A Name Is a Promise.
Every company makes a promise. If you do not choose it, the market will choose it for you.
The Creator's Journey · Chapter X, The Power of Alignment
The whiteboard was full of names, and every one of them had a line through it. Ciaran Hynes and I had been at it most of an afternoon. Some names sounded like technology companies. Some sounded like banks. A few were clever. Clever is the most dangerous kind of name. It ages faster than milk.
“What do we actually want people to feel when they hear it?” Ciaran asked. I said: that we are going to be here in twenty years, and that we are serious about money and serious about what money is for. Then one of us said “Medici,” and the other said “Cosimo.” We had found the name by finding the promise first.
Why Cosimo
Cosimo de’ Medici did not invent the Medici Bank. He inherited it and ran it with unusual discipline, as infrastructure that let commerce flow across a continent. We remember him for what that capital made possible: Brunelleschi’s work at San Lorenzo, Donatello, the library at San Marco. He did not paint a single fresco. He made it possible for people who could. He was not a saint. I admire him because he saw that money and meaning did not have to live in separate rooms.
COSIMO is a fully integrated digital asset firm. Its day-to-day work is technical, regulated and often unglamorous. The name is a commitment that the work serves something beyond itself. When a decision gets hard, it is a quiet question in the room. Would this hold up in a hundred years? Would it make the system more trustworthy or less?
Write your promise down. Then live as if someone will hold you to it, because eventually someone will.
People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it, and what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe.
Every company makes one
Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle made the same case to millions: start with why. The promise is the why, said in a form someone can hold you to. You do not need to name your company after a Renaissance banker. But every company makes a promise, whether the founders say it out loud or not. If you do not choose it, the market will choose it for you. The market’s default promise is usually “we will do whatever pays this quarter.”
Name your promise
- Find the promise before the nameAsk what you want people to feel when they hear it, and what you want to be true in twenty years.
- Write one sentenceA commitment you would be willing to be held to. Not a tagline.
- Put it in the roomPlace it where you will see it before hard decisions.
- Use it as a headingWhen the work drifts, ask whether the decision would hold up in a hundred years.
Quick answers
Why is COSIMO named after Cosimo de’ Medici?
Rob Frasca and Ciaran Hynes chose the name because Cosimo de’ Medici is remembered for what his capital made possible. The name is a promise that COSIMO’s technical work serves trust, access and the long view.
How do you choose a company name with meaning?
Rob Frasca’s advice is to find the promise first. Decide what you want people to feel and what you want to be true in twenty years, then find the name that carries that promise.
Sources
- Rob Frasca, The Creator’s Journey (forthcoming), Chapter X, The Power of Alignment.
- Simon Sinek, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” TEDxPuget Sound, 2009. Source