#AskGaryVee Episode 30: How to Pick a Name for Your Business

#QOTD: What’s your favorite thing about San Francisco?

00:36 What is your opinion on listicle sites and posts?
02:57 In the age of social media, twitter, vine and instagram length. How does/should this affect a startup in choosing a name?
04:52 When you left Wine Library to start Vaynermedia, was it a conscious decision not to have someone take over Wine Library TV

#LINKS
Making the decision to put myself out there – https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/my-tou…

To me, a name is made. I have some friends that sit around and spend wayyyyy too much time trying to figure out the name for their startup. What did “Google” or “Facebook” mean to anybody outside of their inner communities when they weren’t the household names we know today? None of these words mean ANYTHING until they’re SOMETHING.

Some people email me saying they don’t like their own last name. My response? You’re emailing Gary VAYNERCHUK. Let’s call it what it is, Vaynerchuk SUCKS. And yea, they’ll be those that tell me it’s unique and kinda cool, and I get that – BUT, it’s only good because I made something out of it.

And so, what does a name actually mean? To me? NOTHING.

I actually think a new trend in this short-form world we live in will be that most business names will start getting abbreviated. People used to call me “V-Chuk” because they didn’t want to call me by “Vaynerchuk,” and that became my slang last name. We will evolve our name to our convenience so long as it brings VALUE. And so, stop worrying about the name and start worrying about the product.

#ProTip: If your full name is available for a dot-com, go ahead and purchase it. I highly recommend it.