I don’t know what Konsus* means, or how or why its founders chose the name.
But I can tell you this: If you’re a new company looking to grow by word of mouth, it is not advisable that the word sound like “cons us.”
Related: The stars of HBO’s Silicon Valley try to figure out – from the names alone – what startups like Tubbbr and Kabbage do.
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* Maybe it sounds dandy in Norwegian, the first language of the company’s founders. But the company’s now based in Palo Alto, the site’s in English, and they’re going after Y Combinator funding, so I figure they may be receptive to a little constructive U.S. criticism.
The name reminds me of a wrong-headed name tale from history, CinCUS (pronounced "Sink Us").
In early 1941, James Richardson was serving as Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (CinCUS).
He repeatedly warned superiors that their deployment of our Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor was a mistake.
Our idle ships were too easy a target for Japanese bombers.
Richardson was fired 10 months before December 7.
Posted by: Bob James | March 25, 2016 at 01:35 AM