Inc. Magazine – September 2019

PHOTOGRAPH BY ELIZABETH DE LA PIEDRA ● ● ● SEPTEMBER 2019 ● INC. ● 93

As a teenager in India, I

became passionate about

computers. I used the limited

amount of time we were

allowed on them in school to

learn programming and build

simple games. In 1994, I got my

degree in computer engineer-

ing, and then spent three years

at a technology consulting

company in New Delhi. But

I was aware of how quickly

interest in the internet was

growing, especially in the U.S.

I wanted to be there.

In late 2010, I was CTO at

Kaplan. I’d had enough experi-

ence in corporate and decided

to do something on my own. I

knew how important it was for

entrepreneurs to choose a great

name for their company. It

needs to be catchy and to stand

out from the competition’s.

Preferably short. Easy to spell

and to remember. Not hard to

pronounce. And it must allow

consumers to connect the

name, directly or indirectly,

with what the brand stands for.

Just as important, if not more

so, is avoiding name-related

intellectual property issues and

trademark conflicts.

But I realized I’d under-

estimated the difficulty of the

naming process when I tried

coming up with a name for the

e-commerce company I wanted

to launch. Every dot-com

domain I considered was either

unavailable or didn’t meet my

criteria. Frustration led me to

ask for suggestions on various

online market-related discus-

sion forums. The ideas the

participants shared were lim-

ited—the sub missions seemed

more about having fun.

I soon knew I needed a con-

trolled platform on which

competition and cash awards

would incentivize people to

submit high-quality names.

I registered the domain

Squadhelp.com and spent

several months building the

platform. Then, in late 2011,

after I’d left Kaplan, I launched

the website. One of the first

contests on the site gave me

the name for the e-commerce

company I co-founded in

2012—Fashionara.com—and

which operated until 2016.

My co-founder was based in

India. Our goal was to build the

largest destination for online

fashion shopping in India. But

we got caught in the middle of

companies, like Amazon and

Flipkart, that had access to

billions of dollars in financing.

Ultimately, we couldn’t see a

path to profitability. So we

decided to call the venture off.

But a huge amount of learning

came out of it. I decided to

fully commit to Squadhelp.com.

Over the next few years, we

added many features to the

platform to ensure the quality

of the names. Increased word

of mouth led to our getting

Fortune 500 clients, including

consumer brands and hotel

chains. I sometimes wonder

what the outcome might have

been had I put all my energies

into the company from the

start. I completely missed how

big this opportunity was.

In hindsight, I see that afford-

able naming services and

creative expertise were missing

from the marketplace. Previ-

ously, I’d focused on the num-

bers and doubted that people

would pay for what my com-

pany offered. Entrepreneurs

often get hung up on market

research and quantifying the

business opportunity.

A lot of times, though, it’s

more than that. It’s about an

idea you believe in. If your

intuition and gut tell you

there’s an opportunity out

there and a gap you can fill—

and if you’ve validated that

through your own experience—

that’s reason enough for you

to jump in. The numbers will

come down the road.

Darpan Munjal came to Chicago from India in 1997 to

work for a startup and, later, Sears. By 2010, he was

about done with corporate America and began plan-

ning his own e-commerce business. That venture

wouldn’t survive. But his difficult search for a name for

the firm would lead him in a more fruitful direction.

—AS TOLD TO COELI CARR