The only startup naming guide you’ll ever need: my proven framework

0:00okay this is going to be a fun one today I just need to get something off my chest I think that the name of a startup is more important than ever there's a lot of bad names out there so I don't want you to be naming your startup something bad I want you to name it something good and why does it matter more than ever it's because you need a name that's going to be scroll stopping so in today's podcast I'm going to just walk you through how I think about names some of my Frameworks uh and if you stick until the end I'll even tell you a

0:37few of some names that come from my list that you can have um so this is going to be a tutorial on how to name your startup uh how to come up with a good [Music] name um I believe that there's three types of names um bad names good names and what I call tofu names which are kind of like mid names so what I mean by that is it doesn't really stick out you know tofu takes on the sauce of whatever is around it it's kind of bland so it's kind of a bad name but it's not you know it's not offensive and I do have a

1:19framework for naming I I took this from our membership community empire.co and there's three ways where you can actually you know I come up with names so the first thing is I come up with a descriptive name a phrase or a funny name and I'll explain exactly what I mean by each name so a descriptive name is something like the Instagram account at somewhere I will live so if you go to that Instagram account uh and we can put it up on the screen I think it has like millions of of users or millions of followers 838 ,000 followers um and what does it mean you know when I quick

2:05follow like what am I getting well I'm getting beautiful photos of somewhere I would live so uh this is also a takeaway which is the name of your startup could be the name of your handle um and you know or could not and you could have a separate process for uh coming up with the name of your handle but having almost a million people uh who are interested in somewhere I would live you can sell them a lot of things you can sell them real estate you can sell them Furniture Interior Design Services so I think that having a descriptive name uh is really important um nowadays and just

2:39works really well um because uh people see it and they're like somewhere I would like to live yeah I could use some you know Furniture interior house inspo in my Instagram I'm going click follow so descriptive names super underrated um and something I use uh a lot uh phrases so uh what do I mean by a phrase so uh a phrase could be something that is starting to take off in the cultural Zeitgeist so um you know a few years ago I'll just pull up Google Trends uh there was a popular term uh and is now less popular but uh was called boss babe so as you can see um on

3:25my screen let's go to Max and this is uh you know Google Trends um and I use a tool called Glimpse to just give you some more information and just some uh related related uh terms so a friend of mine I think it was like around 2013 sort of picked up on this name boss babe she grabbed the handle created a meme page theme page uh called boss babe on on Instagram and it's just you know started started to you know grow as searches for Boss babe grew and she started sharing uh you know quotes you know for female entrepreneurs and empowerment female empowerment um and

4:10just really started to to go up and uh she she created an account with millions and millions of uh of followers I think it's about six point six or so million followers and was able to create you know a five plus million dollar year business on the back of it so uh a phrase when you know when a phrase starts um being on the come up uh you really do need to to to just take stock of it see if you can grab that handle um see if you can buy that handle uh create a business around it I think phrases are underrated um I've had another and he's

4:45actually been on the Pod I had a friend of mine who had a phrase that he owned called at the most famous artist uh so he was an artist no one no one was sort of listening to him for a while so he he just just decided to be called the the most famous artist uh so that when you would Google him um he would come up the most famous artist just Google him for a second he's literally the number one person that comes up ahead of Pablo Picasso ahead of rembrand ahead of Leonard Vinci Vincent Van go savador dii Michelangelo these people he's the first

5:20person his name is MD Mo and uh phrases you know if you own a phrase uh it's super super valuable uh and then there's there's humor uh the internet um revolves around funny uh memes and stuff like that so if you can pick a a funny name um it will go far and you will get a lot of uh dividends of that um there's a lot of examples of that um I think the uh like the whole manscaped brand um you know is they their their content is you know their social is a little bit around around humor and stuff like that I think they did uh a pretty good job at it and

