4-10 Head Bend. Would that be a good band name? How about Super Sonic? It’s obvious that Super Sonic has to do with sound, but you’re more likely to notice and remember something with more distinction. I play this name game a lot and find it extremely satisfying to stumble upon words and phrases that are completely random and oddly alluring. It’s a kind of creative exercise that helps me when generating ideas to name products, services, headlines, companies, songs, drinks, sandwiches, or anything else really. Names are important. Names carry semantics which create expectation and give you incite to someone, or something’s personality. Names become brands when people recognize them to mean more with consistent (or sometimes consistently inconsistent) interaction. Names, are the most valuable asset that anyone can own. When Octavius Thurinus’ uncle died almost 2,000 years ago he inherited a towering pile of gold and the right to use his uncle’s name, His uncle Julius Caesar… Which do you think was worth more? the gold, or the name?
I spent a lot of time at Goldstein Caldwell & Associates in 2010, a business incubator which had offices located inside an old florist shop on Carnegie Ave. near University Circle in Cleveland. I learned early on that the investment and business mentorship group was looking for a new name and had been considering these two words: Launch House. I told them, “Well, anything can work, as long as you think it represents you. Ultimately you’ll be successful or not because of your actions, but a good, unique, representative name will help people recognize you”
I talked with people outside the organization and people said things like “This place feels like the garage band of capitalism” or “This seed funding is like baby venture capital. ” You can’t argue when you get feedback on what your brand means, honest perception is very valuable, even if it isn’t what you want to hear. (i.e. please email me and tell me if you love or hate this story.) There was positive feedback from the community too, people felt at home in the “organic” work environment, and were drawn to the innovative ideas written on the hundreds of square feet of whiteboard walls. In all, I had conversations and insight from investors, potential investors, entrepreneurs, portfolio companies, potential portfolio companies, mentors, interns, community supporters, press, and government officials. The feedback above is a good representation of the community opinion but I would also include elements of: hope, skepticism, intrigue, anticipation, youth, and sadly “just not there yet.”
After evaluating the current state, the next step was to find out where they wanted to go. To discover a desired brand essence I had conversations with the partners of GCA to find what they wanted to see as their brand sentiments. Here are those sentiments: startup investment capital, educational business mentoring, youthful energy, community engagement. I was determined that they should choose their own name, as I said earlier, one of the things that was important was that “...you think it represents you.” Ultimately the choice had to be theirs and I could not make the decision for them, but to help I considered everything I knew and generated a list of unique words filled with relevant semantic meaning. The goal of the list was not to find THE perfect name but to provide them with possibilities. Included with each word was a description of why and how the established semantics (though sometimes obscure) were relevant to them. I instructed them to look at the words and visualize them together, alone, in segments and random combination.
Generated Word Possibilities:
Lamp, Lantern, Hatch, Fred, Arkwright, Malta, Payens, Keckrimpary, Orerry, Jack, Vee 6, V12, B12, Back, Granola, Capital, Rakish, Gold, Tec, Webb, Ball, Tack, Untumble, Parry, Bretta, Bear, Vita, Magenta, Rare
Lamp/Lantern: A small image of safety, guiding light in darkness for people traveling to a new destination.
Captain Fred Hatch: In 1885, Fred was a historic hero and keeper of the cleveland light house on the west bank ofthe cuyahoga river.
Richard Arkwright: invented the water frame in 1769, began the Industrial Revolution, later used his fortune to invest in other inventors which continued the industrial revolution.
Huges De Payens: Set up safe havens for travelers to Jerusalem during the middle ages, collected funding from wealthy institutions across Europe to provide his service. His organization became known as the Knights templar. (who later on changed focus and fought the crusades)
Knights of Malta: also known as the knights hospitaller, is a christian organization from the middle ages that did similar work that payens set out to do, and maintained a more wholesome image through the ages. They still exist today (though some people claim that the knights templar do as well)
Keckrimpary: Phonetically how I would spell kechrimpári, it is the greek word for amber. amber is technically a fossil fuel (petrified tree sap, like from jurassic park) when struck, it will produce a spark. This is the word that eventually became “electricity”.
