Change Your Name

August 2015 If you have a US startup called X and you don't have x.com, you should probably change your name.

2015 年 8 月 如果您有一家名为 X 的美国初创公司，但没有 x.com，那么您可能应该更改您的名称。

The reason is not just that people can't find you.

原因不仅仅是人们找不到你。

For companies with mobile apps, especially, having the right domain name is not as critical as it used to be for getting users.

尤其是对于拥有移动应用程序的公司来说，拥有正确的域名对于获取用户来说并不像以前那么重要。

The problem with not having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness.

没有你名字的 .com 的问题是它标志着软弱。

Unless you're so big that your reputation precedes you, a marginal domain

除非你的规模大到你的声誉领先于你，否则是一个边缘领域

suggests you're a marginal company.

表明你是一家边缘公司。

Whereas (as Stripe shows) having x.com signals strength even if it has no relation to what you do.

而（如 Stripe 所示）拥有 x.com 表明了实力，即使它与您所做的事情无关。

Even good founders can be in denial about this.

即使是优秀的创始人也可能否认这一点。

Their denial derives from two very powerful forces: identity, and lack of imagination.

他们的否认源于两种非常强大的力量：身份和缺乏想象力。

X is what we are , founders think.

创始人认为，X 就是我们。

There's no other name as good.

没有其他名字那么好。

Both of which are false.

两者都是错误的。

You can fix the first by stepping back from the problem.

您可以通过退出问题来解决第一个问题。

Imagine

想象一下

you'd called your company something else.

你给你的公司起了别的名字。

If you had, surely you'd be just as attached to that name as you are to your current one.

如果你有的话，你肯定会像你现在的名字一样依恋这个名字。

The idea of switching to your current name would seem repellent.

改用现在的名字的想法似乎令人反感。

[ 1 ] There's nothing intrinsically great about your current name.

[ 1 ] 你现在的名字本质上并没有什么了不起的地方。

Nearly all your attachment to it comes from it being attached to you.

几乎你对它的所有依恋都来自于它对你的依恋。

[ 2 ] The way to neutralize the second source of denial, your inability

[ 2 ] 消除否认的第二个来源——你的无能——的方法

to think of other potential names, is to acknowledge that you're bad at naming.

想到其他可能的名字，就等于承认你不擅长命名。

Naming is a completely separate skill from those you need to be a good founder.

命名是一项与成为一名优秀创始人所需的技能完全不同的技能。

You can be a great startup founder but hopeless at thinking of names for your company.

您可能是一位出色的初创公司创始人，但在为公司命名时却无能为力。

Once you acknowledge that, you stop believing there is nothing else you could be called.

一旦你承认了这一点，你就不再相信你没有其他可以被称呼的了。

There are lots of other potential names that are as good or better; you just can't think of them.

还有很多其他潜在的名字也同样好或者更好。你就是想不到它们。

How do you find them?

你怎么找到他们？

One answer is the default way to solve problems you're bad at: find someone else who can think of names.

一个答案是解决你不擅长的问题的默认方法：找其他能想到名字的人。

But with company names there is another possible approach.

但对于公司名称，还有另一种可能的方法。

It turns out almost any word or word pair that is not an obviously bad name is a sufficiently good one, and the number of such domains is so large that you can find plenty that are cheap or even untaken.

事实证明，几乎任何不是明显不好的名字的单词或单词对都是足够好的域名，而且此类域名的数量如此之多，以至于您可以找到很多廉价的甚至未被占用的域名。

So make a list and try to buy some.

因此，列一个清单并尝试购买一些。

That's what

就是这样

Stripe did.

条纹做到了。

(Their search also turned up parse.com, which their friends at Parse took.) The reason I know that naming companies is a distinct skill orthogonal to the others you need in a startup is that I happen to have it.

（他们的搜索还找到了 parse.com，他们在 Parse 的朋友也使用了该网站。）我之所以知道为公司命名是一项与初创公司所需的其他技能正交的独特技能，是因为我碰巧拥有它。

Back when I was running YC and did more office hours with startups, I would often help them find new names.

当我经营 YC 并与初创公司一起工作时，我经常帮助他们找到新名字。

80% of the time we could find at least one good name in a 20 minute office hour slot.

80% 的情况下，我们可以在 20 分钟的办公时间内找到至少一个好名字。

Now when I do office hours I have to focus on more important questions, like what the company is doing.

现在，当我在办公时间上班时，我必须专注于更重要的问题，比如公司正在做什么。

I tell them when they need to change their name.

我告诉他们什么时候需要更改名字。

But I know the power of the forces that have them in their grip, so I know most won't listen.

但我知道控制他们的力量的力量，所以我知道大多数人不会听。

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