6:04and just leaning into it shh don't tell anyone but I've got 30 plus startup ideas that could make you millions and I'm giving them away for free these aren't just random guesses they're validated Concepts from entrepreneurs who built $1 million plus businesses I've compiled them into one simple data base compiled from hundreds of conversations I've had on my podcast but the main thing is most of these ideas don't need a single investor some cost nothing to start I'm pretty much handing you a cheat sheet the idea bank is your startup shortcut just click below to get access your next cash flowing business is waiting for you so a funny name you

6:59know I'll give you a couple of examples of what that could look like when covid happened and people couldn't get their haircuts I actually as a fun side project 24 hours I launched this thing called you probably need a haircut and it was basically a tool that connected barbers in Brooklyn to people who needed haircuts um and they would like coach you on how to cut it yourself um and it was funny because obviously you needed a haircut um because um you know it been a couple months and and it got picked up by like Good Morning America and everywhere millions and millions of visits to the website um all from making

7:37people laugh and smile um and that was that was a really fun one so and we actually used that same idea we created a a sort of an AI automation business called you probably need a robot which is that same idea um and we've gotten free traffic you know the same way so humor you know goes a long way um and these are like the three sort of ways to think about how I think about creating a name for the internet that's going to go super super far um and then I want to just showa show examples of what could good names be what would bad names be

8:10what would tofu names be um and then uh I'll talk more about hacking your way to a novel name but uh let's go into some bad names um so I actually think WhatsApp is a garbage name um it's a garbage name because first of all it's like when they were first starting and they were trying to get product Market fit and you know it just basically didn't pass the telephone Test Now what's the telephone test it's when you call your friend and you're like you need to download this app called WhatsApp and then they go to the app store and then they try to download it

8:46and uh they spell it wrong what's at right um so you know P passing the telephone test is pretty important just easier um obviously now it's a success so kind of doesn't once you're like Mega successful it doesn't really matter what your name is but it is probably one of the worst names uh GameStop is a pretty bad uh gamestop.com is a pretty bad name so um game is good to have in the name they sell games although now they're selling like Collectibles so it's not perfect but um you want you don't want to stop you want to you know it should be game start of anything you want to play the

9:32game so the the ne you don't want to have negative Vibes negative uh sort of you don't want people not to do the thing that uh you want them to do so GameStop I think is actually a pretty pretty bad name this name was changed but Google Gemini their chat gbt competitor was originally called Google bard uh Bard literally sounds like I'm throwing up um when I throw up I sound I just barred all over the place um so I'm happy they changed it Gemini to me is a a tofu name we can we're gonna talk more about tofu names in a second um but just yeah just

10:11not a really good name at all um I just tweeted about this app called social AI um which went viral which is this idea around uh it's basically like a Twitter app except uh you know you have zero human followers and they just give you like a million AI followers and you post and then you get like thousands of replies all AI generated uh but it's called social uh Ai and it's like the least social thing it is um to me you know what what's a sort of phrase like what would I call this I would I'd probably use a phrase and I'd call it main character. a uh it makes you the

10:51main character so um I just think that this is this feels a bit tofu to me doesn't really you know I don't really get it um but main character. a you know I I totally get Cloe um clo doai is you know on one hand is good because it's like a person and a brand and you can kind of see it and it's French so maybe it's like I don't know higher quality um but it's hard to spell for the for Americans they don't really get it you know so I think I think that they were on the right track but um you know maybe pick Pierre over clo

11:33easier to spell and also like come on clo people like where's the where's the vibe here like where is the brand um this just feels so lame uh it's like that gray could be so much more they could be like making a bigger brand you know a more lovable brand minimal lovable product here and by the way I'm sharing all this stuff so you just get in my head so you become like the biggest best name expert on the planet um I have some of the biggest brands called me up and they're just like hey Greg I need a name they know I'm I'm the name guy so uh trying to give you all

