When I started my company in 1994, I was told by the state that I couldn’t have “bank” in the name unless I was one. So one of the first questions I asked BankSimple founder Josh Reich early last year was how they were getting past that issue. He said it was not a problem since BankSimple was just a brand name. The company name was, and still is, Simple Finance Technology Corp.
So evidently, the startup wasn’t forced to change. That got me to thinking about why they moved away from BankSimple, which is a great description of their initial product set. Here is what I came up with.
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Top 10 Reason for Changing the Name from BankSimple to Simple
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10. While it may be OK in the United States for a non-bank to use “bank” in a brand name, that may not be the case in other markets the startup hopes to eventually conquer
9. There’s been lots of bank bashing the last few years; so it avoids negative connotations
8. One word names are cooler than two-word mashups
7. It allows them to move into other less “bankish” areas such as payments and offers
6. It allows them to partner with credit unions, card companies, and other non-bank financial companies
5. Can add any other word to “simple” to create great product names, e.g., “Simple Billpay”
4. The generic word, beginning with S, is being used by the highest-valued fintech startup in the world, Square
3. Much easier to riff off of “simple” for killer taglines (see login screen above)
2. They don’t have to worry about anyone saying “occupy simple”
And the most important reason (drum roll):
1. Tweets can have 4 more characters (ba dump bump)
Yes, BankSimple made a good strategic move, though I’ll miss the old name, which had a nice oxymoron-ish quality to it.
The startup was named X.com and its original business plan was to acquire one or more existing banks to provide the credibility, and deposit insurance, of a traditional bank. While I was in awe of their ambition, I thought the plan had a flaw. I told them they’d be better off staying virtual, with no bank ownership slowing down their decision making and ability to take risks.