Ask HN: isn't naming a company the same as its product a mistake today?

4 points·FredBrach··5 comments

I mean, knowing the lifespan of products today, most companies will have to conceive other products to survive more than ten or twenty years, no? Remember Apple Computer.

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Ultimately it is the product you market, not the company. But consumer services can be OK with a common name if that helps a startup cut through the clutter. (and it will just be the product name anyway after you are acquired ...)

Relatedly, you can use the company name as part of product name for products (Company ProductA, Company productB), this can help you with trademarks and avoiding problems with others when you want your product name to be descriptive but it would be otherwise generic w/o your company name as part it.

I think it's better to name the company differently from the product, but using the same idea. For instance: my startup is called SimplCloud and it is about creating products for DevOps. The first product is called SimplDS (for Deplyment Service) and I can continue with this scheme.

If you don't have a viable product, it doesn't matter.

If you have a viable product, you can sort it out.

no. Chock full of nuts sells lots of coffee these days and no nuts. http://www.chockfullonuts.com/ (warning: flash heavy site)

Doesn't seem to be a problem for Google.

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