Can you superset that to me just doesnt have quite the same ring

Posted Feb 23, 2024 at 2:59 PM UTC

“Can you Superset that to me?” just doesn’t have quite the same ring.

One of my most closely held theories is that no product can survive a terrible name. You can maybe turn a meh name into a great one — Google, Yelp, Apple — but if you name your company Quibi or Go90, it’s over before it starts. And according to some early Slack employees, the team was this close to picking a real stinker:

We tried a whole range of technical sounding ones like Circuit and Superset. Superset in particular was well-liked: “the superset of all your team communication!” But it was already taken. Loop.in was considered and discarded. Kitchen, or the Flickr-styled “Kitchn” was thrown around.

"You're calling it Slack?"

[Building Slack]

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