Naming, branding, and other things not to overthink

We've lost count of the number of founders who've come to us buzzing with a genuinely good idea, a clear sense of who it's for, maybe even some early validation - and then spent the next six weeks agonising over what to call it.

Six weeks. On a name.

And look, we get it. The name feels like the first real commitment. It's the thing you'll say out loud to people. It's the thing that goes on the landing page, the pitch deck, the Companies House filing. It feels like it should mean something. But here's the uncomfortable truth most branding agencies won't tell you, because they'd quite like to charge you £15k to find it:

Nobody bought a bad product because the name was great. And nobody avoided a great product because the name was ordinary.

Google is a misspelling. Slack is what your boss tells you to stop doing. Uber just means "over" in German. None of these names are clever. They became iconic because the products behind them were good. The name followed the success, not the other way around.

But what if we pick the wrong one?

This is the fear, isn't it? What if we launch with a name and then have to change it? To which the honest answer is: you might. And that's fine. Plenty of successful companies have renamed after finding their feet. Some of them renamed twice. The rebranding industry exists for a reason, and it's not because everyone gets it right first time.

What actually trips founders up isn't picking the wrong name - it's letting the search for the right name become a reason not to ship. The name becomes a blocker dressed up as a strategic decision. And before you know it, weeks have passed and you haven't spoken to a single potential customer because we're still finalising the brand.

That's expensive procrastination. Even if it doesn't feel like it.

What "good enough" actually looks like

We're not saying branding doesn't matter. It does - eventually. But at the MVP stage, your bar should be much lower than you think. Here's what genuinely needs to be in place before you launch:

1. Clarity. Can someone hear the name and have a rough idea what you do? Or at least not be actively confused? You don't need to be literal - but you do need to not be baffling. If your fintech app is called "Velvet Orchid", you might want to rethink.
2. Recall. Can people remember it well enough to Google it later? That's the real test. Not whether it looks beautiful on a mood board, but whether someone can type it into a search bar after hearing it once at a networking event. Two syllables tend to help. Unusual spellings tend not to.
3. Availability. Can you get a sensible domain name and social handles? They don't have to be perfect. Adding "get" or "try" or "hello" in front of your name works just fine at this stage. Nobody's judging your URL when you've got twelve users.

That's it. That's the list. Everything else - the logomark, the colour palette, the brand guidelines PDF that nobody reads - can come later, once you know whether the thing you're building is actually what people want.

Branding is iterative, not foundational

There's a common misconception that you build the brand first and the product on top of it, like laying foundations before you put the walls up. But early-stage startups don't work like that. Your product will change. Your audience might shift. The feature you thought was your selling point might turn out to be the thing nobody cares about. So building a polished brand around an unvalidated product is a bit like getting the curtains measured before you've bought the house.

Put another way: your brand should evolve with your product, not ahead of it. The best time to invest properly in branding is after you've found product-market fit - when you know who you are, who your customers are, and what story you're actually telling. Before that point, good enough really is good enough.

So where should that energy go instead?

Into the thing that actually determines whether your startup survives: talking to customers. Building something small and testable. Getting honest feedback before you've burned through your savings. Every hour you spend debating serif vs. sans-serif is an hour you're not spending on validation. And validation is what separates the startups that make it from the ones that had a beautiful logo and no users.

Pick a name that's clear, memorable, and available. Get a simple visual identity together - even if it's just a font and a colour. And then move on to the work that matters.

You can always rebrand later. You can't always get those six weeks back.

If you're stuck on what to prioritise before you launch - naming, branding, or otherwise - book a free 30-minute discovery call with Rise. No obligation, no pitch deck required. Just an honest conversation about where your energy's best spent.