Building in Public: What’s in a Name Anyway?
I knew, after the initial well wishes and congratulatory messages post company launch last week, the inevitable question would be “So what’s the deal with ELK? Are you a big ungulate fan?”
To which I would say, “I’m ungulate ambivelent, actually” and then answer your actual question with a number. That number is this number: 238.
Yes — I brAInstormed more than 200 for this company I just launched. Out of all of those, maybe five wouldn’t make you cringe so hard you’d blink out of existence if you heard them spoken aloud*.
Naming things is an atrocious process when done in a vacuum. Yet asking for input from others is perhaps worse, on account of people saddling you with the complimentary albatross of “Oh, you’re so creative, you’ll come up with something!”
WELL WHAT IF I DON’T? Guess I’m not so creative after all, am I? Then suddenly your whole endeavor is on shaky ground. Entrepreneurship demands confidence: the confidence that what you are seeking to do is valuable and useful and people want it. So struggling to come up with a name is a tough test of that confidence.
Which was all swirling around my head as I tried to figure out something to call this company. Don’t forget trying to live down the shame if you botch it!
So — names, names, names. Where to start? Words I liked? Hobbies I have? The street I live on? A favorite sandwich? A certain herbaceous liquor popular in the Windy City? Science terms? Space? The ocean? The sky? Pop culture? Mythology? My name? What about what I was trying to do?
The last one is valid but a key insight early on was that I did not want analytics -coded words in the name. Even though that is the work that I’m going to be doing and the space I’ll be operating in, I just didn’t want to pigeonhole myself and this company — who knows where it’ll end up? So that means Analytics, Data, Measurement, Insights, etc were out.
Despite all of these parameters I gave myself, I did it. I landed on a cool name! No one else was using it! First big task out of the way! I rule!
Then I ran smack dab into the three heads of Cerebus, LLC naming edition:
Grrrr
There I was, ready and willing to get going with my chosen name and the domain wasn’t available (I’ll talk about domain struggles a bit in a later post. There will be a poll!) Ok, you can futz around with domains and get within striking distance. Fine — but then the other two heads clamped onto me. There were already trademarks filed with VERY similar names and there were businesses in the state of Maryland with VERY similar names. Would it cause a problem? Would it delay my Articles of Organization paperwork? How much did I love this name and how much was I was willing to dig in for it? More importantly — how much would it co$t me?
So it turns out that I didn’t love it that much. Back to the drawing board. Staring down the barrel of another few weeks of brAInstorming and another 200 terrible names, a previously discarded idea came to mind. I had tried to work out some sort of acronym or something with the names of my family before, but my name (stupid J!) was making the whole thing unworkable.
But then — epiphany! I just had to get rid of, well, me. Without the J, I had a workable name! Taking the ego out of the equation led to something meaningful and reflective of my values.
That’s also how I approach working alongside partners — no ego, no assumptions, just listening first. By understanding your unique challenges, we can build elegant, tailored solutions that truly work for you. If that sounds like the kind of partnership you’re looking for, let’s chat: Schedule a time here.
So, bottom line, what’s ELK all about? Simple — it’s an acronym of my family’s initials, keeping me honest about why I’m doing this and what matters most.
*Ok, a sampling of some of the names. Proceed at your own peril:
Maelstrom DataWorks (this was a real contender for about 12 hours; my 17 year old edgelord self still really likes it)
DataJAM (initials, again)
Illuminated Insights Inc. (everyone loves alliteration!)
Big Circle Analytics (…like a hula hoop?)
Burton Business Intelligence (“y’know what ol’ Jack Burton says at a time like this?”)
Sage Analytics (not too bad…but already exists)
Bellwether Frontiers (are we a space outfit?)
