optimizing, and predicting careers based on a large database of real people with real careers. Therefore, this system is very reliable, practical, and relevant (rather than theoretical). It will provide the users with subjective and objective information about their careers, will alert users about the right time to make a move, and will guide them trough important milestones within their career path. In sum, the application will show you an optimal way to fulfill your career goals based on pertinent information.
The above process has proven itself effective. That day, many business names were brainstormed. I can’t recall all of them, but here you’ll find some of the good ones: * Next Step (the app will guide you towards your career goals with the next optimal step) * Two Steps (same idea, with a hint for the prediction capabilities) * Smart Move (you wisely chose a job, in a right time to move) * Crystal Ball (because of the prediction capabilities) * Career Path (that what it’s all about) * Career Adviser (we do advise, aren’t we?) * Career Logic * Logic Path * Job Logic (a logical analysis for an optional jobs that build a career) * Real People (one of the biggest strengths of the app – it is using a live, constantly changing, large database of real people) * Personal Goals (it will help you fulfill them).
Very good! All of the names above comply with our requirements, but one… – .com availability! However, we noticed that either the domains were taken, or belonged to a domain dealer (there are many of them, and they are charging a lot).
Nevertheless, filled with resourcefulness and enthusiasm, we decided to look for a name in foreigner languages, such as Latin or Japanese. After all, there must be cool names out there… we even found some, such as Consilium (in Latin: advice, wisdom, plan, purpose), or Jobu (in Japanese: job). But soon enough we discovered they’re taken as well. Someone already said, “Great minds think alike”.
As giving up is not an option, we took on another route – we can use a meaningless name. This method worked very well for others (e.g., Jajah, Yahoo, etc.). Why won’t we do the same? Well, personally I don’t like this trend. And even if I did, guess what ?… the good ones are taken. For those who do think in this direction I can refer you to a helpful link: http://www.domainnamesoup.com/ (a domain name generator). Give it a try.
In despair, we had to compromise and consider adding hyphens to some optional domains (e.g. smart-move.com), or using different endings, such as .net or .info. Is it really that bad? What is least bad, an hyphen or a .net? We asked for a piece of advice from our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) expert friends. Both said we don’t really have a choice. We have to try harder as .com domain is a “must” (especially when building a company from scratch). They provided many arguments to support their recommendations, but SEO is not our topic. If you want to learn more, visit the following blogs: http://www.wolf-howl.com/ or http://www.seomoz.org/blog.
Time is passing by (2 months) and we still don’t have a company name. It became a pestering thought, constantly keeping you busy with searching for the right one… Till that day when it all came together! not only one, but three good ones surfaced unexpectedly. Are they available? Well, sort of… * Life Roles (describing career, and sounds like Face Book) is already taken, but the owner is opened for offers. * Career Bells (It contains double meaning: 1. statistical bell curve of a career 2. bells = alerts, those you’ll get when it’s time to move on) available. * Yellow Bricks (let me know your thoughts…) for sale *
We liked most yellowbricks.com, and decided to make an offer at buydomains.com. The list price was quite high, and our proposal for less then a third, was accepted…
Eventually, we couldn’t win the “domain dealers”, but at least we are happy with our company name, we are actually proud of it!
yellowbricks.com careers come true!
