A problem shared is a problem solved – How we ended up with the brand name ConfidentU

When I initially came up with the idea of setting up a brand focused on practical accessories for great sex, the name I immediately gravitated to was ‘Dominionn’. This was a word I had come up with quite a while ago to represent a BDSM brand that was defined by high design. It was a name I loved, a name I had affinity to, so automatically decided to use it.

I put a lot of effort into getting the brand off the ground from scratch, buying the domain names for this, setting up the website, designing the logo and putting it onto the packaging of our initial products.  All throughout the journey I was sharing my ideas with close friends to get their opinion.

After a session with one particular friend, Chris, he suggested I contact a mutual friend we had, Giorgio, who worked in branding to get his take on the brand and the concept. I thought it was a brilliant idea, as I had not spoken to Giorgio in a while. I quickly sent him a message on Facebook, friendly and always helpful as ever, he invited me to have lunch with him to talk him though my project.

We met in Clerkenwell, and over a very messy Mexican Taps-like lunch, I shared with him everything that was Dominionn.

He listened intently and thought the idea was great with much potential, but wondered where I had gotten the name Dominionn from, so I told him. A little pensive, he said, “Everything you have shared with me is great, but I don’t think the name fits the brand”. My heart sank, I not only loved the name Dominionn, but a lot of work had gone already into establishing the brand as such.

Giorgio was adamant, he explained that as we were at the very beginning, nobody knew who we were so we could easily change.

I thought about the effort of finding another name and my heart sank again, but I was open and wondered how I would find a new name. Giorgio said, “Try this little exercise and tell me the three words that describe this brand?”

I took a few minutes to think and eventually it came to me: confidence, elevated, convenient.

Giorgio said, “the new brand name might be in there somewhere, start thinking about it and see what you come up with”. We parted ways with me grateful for his help, yet daunted with the task that lay ahead. I was happy to let Dominionn become dormant for now. But what was I replace it with?

I started to think and think and think and think, I seemed to be fixated on the word ‘Confident’ and I could not get past it. I felt this was at the heart of what we were all about, the driving purpose was to make our customers feel Confident about expressing their sexuality with our products. I wanted our customers to have Confidence in our ability to support them in this.

And so the creative thought process began and it churned out different permutations of the word: Confidentte, Confidentt, Konfident,Konfidentt, Confidenz, Convidence, Convidenz, DeepC and Confiident.

As I came up with each, I passed it around via SMS to the friends who were humouring me in my efforts; Chris, Matthew, James and Lindley. With each word I shot out to them, they would give their thoughts and impressions on it. Nothing seemed to really stick, yet I simply could not get past the word ‘Confident’.

Eventually, at some point, I came up with ‘ConfidentU’, as yet another option to try. Earlier, when I had created the first ‘Confidentt’ I had put two dots above the two t’s, to signify two male stick figures holding hands.

I shared ‘ConfidentU’ firstly with Matthew, he did not like it. I then shared it with Chris, he suggested I put two dots above the U, as I had done with the two t’s in “Confidentt’. I did and felt that something sparked.

I shared this with Matthew and something about the dots was growing on him too. He suggested putting another dot above the ‘I’ so there were three dots in total.

And suddenly THERE IT WAS. The brand name WAS CondientU. Absolutely perfect, absolutely timeless, like it had always been there just waiting to be discovered.

It was natural and it fitted perfectly with what we were about.

I eagerly wrote down everything that the brand name stood for as it poured out which you can see in the post ‘What’s In The Name ConfidentU’.

I knew this was it. I wasted no time in purchasing the Domain Name. I informed Giorgio and started the process of changing everything from Dominionn to ConfidentU.

I have been an entrepreneur for a while now. It can be a lonely journey, but one packed with lessons and wisdom that is forced upon you. One that I learnt over and over again was that you cannot do it on your own. Genius is not a singular effort. If you have a problem, share it, if you have a solution idea, share it. Listen to what others have to say, they will spark something, shift things in particular direction, shed new light that you did not expect which then illuminates something new, and steps towards genius.

We cannot go it alone. We cannot succeed alone. a problem shared is a problem solved.

I repeat myself in saying, the path of the entrepreneur can be a lonely one. But you do not have to be alone. I have taken advantage of supportive friends to move forward and I eagerly anticipate the day when I am not the lonely figure, sitting by the window working all day, but in our offices on the third floor of our building on Brixton Rd, with a group of talented individuals pushing our ideas ever forward together.

ConfidentU started as a team effort and will remain so.

Giorgio, Chris, Matthew, James, Lindley – Thank you for your help.

Victor

Image: Guille Salinas