brand, minimum-viable-product, product-market-fitAs the title suggests, I know what I have to build as an MVP but I am not able to find some decent name/domain name.
Those I found sexy already taken.
So should I start building think later about branding?
I’d try to break it down as much as possible:
If you’ve got an MVP in mind, it is your responsibility as a founder to come up with a name as soon as possible. You really have to be creative in finding a disjoint area of trademarks, domains, and SEO-ability.
If you don’t have the MVP finalized, and you’re still throwing around features and unsure of if they fit your product, I’d be hesitant about settling on a name, as it’s fair to say you don’t know your product yet.
Once you have a name in mind, you have to think of how it empowers / strengthens your brand - or perhaps - how it weakens your brand, and how you might need to change your name, or better yet, change your product because the name is the plumb-line you want to gravitate towards.
Be careful, here there be monsters!
For me, I came up with the idea, starting building the backend of the app, then worked on the name, then finished the product with front end design. The marketing is key and I needed to finalize a name and somewhat decent logo before incorporating and launching. I think the url/app name needs to be close to the company name so you need to make sure one is available before you launch.
For names, you need to be creative and it helps if you create a new meaning for a word/action because as you said, all obvious names are taken. Try to take an uncommon word and make it into a verb so it seems like your service/product is an action and not some 3 letter company like I.B.M. This can be difficult but worth it even if you need to bounce ideas off other people.
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