12:06that Alpha free I think perplexity is uh a really good name perplexity a the uh search engine because like you know being perplexed is you know you don't have the answers so here is where the answers are and I think I don't know if you all have seen But the perplexity ads are like they go hard um like here look at this perplexity know it all search and discover with AI so this is their I guess their you know Splash well it's not a splash screen it's really just like a yeah it's a kind of a logged out screen on on web uh and it's beautiful and it gets you connected to

12:45the perplexity brand I think it's they do a really really really really good job here and probably one of the reasons why they're you know I think their last valuation was three billion like the brand matters the name matters uh this is an app uh called bump it's a location sharing app and when you're with your friend you you like shake your phone um and you bump and basically that sends a notification to all your friends who um who are following you so you bump when you're together uh I think this is and it's starting to take off like 79th in social networking in the US I think

13:24this is really cool as a name because it's the action that they want you to do um so thinking about if you're doing an app you're doing a consumer you know consumer app consumer software like picking the verb is a pretty smart way of of naming uh an app I had to throw this one in here when when I was like Claude is like kind of a not great name most of you probably don't remember this this search engine it was in the 990s it was called ask Cheves and they took out all the branding here but like back in the it was this dude it looked like this you

14:04showed up and you you went to Google something and you had this Legend right over here and it was like ask geves and he was like handing you the the the the results on a silver platter um love that name can do a lot with the brand and definitely goes viral this is an app I'm actually going to bring um the founder on on the Pod as well so depending on when this is um this goes live uh check it out his name is Chris Joseph's so autopilots is really cool thing they started off um with like a Twitter account like the Nancy Pelosi tracker where they would see what Nancy Pelosi

14:44would trade uh and all and then they started doing Michael bur the dude from the the the big short so they created an App based on these you know Twitter uh I guess and Instagram um uh handles and they said like do you want to copy these people's trades like go for it and I think autopilot is such a good name because it's like just you're not gonna I don't care how good of an investor you are you're not g to out compete Nancy Pelosi we all know this by now don't even try so uh pressing a button and just copying trades I think is really really smart um

15:22and calling it autopilot just like I get it um last good name uh this is is a it's like a sauna SL ice bath SL like breath work company they started off in Toronto now they're in New York City um and then they built an app that became quite popular which is you know just you can tune into these breathing exercises and it's called other ship and other ship uh I have no idea really what it means um I just know that like the people that go to this are the types of people that are sober that care about their health that talk about clean living um and it just feels like other

16:05ship it's like a ship that's like another ship that you probably should be on it's leaving you know it's leaving the marina go jump on um and it's just like other lifestyle that you can go ahead and have and and and you know I've been I've actually been to one of these and the Toronto one and it it is like a very unique experience not just like a a a it's not just like a steam sauna place it's more than that um and uh it's it's just like an other experience so I think they did a good job now what's an example of a tofu brand um

16:46aloe it's like what it doesn't speak to me I don't I don't really connect to it and I know I'm not like the target audience obviously for this um but uh I just don't think it's like a memorable name um and when you don't have a memorable name and you have a tofu name you your job gets harder your job gets a lot harder and who needs it building a startup is hard as it is you need all the luck on your side so I think that's uh that's a pretty pretty tofu name I also like we actually changed the name we had uh before uh we were design scientist.com

17:27which is like a design agency that is like part copywriting agency part marketing agency part design agency like we create design assets that convert and um before we did that we were called such a tofu name it was called dispatch dispatch could be like literally a coffee shop it could be a recruiting agency it could be a design agency so uh it didn't mean anything and we change it and as soon as we change it Revenue conversion everything went up so so put together a little kind of checklist around how do you hack your way to a novel name so step one create a note on your phone I call it the name

18:12game just like on your iPhone or whatever call it the name game and then as you're going along life you're going to hear a word that is going to Captivate you uh or you're going to be like that's super catchy so for example maybe you get poured a Coke um and you start drinking it and you're like oh my God that's a flat soda and then you're like whoa flat soda that's a good name for a startup boom put it in now once every two weeks see if that name is available on places like IG Twitter X Tik Tok um you know go and grab as many handles as you can you can

