Choosing a name for your startup is a pretty big deal. The name sets the whole tone of your company and you need something that will be jazzy and memorable — something that showcases what your company does and what your work culture is like.
While some startups have pretty obvious names that describe a service they offer or a product they sell, we caught up with five Boston startups with names that weren't so straightforward.
"When the company first launched, it was based in Midtown, New York. Our founders traveled daily into the city on New York’s Rapid Transit system’s "Rapid7" train (you might notice our logo looks a bit like a bullet-train). With much of the planning and development for the company discussed on that commute, it seemed only right to name it Rapid7," the company's website states. "It was perfect! Today, the name embodies our company's commitment to rapidly responding to our customers’ needs, their evolving IT environments, and the emerging threats they face, so we can help them keep moving forward. Our mission is to solve complex security challenges with simple, innovative solutions."
"Isotopes are variations of the standard atomic building blocks of the universe," iZotope co-founder and CEO Mark Ethier said. "In a similar way, our products take the standard building blocks of audio and enable our users to add their own variations to their sound. It also represents our focus on innovation: that being “a little different” strikes to the core of our identity as a company, even down to the atomic level. The Z, well, that's just "a little different," too."
“We decided on the name because we were inspired by the concept of mending – to improve and make usable," said CEO Derek Roos. "Decades of attempts to improve developer productivity didn’t result in increased project outcomes. We knew that to solve this issue, we needed to mend the rift between IT (the “i”) and cross-business units (the “x”) by enabling collaboration between both groups. All together the name Mendix means mending the relationship between IT and cross-business units to achieve better IT project outcomes.”
Photos via social media
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