Ask HN: What do you think about a CEO providing human name to his business?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37566574

by amts • 3 years ago

1 10 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

As I may get a CEO assistant job at a company dealing with lab equipment and reagents more aligned with my main science interests [1], I googled that company and found that its CEO seems to have a few other similar pharmaceutical companies. But one of them is named with a female human name.

I think that business entities are a bit more abstract to bear the labels used for human bodies and it sounds strange for me. I would never buy anything from a company with any human name. This CEO is a PhD and his dissertation is aligned with my main interests, but I do not want to get into another type of bs with this CEO assistant job.

What do you think about a CEO providing a female human name to one of his businesses?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37560705

anigbrowl• 3 years ago

You're probably going to meet the CEO as part of the job interview. Ask casually how he picked the name, keep your thoughts to yourself and decide how you feel later.

pangolinja• 3 years ago

I think you need to find something else to worry about. who cares what the name is? I know hundreds of businesses with human names. CEOs aren't imagination engines, they're people!

Centrino• 3 years ago

To be clear, you mean a first name, also called “given name”, not a surname?

Do you feel uncomfortable when hearing about the Ariane rocket?

Mercedes cars bear the name of the daughter of the founder.

Dave is a highly ranked banking app.

LA Times: “Companies are using human names to seem more friendly”. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-company-human-name-20...

amts3• 3 years ago

Yes the first name only

amts3• 3 years ago

A company with this name is a pharmaceutical company, it seems so unprofessional to me

dllthomas• 3 years ago

Sir, this is a Wendy's.

jaclaz• 3 years ago

Maybe it is because I am getting old, but I cannot see the problem, maybe it is slighty unusual, but there is nothing that can be seen unethical or unappropriate (IMHO).

Companies using surnames or first name+surname are very common but there are already more than a few using first names only.

Moreover it could be also an acronym "cleverly" assembled to a first name.

Personally I am more perplexed by the names that some people give to their sons.

hiimsteveee• 3 years ago

Yes, this is my business, Steve.

NavinF• 3 years ago

I do not want to get into another type of bs with this CEO assistant job

What's the context here?

Tbh this post seems kinda bizarre without context. Aren't company names like this really common?

amts3• 3 years ago

The reason for asking this question was that maybe it's possible to deduce something about such CEO. As he is not even using a calendar or mobile app to schedule his tasks upfront of at least a week, they want an assistant to remind him of everything. It seems for me that if they want someone to totally manage his time, it by default may not be 100% effective if the person didn't make a conscious action to put something on a calendar.

Ask HN: What do you think about a CEO providing human name to his business?

Related Stories