37signals becomes Basecamp

I think it all depends. What 37signals have done makes sense because outside of the tech arena "37signals" is perhaps a confusing and difficult name/identity. I guess also because Basecamp has eventually become their flagship product they are primarily identified by it. You can trace this evolution in the blog post:

"37signals was founded back in 1999 as a web design firm. With the release of Basecamp in 2004, we began our journey to become a software company. Once Basecamp revenue surpassed web design revenue in 2005, the transition was complete."

"However, because we've released so many products over the years, we've become a bit scattered, a bit diluted."

"So with that in mind, last August we conducted a thorough review of our products, our customer base, our passions, and our visions of the company for the next 20 years. When we put it all on the table, everything lined up and pointed at one clear conclusion. We all got excited. We knew it was right."

"Moving forward, we will be a one product company. That product will be Basecamp. Our entire company will rally around Basecamp."

"From now on, we are Basecamp. Basecamp the company, Basecamp the product. We're one and the same."

This makes total sense. Even if in the future they launch another barnstorming product, if it's under the Basecamp brand/umbrella it will have a stronger brand identity than being launched as a 37signals product.

The same works for 10gen's rename to MongoDB Inc (even if as a UK citizen I find "Mongo" to be a difficult name to sell due to certain negative connotations associated with "mong").

Take a look at Oracle's history [1]:

"Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation in 1977 with Bob Miner and Ed Oates under the name Software Development Laboratories (SDL). In 1979 SDL changed its name to Relational Software, Inc. (RSI).[8] In 1982, RSI renamed itself Oracle Systems Corporation [9] to align itself more closely with its flagship product Oracle Database. At this stage Bob Miner served as the company's senior programmer. In 1995, Oracle Systems Corporation changed its name to Oracle Corporation."

Again, this makes total sense.

Apple and Microsoft were lucky from the moment of their inception to incorporate with cleverly simple names.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation

That's the point though. It's largely down to luck.

It's not about some cutesy generalizations you distil into a formula for success and release as a book.

It's certainly not about what language/framework you decide to use.

Somehow I don't think luck is the major factor in determining the success of a SaaS business.

Have you heard of Google? It's a service to help you find things.

We recently changed our company name to Netsparker Ltd. after our flagship product. Because we have no intentions to build and sell 10 more products in the next decade.

However companies such as Microsoft and Apple are in business of building products, not selling only one.

Companies such as 37Signals are interested in building 1-3 products and never to become a huge corp with 1K people and 20 products.