A startup’s name needs to stand out from piles of other names that already stand out, and somehow convey elements of the company’s technology, mission and culture in just a few syllables. The good names hit their proverbial nail on the head, while the bad ones can be truly, truly awful.
We picked a handful of the more, er, unusually named companies on the Seattle tech scene, and asked them to explain the story behind the brand. Here’s what they had to say:
tl;dr: A disagreeable cat.
The full story: “Ookla was founded in 2006 as a spin-off of a Seattle-based national ISP named Speakeasy, where our team built the Speakeasy ‘Speed Test,’” said Ookla founder and General Manager Doug Suttles. “This early technology evolved into our Speedtest platform now used by millions of people every day. Our company namesake, Ookla, was my beloved — albeit rather unapproachable — cat. We originally chose the name simply because I owned the domain (I admit: I registered domains for my cats back in the day.) Ookla lives on by haunting our apps and making the occasional appearance in our social media. We honor him by including him in art around our office and team shirt designs.” Editor’s note: yes, that is Ookla the cat in the photo.
tl;dr: Clever wordplay.
The full story: “Our platform enables wireless connectivity to billions of everyday items such as apparel, race bibs, golf balls and luggage, and delivers each item’s unique identity, location and authenticity to business and consumer applications,” said Impinj Senior Director of Marketing Communications Jill West. “The name came about in 2000, when CEO Dr. Chris Diorio flew to California to share a new idea with Caltech engineer Dr. Carver Mead, a near legendary chip-design pioneer who consulted for Intel in its early days. The idea was for a silicon transistor that could adapt to its environment, recalibrating itself on the fly in response to changing signal quality or a device’s new needs. Diorio based his idea around his patent for an IMPact-ionized hot-electron INJection mechanism, which is where Impinj gets its name.”
tl;dr: A respectable entrant for “Cloud Pun of the Year 2018.”
The full story: “Our name, Okta, comes from a meteorological term,” said Okta CMO Ryan Carlson. “An ‘okta’ is a unit of measurement used to describe cloudiness. The number of oktas in the sky can range from zero to eight: if it’s zero oktas, it’s a clear blue-sky day; eight oktas means it’s completely overcast. Given that the Okta Identity Cloud helps organizations securely connect their people to technology — in many cases, cloud apps and services — the name Okta makes perfect sense for us.”
tl;dr: Tools of the trade.
The full story: “In the early days, when Brown Paper Tickets was still bunking with its founder in a one-bedroom apartment near Volunteer Park, the operation was run on a 5U open-frame server rack that doubled as a heater — even in the summer,” said Brown Paper Tickets VP of Marketing and Outreach Steve Sacks. “The paper stock we used was brown craft cardboard; sheets of the stuff were purchased from a specialty printer that could add a glow-in-the-dark ink they guaranteed was not radioactive. When someone bought a ticket, we would feed the tickets through a laser printer for the event information, then a paper cutter — the kind you weren’t allowed to use in the teacher’s utility room. Then we stuffed it into an envelope and dropped it off at the post office. Over the years, we tried to rename and rebrand, but Brown Paper Tickets took on characteristics that denied the process over and over. Eventually, either it stuck or we were stuck with it. We now print and ship over 10,000 tickets a day. The process is a little quicker these days, but we kept the name.”
tl;dr: LocalYodel.com was taken.
The full story: “A lot of thought and effort went into our name — probably too much,” said Global Yodel founder and CEO Jesse Weinberg. “After sifting through a variety of name choices, our original vision was to name ourselves Local Yodel, which conveyed the essence of our founding concept: travel through a local lens. We were originally (and still are) a platform and publication that allows people around the globe to share local insights about where they live. The idea is that when you search about a place online, in guidebooks or in travel magazines, there is often a journalist sharing insight about a place they are just visiting. We found this information forced and limiting. We wanted to learn about places around the world from a local who knew the secret spots and unknown gems. LocalYodel.com was inactive, but owned by someone who was unwilling to sell for a reasonable price. We’ve since been recognized as one of the leaders in the influencer marketing space. It turns out that the name Global Yodel actually works better than Local Yodel, for our natural evolution into a global marketing agency, in addition to a travel publication.”
