Rock bands & Start-ups: The naming issue

My good friend Aner Ravon wrote (another) excellent post a few days ago, comparing rock bands and startups. He tells the interesting story of Geffen and Guns 'n' Roses, comparing that story to the one of YouTube. It's an interesting comparison, although my initial reaction was to write a serious post on why Aner is absolutely wrong. Rock bands don't live in the world of "Barriers to Entry" or "Unfair advantage", and most of them don't "Fulfill a need". But then I realized how non-interesting that post will be. And then I realized, that from a different angle, Aner is absolutely right. Rock bands and startups deal with exactly the same issues when it relates naming.

First of all, rock bands and companies do actually share some names. A quick look into the Gemini portfolio, shows companies like Silverback systems (now part of Brocade). Compare them to Silverback artist management (Not really a rock band, but related). Another example was Riverhead, acquired by Cisco in 2004. Compare them to a small band out of Salt Lake City: Riverhead.

I assume this overlap will not always occur (Find a band called Cisco or SAP, and find a startup called Smashing Pumpkins), but overall, the naming conventions are similar, and can be divided into 3 main categories:

1. DESCRIPTIVE NAMES: These are very common in startup companies, and less so in rock bands. Great examples include Salesforce.com, Myspace.com and even YouTube. In the rock band world, it is less common, although you could definitely include classics like: The Beatles (From the word "beat"), the Beach Boys (Their main hobby), and even Metallica.
2. REAL PEOPLE NAMES: So many great companies were called after their founders, with some of the famous ones being Dell (Michael Dell) and Siebel (Tom Siebel). the Rock band comparison should include Van Halen (Named after the 2 brothers Alex & Eddie), and Dave Matthews Band. Back in the late 50's all bands were named after their lead singers (Even the original Beatles: John Lennon & the Quarrymen).
3. "TRYING TO BE COOL" NAMES: Which puts all the rest (90%). In the startup scene it will include Google, Yahoo, and even del.icio.us. My favorite rock band names include Black Sabbath, the Clash, Sex Pistols, Foo Fighters, and probably the best one of all times: The Who.

Not sure I will fund a startup by that name.

 

Comments

[Aner Ravon]

So who's right? I think the main benefit of having this discussion is simply the fun of having it!

Naturally I wrote another counterpost :)

The naming analysis in very nice, it only adds to my point though. I believe rock bands face the exact issues of BRANDING, battling unfair advantages, barriers to entry, competitive landscpe, sustainability, etc.

[Shahar Even-Dar Mandel]

A year ago Gil Rosen wrote on degardener about the silly naming process of web 2.0 companies. I am pasting my comment from that post here, as it is surprisingly relevant:

Your description of the name picking process reminds me of the same process in what seems to be, at first glance, a radically different context. It seems to describe the naming of a new band more than that of a new company or product.
On second thought, however, the similarities become rather obvious. My recent attempt at googling people from my past have shown well expected but illuminating results. The guys who started trading stocks and reading the finance section of the newspaper at the age of 17 are nowadays working as lawyers or financial consultants in companies whose name are way more boring than Microsoft (usually consisting of two or three names of the senior partners). Many of the other guys, those who spent the same time listening to, and playing music, playing basketball or D&D, or chasing some elusive form of personal goals and cool are now working in companies with cooler names, mostly web-related.
Don’t get me wrong, those guys would have given up coolness for money and go into law or finance or whatever, but the emergence of the web right around the time we had to give up those childhood dreams gave us an artificial way to keep them alive. OK, so we never really formed a band, but our new web 2.0 application is just as call as The White Stripes, and it’s gonna have an even cooler name. We found the perfect way to keep our image of ourselves as rebels while entering the machine.

[Fara]

Shahar - I never met a cool guy who played D&D