HOW STARTUPS ARE NAMED

An analysis of startup names used in the 2012 MassChallenge.

By John Lohavichan

Founder of Grademypitch

jlohavichan@grademypitch.com

NAMING A STARTUP IS HARD

HOW TO BE DIFFERENT?

KNOWING HOW OTHER STARTUP ARE NAMED CAN BE A HELPFUL GUIDE

SUMMARY OF THE 2012 MASSCHALLENGE STARTUP NAMES 449 Different Startup Names (as of 4/3/2012) Average Length = 13 Characters Smallest = 2 Characters (R3) Longest = 50 Characters (Integrative Medicine & Holistic

Health Association)

POPULAR NAMES INCLUDE: TECHNOLOGIES, SYSTEMS & SOLUTIONS*

*Note – LLC, Corp, Inc, etc… were filtered out

“S”, “C”, “P” & “T” ARE THE 4 MOST POPULAR BEGINNING LETTERS

S C P T M A B I D W G L E F H K N R U O J V

Numbe

r Q Z

Chara

cter Y X

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

MOST NAMES ARE 5-10 CHARACTERS

<5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 >300

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Number of Characters

WHAT CAN HISTORY TELL US ABOUT WHO WINS THE MASSCHALLENGE?

Looked at the Finalists and Money Winners from 2010 & 2011

Total of 236 Startup Names

Special Thanks to Josh Bielick for suggesting this idea!

THE MAJORITY OF MONEY WINNERS AND FINALISTS BEGIN WITH THE LETTER “S”

S A R C E L O T D H I K P U Z

Numbe

r B F G J M N Q V W X Y

Chara

cter

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Money WinnersFinalists

SUMMARY

Naming a Startup is Hard Being different is easy if you take the time to do research Statistical analysis of names can help guide you Begin your startup name with the letter “S” if you’re

superstitious

ASSEMBLED BY GRADEMYPITCH.COM

You can vote for us & other MassChallenge startups athttp://masschallenge.org/profile/grademypitch