Ask HN: Burnout App Feedback

We've spent 3 years developing a software that should help startups manage all processes in a single tool [1]. We are close to launch, but not sure about naming.

What do you think about Burnout name? Will it frighten people out? Do you think the idea itself is sound enough?

[1] https://burnout.so/

14 points | by gloo 1710 days ago

9 comments

  • dstik 1710 days ago
    I know you're only asking about the name but wanted to share some other helpful feedback as well.

    I usually worry about all-in-one tools being a combination of the most popular features of each specific tool but not being powerful enough to perform the job of said tool. To mitigate this, I think having full pages breaking down each of those sections (instead of just paragraph sections) would be helpful. I like these short summaries, but additionally linking out to full sub-product detail pages would be very helpful. I wonder how each of these sub-products compare to their full product alternatives and don't quite understand from the landing page how interconnected they all are in order to make me willing to forego certain features/functionality for the sake of data organization.

    As an example: We use Pipedrive as our CRM - it has concepts like: User ACL, Deals, Contacts, Organizations, Activities, etc. It offers visual workflow automation, a robust API, and advanced filtering searching capabilities. I'd like to see all of the features I'd get with Burnout's CRM to help me evaluate the product before I'd consider switching.

    Regarding the name: personally, as a founder/engineer, when I hear the term burnout I think of the negative mental/physical/emotional state that I (and friends/teammates) have experienced in the past - so the name puts me off. A suggestion could be something like (warning: bad ideas alert): Startup (another play on words - since this guides you through starting up) or Blueprint.

    It looks like you've built a ton of product here and I'm excited to see a live demo and check it out myself.

  • dmwallin 1710 days ago
    As a name it seems like it will suffer greatly from overlap, making it difficult to find. If you search for "Burnout" it will be extremely hard to make it a top hit. Searching for "Burnout startup" or "Burnout software" you will get similar results and is prob still too wide. Searching for "Burnout App" gets you a mix of Racing Games and Self Care tools.

    I think given the SEO issue, combined with the fact that "Burnout" is something you actively want to avoid in a startup makes this a poor choice.

    I would also avoid comparing this with "Slack". Slack has both negative and positive connotations. It also has way better SEO properties since searching for "slack" without additional qualifiers was likely uncommon.

  • thecupisblue 1710 days ago
    This is more a ShowHN than AskHN.

    I like it, added myself to the list already. Love the name, you can have great marketing with it. Don't burnout, use burnout. Articles on burnout and mental context switching hell - burnout is the perfect solution.

    [-]
    • gloo 1710 days ago
      Thanks! AFAIK Show HN allows to post only ready products you can have acces to. Burnout.so is not ready yet...
  • mtmail 1710 days ago
    Not sure I would use theranos as example company, from wikipedia "Shut down and liquidated; founder indicted for wire fraud and conspiracy"

    The name sounded generic enough (so does 'Slack') but then near the bottom I see "Experience your last Burnout [..] But seriously, please take care " so now I think you really mean a wordplay mental burnout. One could also associate a tire burnout, then the wordplays can be related to cars, being fast, fun https://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Burnout

    [-]
    • gloo 1710 days ago
      Thanks! We thought Theranos would serve as an irony. Will think about it.
      [-]
      • afarrell 1710 days ago
        In communication, it is better to default to being straightforward. Irony relies on some amount of shared understanding, but you are trying to communicate with strangers.
  • nik736 1710 days ago
    If you want to be taken seriously you change it and also change the Holmes example ;-)
  • rajacombinator 1709 days ago
    It’s a fairly bad, but memorable name. It won’t make or break your startup. But spending 3 years in development before launching will.
    [-]
    • gloo 1709 days ago
      We are in private beta for 6-7 months, so not that bad. Also it took our competitors 2-3 years before the first release as well, so it seems that is not a huge problem. We hope...
  • tablet 1710 days ago
    It's relatively funny, however negative connotation is there. It is hard to predict the launch, but usually name is not a big deal.
  • d--b 1709 days ago
    I hate the name, but it doesn’t really matter if the tool’s good.

    Startups are sufficiently stressful, I don’t need to be reminded constantly that I could burn out any day.

    Something around moonshot would sound nicer. Or mission control room. How about “Houston”?

    Edit: just read the page, sounds like the tool is huge in scope, are you sure you need all that stuff before launching?

    [-]
    • gloo 1709 days ago
      Well, when you create all-in-one tool you have to go deep. Most likely we will drop some parts before the first release, like CMS (it is not fully ready yet).
  • afarrell 1710 days ago
    I'm unsure if the name is a serious liability or merely tolerable.
    [-]
    • gloo 1710 days ago
      We were inspired by Slack, it is somewhat negative as well. Also something that is associated with startups.
      [-]
      • afarrell 1710 days ago
        Is slack negative? Generally a system with some amount of slack is resilient and responsive. (counterexample: a computer running at 100% cpu has no slack and consequently feels sluggish to use.) An organisation could reasonably aspire to have more internal responsiveness and relaxedness about communication.

        What do your users aspire to?

        Not burnout.

        [-]