What's in a name? SevenPico Edition

Yeah, I quoted Shakespeare. I’ve got teenagers and I’m easily influenced, what can I say? We recently went through a rebranding exercise with one of the objectives being to come up with a better name. We had been using SevenPico as a name for a few years, but with a small group of customers and mostly word-of-mouth marketing we had never really invested in the name and weren’t that tied to it.

Let’s Rebrand!

So off we went on a branding exercise. At first it was exciting - so many choices! But then it got hard. We had a lot of criteria for the name; we wanted it to be short, memorable, easy to spell, unique, and meaningful. We also wanted it to be available as a reasonably memorable domain name (hard to do these days) and potentially available for trademark. We went through a handful of names and ended up with Brim. The idea was that it would evoke images of “the edge” meaning the edge of technology, and it would include references to a Western theme - kind of a edgy space cowboy vibe. We liked it, but it didn’t really stick and we were having a hard time committing to it. Specifically there were three problems that were holding us back:

1. It’s a common word as well as a pretty common company name. There are a lot of companies with Brim in their name, including companies in nearby spaces. We started to realize that it would be very difficult for us to appear in search results on Google and LinkedIn for Brim, and we would always be competing with other companies for the name.
2. The only domain names we could get were stretchy variations. We locked down thebrim.io and were pretty happy with that. But we soon realized that the naming problem extends beyond just the name and the domain name to all the sites and services we use on a daily basis. On Twitter we use one handle, on LinkedIn another, on Github a third, and Slack a fourth. Even legally we had to do some gymnastics to find a suitable DBA name.
3. At the end of the day, there was no story behind the name for us. I’d get asked “So, what does Brim mean?” and I’d mumble out something about space cowboys, then point behind the person and run away. It was a little embarrassing. There was no real connection between Brim and what we do.

Not all was lost

But the exercise was incredibly valuable. Along the way we learned a lot - not just about some of the challenges of naming a company, but also about ourselves and what we wanted to be. And we came back to SevenPico. Turns out we like it a lot! It’s unique - search for sevenpico or most variants and we show up. It’s short and easy to spell. It’s memorable. We own all the domain names and the handles. And it has a story behind it that’s relevant to what we do.

So, What’s in a Name?

SevenPico is a reference to a British Army adage:

Seven P’s: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Seven P’s? Seven P Co.? SevenPico? You get it.

We like this because it’s a reminder that the best way to avoid problems is to plan ahead. It’s also a reminder that we’re not perfect and we’re going to make mistakes. But we’re going to do our best to plan ahead and avoid them.

And the logo?

 Our logo is a combination of the number 7 and the Greek letter Pi, the ancestor to the Latin (and English) letter P. Pi is a mysterious and powerful number that has been studied for thousands of years - a constant reminder that we’re never done learning and improving. The logo also represents an arrow moving up and forward - a symbol of our desire to both help our clients grow and improve, and to grow and improve ourselves.

Help us help you

That’s our story and we’re sticking to it, finally. Maybe we can’t help you with your branding, but we can definitely help you with your software. If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you, contact us today!