Orerry: a moving model of the solar system, built to learn, discover, and teach people about what goes on outside the world we live in, and how those outside happenings might affect us here.
Jack: Just a name, very casual, like an average Joe… Jack is relatable and becoming.
V6/V12: V6 is a powerful engine. V12 is like a dodge viper. when placed with a small ‘v’ v6, v12 it becomes a ‘version’ as in version 6 or version 12 of a piece of software. Also the number can represent a group of 6,8,12 etc .
Granola: A light weight high calorie food made of oats nuts honey and fruit. It’s smart food for hikers and travelers because it’s packing a lot of punch. It seems to resemble the view that resources should be consumed in a smart way, and startups need to do A LOT with only a little. Granola packs an additional physiological tie to natural and organic lifestyles. It’s very human.
B12: Vitamin B. Some things that it does… increases metabolism, maintains muscle, enhances immune system and nervous system, promotes cell growth, reduces risk of cancer. Vitamins in general are a good example of nutrients similar to what is described as ‘resources’ from the GCA business model.
Back: This word used in the right way is very good. Back as in get back to simplicity. evaluating real practical ideas that make our lives easier. a mind set that forces you to evaluate previously overlooked options to innovate for the sake of human benefit, not innovations sake.
Capital: By adding the word capital to any phrase, people will identify the organization as an investment company. This could be good to gain respectablity. It could be bad if you want to distance yourself from being an investment company.
Rakish: an adjective meaning dashing, debonair, stylish, or jaunty… basically sticking out for damn good reason. (good all alone or in combination with the other words, rakish lantern, rakish capital, rakish v12. maybe use it as a name… Rakish’s V12, Rakish’s Lantern, Rakish’s Orerry)
Gold: Gold is synonymous with first place. I don’t think that it is a great match since it does not address any part of the brand essence. Still, gold is currently in the name and it could carry forward in conjunction with another word to be effective. It is considered precious and highly sought after. once again, I don’t love this but I think it needs to be on the list.
Bear: Not like the animal. like the investment term. A bear is an investor that thrives in bad economic times, typically thought of as pessimistic. a negative connotation, but pared with the right term it could create an ironically pleasing message. This would make logo possibilities amazing as well.
Tec: Kind of A generic term for technology or anything innovative, but I thought that it might play well with other words on this list. think about it.
Webb (Webster) C. Ball: Born outside of Cleveland in 1847, he became a jeweler and watch maker. When standard time was adopted in 1883, he was the first jeweler to use time signals from the US Naval Observatory and is credited with bringing accurate time to Cleveland, Ohio. (webb is a good word to show connections. Ball is a good word to show youth)
Tack: a route or path. The road taken.
Untumble: This isn’t actually a word, but to tumble means to fall down, or topple over, to stumble. untumbling would be the reverse of that process.
Parry: A fencing term, simply meaning to dodge or defend against a blow from an attack.
Bretta: This is one of my favorites. short for Brettanomyces This is a type of yeast. a natural catalyst and accelerator that is frequently used to make wine and beer.
Vita: Latin for life, this word is also the root of vitamin. the word Vita (life) Amin (comprised of amino acid) I didn’t think that amino acids were nearly as important as the first half, so I chose to leave the ‘amin’ out.
Magenta: Hello designers, magenta compliments green extraordinarily well. i.e. it just looks good with money. plain and simple. sometimes a color can make a very good name, sometimes not. What do you think? Vita Magenta Capital?
Rare: not occurring often, scarce, sparse, few and far between. I think this describes what the firm wants to be and describes the entrepreneurs it would like to find.
Goldstein Caldwell & Associates became Launch House in August of 2010 when they announced a formal partnership with the city of Shaker Heights. The formal partnership closed the period of discussion to change the name and Launch House worked for all of the old partners as well as all of the new partners in the organization. I couldn’t argue with that, I could just simply say “Well, anything can work, as long as you think it represents you. Ultimately you’ll be successful or not because of your actions, but a good, unique, representative name will help people recognize you.” Best luck gentlemen, looking forward to seeing an outpouring of Innovation and entrepreneurship for years to come!
