For the last year, I’ve been enamored with media entrepreneurs and biographies about them. This week, I started reading That Will Never Work, a biography about Netflix’s origin story. It’s written by Marc Randolph, the cofounder and first CEO of Netflix. I always think of Reed Hastings as the first and only CEO—I had no clue Marc was the founding CEO.

I’m early in the book, but I’m enjoying Marc’s recounting of the early days and how he overcame early obstacles.

One thing that resonated with me was his approach to naming the company and the concept of a beta name. Fun fact: the company was originally named Kibble. The logic behind the name was based on an old advertising and marketing saying: “It doesn’t make a difference how good the ads are if the dogs don’t eat the food.”

Marc chose this name because he wanted to remind the team that if the product was lackluster, it wouldn’t matter how well they sold it. He picked “Kibble” as a placeholder to remind his team to focus on building an amazing product that people would love.

Marc realized that picking the right name can take months and that you must give yourself time for serendipity to kick in. Instead of forcing a name at founding, he chose a beta name—a working name you use to get the company up and running (email, bank accounts, website, etc.). The key to a beta name is that it must be something so bad that there’s zero chance you’ll keep it. If you pick something tolerable, he said, your exhaustion and familiarity six months down the road may lead to your just keeping it. But, if you pick something awful, you’ll be forced to rename the company.

Ultimately, his team wanted one word that combined movies and the internet: Net . . . flix.

Marc detailed how hard it is to pick a good name. Here’s what to think about:

• A good name rolls off the tongue. One- or two-syllable words are best; ideally, the emphasis is on the first syllable. His examples: Google and Facebook.
• Too many syllables, too many letters, and people might misspell your website. Too few and they might forget the name.
• A name isn’t great if someone else already owns the domain or the trademark. Double-check before settling on a name.

Even a good name might not be an immediate slam dunk. Marc’s team didn’t initially like “Netflix” because “flix” made some team members think of “porno” or “skin flicks.” When the team was down to the wire and had to decide, they slept on it for a night and agreed it was their best option.

Naming is hard, but it shouldn’t stop you from moving the company forward or building your product or solution. Beta names give you a placeholder and time to find the right name. Marc’s beta name approach is great, and I plan to use it.