why we selected Apheros because the identify for our know-how start-up agency

In the final yr of my PhD, I knew I used to be going to start out an organization, so I began fascinated by a reputation. I labored on it, old-style, on a sheet of paper for possibly an hour a day for a few weeks. It needed to be a quick course of, as a result of I wanted a reputation to satisfy deadlines for my first grant functions.

I needed to realize three issues with the identify. It needed to be one thing that’s distinctive and that will pop up in a Google search; one thing that has a connection to the steel foams; and one thing a bit nerdy. Also, I needed a reputation which you can pronounce.

I’ve at all times been concerned with languages. In secondary college in Switzerland, I studied Greek and Latin, in addition to English, French and German, plus one yr of Arabic.

In most languages, iron and steel are the identical or related phrases. So, I began combining and taking part in with three phrases: iron, steel and foam.

Classical roots

I went again to my roots within the classics. Aphrós means foam in Greek; Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of affection and sweetness, is born from sea foam. The solely individuals who can have a look at the corporate’s identify, Apheros, and know instantly are prone to be Greek scientists.

The ‘e’ that I slipped in there may be from ferrum, iron in Latin. So, the identify means ‘iron foam’.

It was necessary to me to maintain the ‘ph’ — I really like a ph. I used to be irritated in 1996 when, in German all of the ph’s might be changed by f’s: so foto, as a substitute of photograph.

Series: The that means behind our moniker

During this iterative course of, I googled ‘Apheros’ to see if it was utilized by anybody else. In the method, I occurred on a start-up agrotechnology firm in Switzerland, after which I discovered one in Germany with virtually precisely the identical identify in the identical business. I didn’t need that to occur with us.

I did discover a wine firm with an analogous identify to Apheros in Portugal, and a Pokémon-like card-based sport referred to as Elestrals, that includes a personality whose identify can also be related. So there wasn’t any direct competitors, in that these weren’t in the identical house as ours.

Once I had a few choices, I threw them out to family and friends, and in the event that they thought one thing sounded bizarre or unusual, then I went again to my sheet of paper. Interestingly, I can’t bear in mind what the opposite choices have been.