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Startup Theming (anideo.com)
15 points by iamclovin on March 13, 2012 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments


One of the first rules of naming your startup should be: Don't use the same name as a major corporation with over 135,000 employees that's been around since the 1940s.

I tried doing a Google search for Denso because I wanted to see all these "ninjas" and "Japanese characters" that were sprinkled throughout their site. Of course, all the Google results were for the Denso corporation, an actual Japanese company from actual Japan.

Fun fact I did learn, though: Denso isn't just famous for their spark plugs and auto parts, they also invented the QR code. I never knew.


> we were always watching server performance, building out features at lightning speed, and responding to feedback almost instantaneously

And because of that you are ninjas. Hm. This describes pretty much all startups I have dealt or been involved with. If you are not watching your servers and not tending to the users 24/7, you are dead before getting of the ground. If thinking you are ninjas helps your team get things done - great, but IMO the concept of company theming is a very artificial one.


While some people are going to react negatively to the term, "ninja" because they feel it's played out or whatever, I'd like to say, "Bravo" for digging deep into your newly chosen name and imbuing it with meaning for your company. If this theme has gotten your team excited, then it's totally worth it. And if you think this theme will help attract the kind of people you want to attract, even better.




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