

Ask HN: Should we rename our startup? - PanosJee

Hi guys, we just launched a new service called Sfalma (the greek word for error, remember σ from math?) We though it was a bizarre word that could work but it seems that is very difficult for people to remember or even spell it. What do you think?
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megamark16
I'd vote yes, change it. Something catchy and easy to remember (and spell) is
a must. It looks like BugEaterApp.com is available! :-)

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abbasmehdi
Depends on your demographics. My mom would hate it, dad would mistype it, I
don't know how to pronounce it. It's not related or associated with anything
in the daily life, and there is a disconnect between the spelling,
pronunciation, and meaning for the layman. Only works for math, history and
language buffs. That's a tiny corner.

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sunahsuh
I had a similar problem for an HCI project where we used a Greek word as the
name and we got reamed in our reviews for the name being "unusable." I'd say
change it -- it doesn't evoke any connotations for the user nor is it easily
pronounceable.

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dimitristi
The f could presumably be confused with a ph when telling it to someone.
Otherwise, it's simple enough so I'd have thought it'd be at least easy to
remember. But if you've had a couple of problems then it might be worth
exploring other options.

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tritogeneia
Try an experiment: tell some people it's called "Sfalma" and tell other people
it's called "The Bug Eater" and see which group is more likely to create an
account within 2 weeks. I'd guess that obscure names aren't good, but you
never know.

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papagel
Keep it... the name says little. Sfalma will give you little google
competition which on the long run may be important. Finally, basecamp uses the
url basecamphq.com ... who would imagine that something like this would work.

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andreascon
The 'sf' combination is very rare in the English language (look up the
dictionary), so difficult for people to remember how to spell it and therefore
how to find it.

Change it.

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petervandijck
Forget about the name, are you getting traction? Are users happy? That's what
matters. You're just distracting yourself.

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PanosJee
we have some users but not at the rate we would like. We tell people about the
service but it seems they forget the name in 2 minutes. Of course online
conversion is much more important than word of mouth

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HardyLeung
Change it. Definitely.

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aprigoinc
How about bugfollow or errorsniffer? Like either of those?

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vatikiot
change it. people need to be able to spell it correctly in google. the
downside is that you must find another name as unique (in search terms) as
this.

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gmosx
I like sfalma, google was/is difficult to spell too...

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PanosJee
it is a phonetic problem, people read s+f as 'sv' so they cannot type it

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THEM
I vote change it.

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e-diva
Sfalma rocks.

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Joanna9
Keep it.

