Once you take the leap of faith into entrepreneurial lifestyle and make the decision to start a business, you must choose a name for your company. When starting my first company, I was completely unaware of the intricate logistical details associated with picking a name for a company. Here’s some advice to save you money and time when choosing a name for your startup.
Background
Naming a company is different for everyone. It comes naturally to some founders, but can also be the most difficult decision in the startup process for others.
A name is important, but rarely will make or break a company. Some companies name themselves after fruit. Others prefer animals. Some try to be witty and have their name metaphorically represent their product. Others name themselves after their deceased dog.
Whatever your preferred naming method is, you must ensure two things (in this order) before investing too much time and money into branding and incorporating under that given name:
- You can trademark the name for whatever industry you plan to enter.
- (Only if you pass the above test) You can purchase a decent domain for that given name.
Trademarking is a Bitch
My first tech startup had to change its name three times because of trademarking issues. It is important to make sure this is handled prior to investing too much in both domains and branding, because if you accidentally infringe on someone else’s trademark you will likely be forced to rebrand in the future which can have a fatal impact on an established company.
Unfortunately, the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) does not give a flying fuck about how different you are from some other random company with a similar name in a similar industry. Let’s face it, the government will always be behind when it comes to technology (as depressing as typing that statement is), so it is integral to get a trademark lawyer to help you research into obtaining a trademark on the name and logo of your new company. It‘s hard for a fledgling bootstrapped startup to justify this cost, but unless you’ve been to law school, it is a necessity. Do not use Legalzoom unless your company’s name is incredibly obscure. My general rule of thumb for this: if the .com is available, you can use Legalzoom or a similar service, but if not, get a damn trademark lawyer.
The Corrupt World of Domains
With my first startup, I quickly learned about the evil nature of domain squatters. If you’ve never heard of them, they are people who registered (primarily .com) domains and just wait for a person or company to need that specific domain. Generally, the more generic the word, the more likely a domain squatter (or a company already in business) owns the .com domain. Domain squatters with very generic domains can make literally millions of dollars off of a single domain. For example, Sex.com recently sold for $13 million.
So my advice to you if you are bootstrapping and do not have funding, choose a name where you can register either the .com or .co from the start, without having to bring in domain brokers to attain an already registered domain. You can use a service called domai.nr to help determine the availability of different domains similar to your name. If you have some money to spend and want a generic .com domain like medium.com, hire a domain broker to help you with that acquisition. However, be aware that most single word dictionary domains are sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Because I did not know this until joining the tech startup scene, there are many country codes that startups use in their name to help get around the problem of domain squatters on the popular .com domains. Many creative startups incorporate the country code suffixes into their name. Amanda Foley better sums this trend up in this article on TNW. Here’s a complete list of available country codes you can play around with should you choose to follow this trend.
Bottom line, don’t waste too much time choosing a name for your company. However, do spend the time necessary to make sure you can trademark the name and purchase a domain. This simple process will save you countless time and money. You’ll thank me later.
