MeTeech #004 - Kotemis
Welcome back to the MeTeech diaries. Last week we looked at my options in building the website platform. This week, we see an interesting turn of events…
“I’ve decided to give up on the name Zensei…
A domain name, in my opinion, is a very important part of a website. It needs to be easily heard, remembered, and spelt. However, each domain is unique. Anyone can buy one, and once they are taken, they’re gone.
Turns out zensei.com, .co.uk, and.org were already taken. I tried different alterations of the name, some of which were available: zensei-ltd.com, zenseilab.com and zensei.uk. But these, didn’t quite hit the mark for me. Call me fussy, but since the product is the website, I really wanted that top-tier simple .com name. “[name of brand].com”.
Since I’m so early in the process of creating this brand a re-brand doesn’t hurt much. Yes, my company is registered as Zensei Ltd, but that doesn’t stop me from having different brands under one company name.
So, I decided to go back to the drawing board and think hard about what my platform is all about. Educational platform, community, search tool. You’d think I’m crazy, sitting here muttering random words under my breath. There’s got to be something in there. Somewhere along the line, I started thinking in terms of language and mythology. Names of companies such as Oracle and Hermes have a certain gravitas to them. I started spit-balling different words, different combinations, lists of ideas… Until something started to come together.
The website is a search tool involving a community. I took ‘Co’ from the latin prefix co-, meaning together (co-polit, co-worker, co-author), and took inspiration from Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt. I put the two parts together and came up with ‘Cotemis’. Then, I changed the C to a K because… it just feels better to me. A ‘k’ is stronger, more fun, more pleasing to the eye.
Kotemis. Learn Together.
I like the sound of that.”
A few thoughts:
I think I was thinking along the right tracks but man… Hindsight is 20-20. I am definitely glad that at some point I decided to go with MeTeech.com! Checking my domain registrar, I did actually end up buying that domain and I do still own it.
However, I am glad I thought through the brand name via the ‘.com’ domains that were available. The website is the brand and so I can’t skimp out on that. That feels like something I did right.
MeTeech has several advantages over Kotemis. It’s more easily readable, pronounceable and memorable.
In the end, I had to get out some bad ideas to get to the name ‘MeTeech’ and I’m glad I have a record of that to look back on.
