This guy names billion dollar brands for a living, here’s his exact 3-step formula.
3/13/20261 hr
Get Sam & Shaan's pro-level biz resource vault (free): https://clickhubspot.com/kgcm Episode 805: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to the branding genius behind BlackBerry, Sonos, Vercel and Swiffer about how to create a billion-dollar brand name. — Show Notes: (0:00) Nothing will be used more than your name (2:01) Windsurf (3:50) Swiffer (10:06) Naming game: Fiber startup (17:14) quantity leads to quality (29:46) Problem solving propositions (32:40) Power letters (35:04) How Sam names a company (40:48) Rate this brand (1-10) (47:50) Blackberry (48:24) When to change a name (50:47) Presidential slogans (51:43) Recommended reading (53:39) How David thinks about AI — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies! Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/ • Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/ • Copy That - https://copythat.com • Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth • Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/ My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /
Clips
Showing 10 of 16Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSam Parr· Host0:00
So listen, David, here's the deal I don't believe that naming your company is that important. And over the next hour, I want you to convince me why I'm incredibly wrong, why picking a good name is gonna help me build a billion-dollar startup, and how to name a startup effectively.
Speaker 10:16
[singing] I feel like I could rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. Uh. I put my all in it like no days off. On the road less traveled but this is my path.
Shaan Puri· Host0:24
I love right behind you, you have, uh, for people who are just listening on audio, they can't see this, but if you're on YouTube, you see this. Right behind you, you have a bunch of almost like a music artist would have platinum records.
Sam Parr· Host0:36
Yes.
Shaan Puri· Host0:36
You have platinum records of names that you've created. So the Impossible Burger, BlackBerry, Swiffer, Vercel, Windsurf. You've had the-- I remember the Intel Pentium processor, uh, Febreze, Sonos. Like, it just goes- Sonos is crazy. The hits go on and on. SlimFast. Oh my God, SlimFast. That is one of the greatest names ever. You know, Microsoft Azure. You've done all these incredible names, and so how lucky are we? We get to hear from you today because I suck at naming. I've always sucked at naming, and it's bothered me because if you're gonna pour your sweat and, and, you know, tears into something for five years, you kinda wanna have a name that you fee-- that you like, that you feel proud of, that gives you the best shot at success. And so I guess to Sam's initial question, w-w-which we said at the beginning here, which is he's like, "Ah, I'm not sure that names are that important. Can, you know, te- change my mind. Tell me I'm wrong."
David Placek· Guest1:28
Well, let me start off with this.