

Ask HN: Does our name suck? ( We're AngelHack finalists) - callmeed

Hey HN,<p>Three of us competed in AngelHack SV last weekend and we were fortune enough to be selected as wildcard finalists.  Our hack, which we whole-heartedly believe in, is a DIY daily deal and rewards platform (powered by Stripe and Dwolla).<p>Our name, however, is another issue.  We sort of chose it as a joke to go with our humorous video.  Now that we're finalists, we can't decide if we should change it.<p>Our current name is: LUSTOMER<p>You can see our team video here: http://angelhack3.hackathon.io/teams/view/273<p>So, is our name to edgy/jokey?  Will it turn off too many small biz owners?<p>Thanks
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keiferski
Full disclosure: I run a naming company.  But that doesn't mean I'm trying to
sell you. 

Obviously your problem is going to be the word LUST as the first 4 letters of
your name.  To be completely honest, a daily deal site named "Lustomer" makes
me think you sell adult merchandise or something. 

If you're targeting anyone other than SF hipsters, you're going to have a
problem.  It's really scary how out of touch (or inexperienced) the people
saying it's a good name are.  This is basically the equivalent of naming your
company ShitHeadwear.  A cute pun?  Sure.  The name for a serious business that's
actually going to sell things to real people?  Not in a million years. 

Can you imagine going up to Joe Schmo, a local business owner who's 55 years
old, slightly conservative, and wears a suit to work everyday, and asking him
if he'd like to use your product called "Lustomer"?  Even if he's willing to
look past the name, the fact that you chose it reflects very poorly upon you. 
This is his business we're talking about - he works 10 hours a day and spends
most of his time at the office.  And he's going to trust a company with some
ridiculous unprofessional name?  Yeah, not gonna happen. 

This is reminiscent of Fukime, except your name is probably worse.  Definitely
change it before you get any further. 

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opendomain
Full disclosure: I run an open source project focused on branding and domains. 
Do not listen to this guy!  Joe schmo is NOT you target audience!  Your brand is
FANTASTIC!  In fact, I will put my money where my mouth is: if you do not like
the brand at any time, then I will buy it.  Please contact me at OpenDomain. 
good luck! 

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opendomain
That is a FANTASTIC name!  And you have to domain to match.  Down the road,
after a few rounds of funding or customer input, you may look to change it,
but it is great for applying. 

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eranation
I think your name is great, and frankly I think the name means nothing if you
have a good product / team

This is a very memorable name by the way... is the domain available? ( just do
me a favor and don't do a .ly or .io :))

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callmeed
Thanks for the feedback. 

Yes, we got lustomer.com (which surprised me)

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duiker101
i think it's fine.  we all know how hard is to find a name and i really do not
see an issue with yours. ;)