18:49be a a hoarder of of some of these of these names don't worry these handles you know nothing wrong with that quick ad break let me tell you about a business I invested in it's called boring marketing.com so a few years ago I met this group of people that were some of the best SEO experts in the world they were behind getting some of the biggest companies found on Google and the secret sauce is they've got a set of technology and AI that could help you outrank your competition so for my own businesses I wanted that I didn't want to have to rely on Mark Zuckerberg

19:28I didn't want to depend on ads to drive customers to my businesses I wanted to rank high in Google that's why I like SEO and that's why I use boring marketing.com and that's why I invested in it they're so confident in their approach that they offer a 30-day Sprint with 100% money back guarantee who does that nowadays so check it out highly recommend boring marketing.com and then like test the name out at at dinner with your friends uh in conversation with your family with your friends is just like hey what do you think about this name for this thing and the ones that resonate make a logo for them can the

20:04name be transferred into a visual representation of what you imagine so that's like the path um and if you don't if you can come up with names by just like walking going for a walk and things are not hitting for you I would say start with the community like what do you building uh for who like who is it for so if it's for dentists um what are the pain points that dentists have what are some new phrases that they have um and then what's the essence of these phrases um and just start brainstorming from there um I usually go to claw um and I'm say like I use this prompt then

20:48you can have it I'm I'm brainstorming names around XYZ topic so you know as an example I'm brainstorming names around an a AI software agent that answers uh restaurants and takes orders um what are some interesting clear direct names that speak to this community and we can just do it live because we're live cooking and I know you all love the live cooking um let's do this do that boom and then let's see what what people what it comes up with so we got like dine bot order mine Cuisine assist menu mate foodie AI serve logic dish decider bite bot um bite bot's like pretty good um

21:33because it's got that alliteration um but yeah I think then you you see like is this a phrase is this descriptive um is it funny and you could say like I want more of a funny one I want more of a descriptive one can you make it one word versus two words um do you want it three words is do you want it short do you want it long um and then you just use Claude as your as your naming assistant as your Greg Eisenberg it's just me you know make Claude me basically and get feedback and then put that on your name list and and get

22:09feedback um so that's that's most of what I got I wanted to give you a few names on my list on my name my name game list just as like you made it here you know you made it here I'm GNA give you these names um so one is called after party I don't know what it's for or like what you'd use it for but like the Afterparty is something that a lot of people uh you know want to go to it's fun maybe it's exclusive I think there's something there um and by the way some of these you might not like and they might be bad and

22:45that's the other thing is on your name game uh list it's okay to have bad names um and then you can just remove them or just keep them nothing wrong with that um pretty perfect not sure what it be be for but like the idea of pretty perfect you got that alliterations I think that it sounds uh pretty beautiful um what else we got Invitation Only You Know by invitation only I think I saw that on like a a wedding init invitation um something something nice about that maybe you create like a paid community that's invite only for a particular uh group in cred so it's short for

23:39incredible you know you want to create something that's incredible incred you probably can get that domain probably can't get incredible. comom so that's kind of an interesting

23:53one and maybe that's it for now that's I think you know if you like this I'll share more ideas more names um I want you all to comment on if you know what are some tofu names what are some good names what are some bad names hope this has been helpful uh I love doing these tutorials because I think it really does hopefully make a difference in how you think about doing stuff how you actually not just create startup ideas but actually go and build the startup ideas so um that's what the channel is evolving to it's not just about ideas it's about tutorials about making things happen it's about putting

24:31things into the world it's about shipping uh it's about getting customers it's about building Community it's about building internet audiences so if you like this uh you can give me a little tip with a like comment subscribe share and uh I think that's it for today thanks for thanks for watching thanks for listening and happy naming