09.22.07
Xobni is a backward name with some forward motion
While VentureBeat gave a good mention to Xobni’s presentation at the recent Tech Crunch 40 in San Francisco, more than one person has asked me about this name. In short, no - it is not clever. Any name that has to continually be explained usually gets changed when they have some salespeople on the phones making 100 calls a day.
Don’t you think prospects will think they have backward salespeople if the first thing they hear is “Oh yes, that is our name, it is backwards for Inbox.” And when they do more than recover email, what then? Perhaps by then they will have raised enough money to pay a professional to get them a new name… and save as much the first month in squandered sales and marketing costs. Some people might even pronounce this name Sob Knee.
Reminds me of a friend’s email. Her name is fairly common, so she picked an email address where her name is spelled backwards. What a pain. No one gets it - or gets it right!
