Going from Service to Product to SaaS - Need feedback on name

Discussions
#1

Hi everyone, this is the first time I’ve started a discussion. I will post later on my startup / product - currently I’m looking for a name for my product.

But a short intro: I used to run a blog on sustainability (green, eco-social stuff) and occasionally posted jobs there. The job postings got proportionally more visits than the other articles, so I decided to spin it off into a list using a new domain. That then developed further and further and now it’s a jobboard and has a growing community (= newsletter list and a bit of Facebook). It also has an events calendar and I’m planning to build community tools around the jobboard.

When I looked for cooperations with some colleagues, they showed interest in using the whole jobboard software. So I’m developing it further so other people can also use it and so it’s now evolving into an SaaS.

Naming the SaaS
Now one of the things I’m thinking about is the name for this SaaS jobboard and community software. I want it to be more than a jobboard, but like an actual platform on careers for certain niches. The big problem was getting a somewhat decent name which wasn’t taken yet.

The name I came up with until now is
bantuu.com
It’s derived from the Indonesian word “bantu” which means help(ing), because I realize, that community and support is really important instead of just focusing on technology - which is what I noticed worked really well in my jobboard, and I want my clients also to start with this mindset, i.e. a community-focused jobboard. This might make the SaaS and the websites not as scale-able as others, but that’s fine. I think it has more stability.
But I’m still not sure about the name.

  • I really want a dot-com name, since I want to go into several non-tech niches, so I don’t want to use things like .co or .io. (It’s really tough with those annoying domain-squatters, though)
  • I don’t want to be too specific either (e.g. having the word “jobboard” in the name, because who knows how it might evolve in the future, e.g. when it has community features it’s not just a jobboard).
  • Furthermore it should be usable in German (which is where I’m starting) and English (which I can imagine expanding into), so I’m thinking more of “brand” names instead of descriptive ones

I would very much appreciate some feedback on the name or perhaps you have other suggestions?

My current “umbrella” company is called 23 Pirates and I have the relevant domains for that, but not sure if it fits. (Though I’m also open to that.)

#2

I dig the name :smile:

Personally I’d say don’t worry too much about the name though. I find that once you’re a few months into building the product, talking with potential customers, putting together marketing copy, the name will become a lot more obvious than when you’re just in the brainstorming phase.

But I actually like that name a lot more than most startup names that I hear FWIW :slight_smile:

It also sounds a little bit like “banter” which makes you think ofonline discussion / communication.

#3

I like it too. It’s short, memorable, and easy to say & spell. It seems to cover and convey what you want. I also agree with @perceptec that “execution trumps branding” so don’t spend a lot of time agonizing over it.

#4

Cool, thanks, @kalenjordan and @coreysnipes for the first feedback! This gives me a bit of a relief. If the first reactions were like “ewww”, than I know I’m on the wrong path.

I definitely also think execution trumps branding, I especially felt this, when I read the blog post on the Trello name http://blog.fogcreek.com/the-agonies-of-picking-a-product-name/

But I wanted to avoid a crappy name with some weird associations that I missed :-).

And since I’m 1/4 Indonesian, I kinda like bantuu, too :-). (bantu and bantoo were unfortunately not available anymore)

Hm… I just took a second look at this, though:
bantu.com
and checked the trademark. I think it’s too close to mine and I might have to look for another name after all :-/. Even though it was cancelled in 2007, it stated

  1. E-MAIL SERVICES; ONLINE INSTANT MESSAGING; PROVIDING ELECTRONIC ONLINE BULLETIN BOARDS FOR TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGES AMONG COMPUTER USERS CONCERNING TOPICS OF GENERAL INTEREST; PROVIDING ONLINE CHAT ROOMS FOR TRANSMISSIONS OF MESSAGES AMONG COMPUTER USERS CONCERNING TOPICS OF GENERAL INTEREST.
  2. PROVIDING A WEB SITE THAT ALLOWS USERS TO STORE ELECTRONIC DATA FILES THAT OTHER USERS CAN ACCESS; PROVIDING TEMPORARY USE OF ONLINE NON-DOWNLOADABLE SOFTWARE FOR USE AS A SCHEDULING CALENDAR; PROVIDING TEMPORARY USE OF ONLINE NON-DOWNLOADABLE SOFTWARE FOR USE AS AN ADDRESS BOOK.

Hmm… sucks. I will work further on the website first. But I don’t really want to get into trademark infringement types of things later.