The Name Sprint

This might be our most tactical episode ever. If you’re starting something new, check it out! Not to brag, but it’s FULL of proven tactics for making big decisions about new projects.This week we also answered our very first audience question. Thanks 1sam1216! Have a question for us? Send it to [email protected] episode 7 of Jake & JZ, we talked about:Our Name Sprint process for naming your company or productA full walkthrough of our Name Sprint for Character CapitalWhy we chose “Character” even though it wasn’t a perfect match for our brand attributesHow to use Design Sprints to test risky non-consensus ideasThe importance of moving from abstract to concrete as quickly as possibleFinding conviction, not consensusAnna Karenina by Leo TolstoyAnnihilation by Jeff VanderMeerNPR Tiny Desk ConcertsAnd much more📩 Get an email about every episode at JakeAndJZ.com💸 Learn more about our seed fund Character Capital🥸 Find Jake on LinkedIn and X🤠 Find JZ on LinkedIn and XChapters0:00 Jake finally reads Anna Karenina8:10 We visited Google again and gave a talk at YouTube!11:00 Presenting the Foundation Sprint for the first time14:00 Helping a founder build something new from day 0 in healthcare18:05 Should he go direct to patients?19:30 Design Sprints give you a chance to try something risky and non-consensus20:35 A lot people told us not to write a book, so we prototyped it22:10 Prototypes aren’t just for customers; they give founders a chance to see their idea live!24:30 Our first audience questions!25:20 Audience question: Do you have a method for naming companies?26:05 History of the Name Sprint from Google Ventures28:50 Walkthrough of our Name Sprint for Character Capital29:45 Step 1: Note-and-Vote on themes of potential names34:30 Step 2: Note-and-Vote on actual names (as many as possible)36:40 Jake did not vote for Character37:45 Step 3: Multiple rounds of voting to narrow down the set of names38:35 Step 4: Plotting names on 2x2 charts to evaluate brand fit39:20 We chose Character even though it didn’t fit our abstract brand values41:05 Step 5: Vetting final names with the pub test (aka the shaky cell signal test)42:30 Step 6: Final checks (web test, domain, trademark)44:30 Empty vessel names47:00 Collecting aspirational domain names (including jakeandjz.com!)49:55 JZ’s Wisconsin accent50:30 Lantern Ventures: a free brand for any VCs who love camping51:30 We chose Character Capital because we had conviction, not consensus52:45 A special thank you to Laura Melahn53:30 Jake recommends Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (the book, not the movie)56:00 JZ recommends NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts57:15 NPR Tiny Desk is the new MTV Unplugged