Fukime - hacking Hacker News with a cool startup name | Hacker News Reader

Fukime - hacking Hacker News with a cool startup name

fukime.tumblr.com

30 pointsSwizec14 comments

I read it as "fuck me". Is that the joke?

If this was read as a Japanese phrase, it would be pronounced as fu-ki-may. Nonetheless, using this as a hook is a gimmick at best.

Fu-ki-meh, actually, which is why I don't really get it.

The marketing aspect is definitely a positive, but I'd fear it may make adoption of your services in the corporate world a little difficult.

I think that the product is not aimed at the corporate world but lone developers trying to develop things quickly and efficiently :)

Corporates are real people too, and people enjoy humor. That's one thing we've realized with our name change. We were formerly the incredibly boring "Transparent Financial Services..." and our website was the terrible http://transfs.com until last September, when we changed our name to the more fun name of FeeFighters (http://feefighters.com). We're in the B2B space, and have customers that range from HN startups to large nonprofit museums and public companies. They are all run by PEOPLE who love that we don't take ourselves too seriously.

On the flip side, we actually had one VC who turned us away because he hated our new name... but Fukime him.

The larger problem I see with your name is that people won't know how to pronounce it/spell it. Buy all the alternates and redirect them, but also take this feedback into account - you might find it worthwhile to change your name.

I agree with your overall point. But, like you said, people may not know how to pronounce it. Imagine all of the people that may pronounce it "fuck me" and simply may not take it seriously.

I think the overall marketability of a humorous/cool/different name is great, as long as it isn't in the realm of possibly being distasteful to a large number of people.

I think many may discredit the company immediately, thinking it is a joke or satire.

feefighters is a 'fun' name, fukime will be seen as a 'rude' name. You are right that your company name doesn't have to be a boring corporate name, but I think naming it something that has negative connotations is a bit different to naming it something that is fun

You could have the best technology in the world but the name would never pass the smell test on due diligence.

Professionalism means as much as technology when it comes to things I would base a product on.

I alpha tested the product and I love it.

It's good for it to have a memorable name because it kicks ass and has some killer candies. It shows how simple the cloud computing on mobiles should really be.

I'm looking forward to use Fukime Candies, regardless of their name.

there's the saying that any publicity is good publicity, but I still fail how funny posts or things like this really help people differentiate and want to use your service, as a mobile cloud computing company. Yes I know about your company and the name, but you still haven't convinced me to adopt.

Your 24 hrs fame on HN is probably adding zero value to your startup. I don't understand why ppl get so excited when they got techcrunched, nonetheless HNed. Anyway change your name, I thought that was obvious reading into the comments of that thread.

If your customer base largely consists of the kind of people who read HN, there's really no better place to launch.

I had immense success launching my startup naming business here[1], the conversion rate on clicks from HN exceeded 1%...

On the other hand, when my Photoshop business made the front page[2], it didn't bring in a single new sale. Essentially, it all comes down to who your real target audience is.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2257572

[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2063061

Oh that's a real company? I thought it was just a hoax/joke because of the name.

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