Back on the Rollercoaster: Part 1 The Naming Ceremony
By: Bimal Shah
Tags: London Tech, Startup, Startup Lessons, New Business

We are about to start the year 2017 and I’m sitting here smiling with anticipation. There are many reasons for this and the most prominent reason is that our newly formed start-up is raring to go. We are stepping back into the unknown and going again. Being a start-up is the best way to challenge our beliefs and ability and to see if they cope with the unpredictability of life. All of these are what are installed for us as we open the year as Elemental Concept.

I’ve just left four and half special years growing another company (Leo Tech), working with great people and getting involved in some really interesting projects. For reasons left for another day we have decided to start again. Starting afresh is an invigorating experience and for me the challenge started with naming the company.

In October I told my four adorable (when they want to be) children that I was leaving Leo Tech. This was a shock to them as it had been a staple part of their lives and the reason why we had three and a half years of fun living in Singapore. To try and get them to look forward I asked if they would help me choose a name for my new company. Our favourite suggestion in 10 minutes of random name generation was Smile Tech — that was until we realised people would visit our website when they wanted their teeth polished. So it was back to the drawing board. We weren’t getting very far, and it became even more challenging when my eldest asked “Well what is it you do? Shouldn’t it relate to that?”

As a question it was brilliant. Have you ever tried to explain what you do to someone who has no concept of the world we work in? It was a proper test as my usual strap line of “helping businesses make or break a market through technology” was utterly meaningless. So I had to strip it back further to an explanation that though longer reminded me what we were all about. Our conversation followed a path similar to this.

Me: “All businesses are created to solve a problem for someone. It’s the reason why people buy the things they sell. The companies that are most likely to win are those that provide the best solution to the problem. By best I don’t mean technically the best I mean the combination of most appealing to the customer whilst solving their problem.”

My Eldest: “So what’s that got to do with what you do?”

Me: “We help companies validate their business plan. We examine the basic reason for their existence. We will help them check that they are solving the most important problem for their customers in a way that the customer wants.”

My Eldest: “I thought you built software?”

Me: “Yes, we will when that’s the right thing for our customer. We can’t build software if we don’t know what it has to achieve. We also don’t want to build something that no one wants to use. What we really want to do is make sure that we work with our customers to find the most simple way of checking that what we will build is what is wanted. We will then take feedback and evolve the solutions to something that delivers their business plan in the most efficient way. “

My Eldest: “Well can’t you create a name that says something about that?”

There was more to the conversation like “why do you build software?” Those questions also caused me more angst but hopefully I’ve explained the challenge. My twelve year old made me think about what was the basic reason for our business. I tried to explain ‘lean’ and ‘agile’ in layman terms. What I really was saying was that we wanted to help businesses validate and deliver solutions that their customers wanted. In essence we are helping them focus on what’s most important, the so called “Elemental Concept” of their business.

So that’s how the name was born. It came from being reminded to think about what we were trying to do. It is a problem that everyone faces. If you have been in a business for a while it is all too easy to get stuck in the day to day tasks and not remember the reason for being. Having it in our name is my way of reminding us that we need to constantly validate our basic premise. We have to evolve as the world evolves but we can only do that if we are continuously checking that what and how we do is right