Company Names

“Big data” has become an integral part of our lives, whether it’s counting our steps or tracking the latest flu virus. This company uses big data to power its predictive advertising management platform. But it had launched with a name—InsideVault—that didn’t reflect its groundbreaking technology. Even worse, the name was confusing.

We created a new name that expresses the company’s core differentiator—intelligence—while also doing the tricky work of communicating the energy of a creative startup and the solidity of a serious market leader. The name, QuanticMind, is an unexpected combination of recognizable words that perfectly reflects its mission: doing the heavy lifting of data analysis to give customers understandable and actionable information to transform their business.

It’s hard to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace, and this firm’s sole business is helping business-to-business technology teams develop breakthrough positioning strategies to do just that. But its previous name—Clariant—wasn’t working nearly hard enough to communicate the company’s own valuable positioning.

The team came to us for a name as inspiring as the work they do for their clients. The name GiantLeap resonated with our team right away, and once the client took a “giant leap” themselves about how this new name could spark business, they were sold. It’s a bold, fresh name that perfectly captures the value the company offers: giving its clients marketing and messaging tools that help them take a giant leap and capture market share.

It used to be that call centers were the sole lifeline to connect a company to its customers. Our client was among the first to create a software solution that helped manage that critical connection. But as technologies emerged that offered more ways to engage, it became clear to our client that their original name—EasyPhone—didn’t fit anymore. They came to us looking for a name that could grow with them and bring a breath of fresh air to the business.

Because the company was well established and its customers were loyal, our client was in the perfect position to take on this challenge. The name we created, Altitude, infused new energy into the brand: the company that can help customers reach heights they’d only dreamed of before.

It’s a common adage in business that it’s a lot cheaper to keep a good customer than find a new one. This company created a revolutionary way to use data to manage at-risk customers and grow the lifetime value of healthy ones. They came to us early in the startup process with a placeholder name, JBarra. They knew they could do better. And so did we.

Working directly with the senior management team, we set out to find a permanent name. Gainsight was one of those rare first-round names that the company fell in love with. The words are familiar and easy to remember; together, they speak clearly and compellingly to the company’s unique offering.

Sharing data has become second nature for most of us, but in the siloed world of health care, getting a patient’s data from one setting to another can be astonishingly difficult. This alliance of health care organizations came together to change the game by championing an interoperable system of wider, easier access to health care data.

The group came to us early in the planning stages and handed us a blank slate. We took their vision and worked with them closely to come up with a name, CommonWell, that not only reflects their mission, but also inspires others to support their cause.

When the company that now has the biggest billboard at San Francisco’s AT&T Park came to us, it had no name at all—just a game-changing approach to HR. Starting completely from scratch is a rarity for us, and it was a challenge we welcomed.

At first, the small team of engineers who created the cloud-based HR solution thought a technical name would be best. But we knew that since their product was created to take away the headaches of on-premise HR, without losing the important human touch, we should create a name that is accessible, not technical. One of the company’s visionary leaders championed our strategy, and we landed on the name Workday. Made up of two words everyone knows, the name speaks to the customer’s desire for a simpler approach to HR. It’s been a genuine pleasure to see this company become a market leader.