Rewind & Capture

How Tech Brands Got Their Names

Why is Weebly Called Weebly?

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Anyone on the startup scene has at least heard of Y Combinator, probably the most-known incubator for entrepreneurial ideas. Twice per year, the fund provides seed money to a batch of companies who have been selected for interviews following their application. Meeting the application deadline is really only the first step in the lengthy incubation process, but it is a crucial one. It’s also one that Weebly founder David Rusenko nearly missed when he applied just 30 minutes shy of the cutoff in 2006.

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Why is DropBox called DropBox?

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Makeup. Guitars. WordPress. Heaters. If you’re wondering what all of these words might possibly have in common, it’s tutorials. You can, at any given moment, find a surprising number of tutorials on YouTube for any one of these things, among millions of others. It’s quite possibly one of YouTube’s greatest libraries of content. Video itself has long been gaining momentum in the digital space, and according to YouTube, more than one billion users watch hundreds of millions of hours of video every day.

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Why is LinkedIn Called LinkedIn?

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Late last year, CNN Money reported that the national unemployment rate fell to 5.1%, nearly half of the 10% peak during the Great Recession. No matter what the unemployment rate is, job hunting is always a pain point for seekers and seek-ees. There is an age-old expression that what you know is far less important than who you know when applying for work. Though it may not be much easier than it was in the good ol’ days, we now find ourselves with more readily accessible opportunities through ever-growing social networks on and offline.

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Why is Groupon Called Groupon?

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There is a Mitch Hedberg joke about connections that most accurately portray how important they can be to the success of any given person. He says, “I wanna have my face on the cover of a Rice Krispies box. ‘Snap, Crackle, Mitch and Pop.’ In Hollywood, it’s all who you know, and I know Crackle!” Perhaps if Groupon founder Andrew Mason had been a comic, he’d have made a similar joke.

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Why is Bitly Called Bitly?

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Remember what life was like before Twitter? Before you could live-stream events via attendees who wrote near-instantaneous play-by-plays in 140 characters or less? Or before digital flash mobs burned quasi-questionable citizens at the proverbial stake for making a half-baked joke? Me neither. Slash who would want to?

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