The Importance of Names

Just like English begins with ABC, my mornings always start with AVC.com. And those comments.

The comment section on AVC.com is probably one of the most undervalued properties on the internet today. You have a collection of over a hundred steady commenters, most of whom are current/former CEOs, large corporate executives, startup founders/employees, sages, CEO whisperers, and other heavy hitters who are penning some of the deepest business insights around.

Presumably just for the Disqus upvotes.

And then there is JLM. I don't think any description of this legendary AVC commenter would do him justice. And he would agree with me more than I do myself on that (inside joke).

His comment last week was something special though. Fred posted about a leadership bootcamp that USV is offering to some of their smaller portfolio firms.

JLM lauded the effort since trainings carry the highest ROI in business. Then he made a suggestion: since Fred is imparting such high level, transcendental wisdom, the training course itself should have a name that conveys a similar sense of significance. Afterall, bootcamps refer to the training that 'boots' or new army recruits receive.

The money quote though went as follows:

There is a fascinating story of how the Army came to call Special Forces Special Forces. It revolves around the necessity for the name to set it apart from the entire army immediately without being odd. It worked. The second you hear somebody is SF, you get it.

The power names hold is immense. Amazon's original 'J-Team' (now S Team) comes to mind, as does Samsung Group's now defunct (i.e. re-named) Future Strategy Group aka 미래전략실 aka 미전실 aka The Chairman's Office.

When we have the chance to name something - which, when you think about it is exceedingly rare - we should give serious thought to what exactly we are naming.

Anyways, just head over to avc.com and read the comments. Then you will get it.