First off, it's a good question. And it's a question I've received multiple times. So why Jellypod?
To be honest, it was partially a lucky guess. But there was some strategy involved.
I decided that there were two non-negotiables when choosing a name:
- It embodies what we're doing.
- It's easy to remember.
As a startup founder, you must focus your time on the things that matter, like (obviously) building your product. But what about a name? Is that something that I should spend my time on?
I believed the answer was yes. But then there's a dilemma. Startups make decisions quickly, while good, creative names take time. I approached this problem like any other highly abstract task and built a mechanism to help push me along the way.
I set a goal to create ten unique names every day. Some names I created fit the two requirements better than others. But most of them were meaningless words and phrases that just sounded cool. So, to help me further, I wrote out words that represented the application's purpose: media, personalization, summaries, emails, podcasts, etc.
I gave myself a couple weeks to think of a name while I built the MVP.
And one day, I thought of "Jellypod."
I instantly knew that was the one. I know this might sound cheesy, but it immediately felt familiar. It rolled off the tongue and had an aura of quirkiness to it, which I loved.
Most of all, it completely embodied what I was building.
Jellypod is creating a digital media platform that converts a user's email newsletters into a podcast.
A daily pod.
The word 'pod' conjures an image of community – like a pod of whales, moving together while each maintaining their own individuality. This is what I envisioned – a platform where users can stay informed about society as a whole while embracing their unique interests and preferences.
But then why jelly?
First, it adds a weird quirkiness that sparks people's interest during conversation. But more importantly, it reflects this idea of constant malleability and stickiness.
Everyone is unique and grows by embracing new ideas and perspectives. And media is the societal chaulking that molds to fill in the cracks of how we understand our world. Jelly is the perfect representation because it does the same thing. It's sticky and binds people together while giving individual parts enough room to shift and take on new forms.
Combining these two together, you get Jellypod.
Jellypod, at its core, is a hyper-personalized news platform. And media is the glue of society, holding everyone together while we constantly ebb and flow in our perspectives and understanding.
So, there you have it.
Jellypod isn't just a name; it represents the commitment to building a transformative media platform as dynamic and unique as each of our users. And that's done by delivering news curated to your individual interests in the most convenient form possible: podcasts.