Your tech startup's name will appear in pitch decks, press releases, app stores, and (hopefully) TechCrunch. It's a critical piece of your brand architecture that needs to work for fundraising, hiring, and customer acquisition simultaneously. Here's how to nail it.
Start with your brand attributes
List 3-5 attributes your brand should convey: fast, reliable, innovative, friendly, powerful. These attributes guide naming decisions. Stripe conveys simplicity. Notion conveys organization. Figma conveys collaboration.
Explore naming approaches
Invented words (Spotify, Twilio), real words recontextualized (Slack, Square), compound words (GitHub, YouTube), or modified words (Tumblr, Flickr). Each approach has different trademark, domain, and memorability implications.
Prioritize domain availability
In tech, your domain IS your brand. Check availability before falling in love with a name. Consider .io, .co, .dev, .app, and creative TLD hacks. Many funded startups launch with non-.com domains.
Clear trademark hurdles
Search USPTO, EU EUIPO, and WIPO databases. Also search Product Hunt, Crunchbase, and GitHub. Tech is global — conflicts in other countries can block your growth later.
Mistakes to Avoid
- Removing vowels because it's 2012 (Flickr started it, but it's played out)
- Adding -ify or -ly to everything (saturated naming pattern)
- Choosing a name you can't trademark
- Not considering how it sounds in VC pitch meetings
- Over-indexing on .com — many unicorns launched with other TLDs