4 ms·

Sorry but I would not trust a company that brands itself using a mythical monster to give me funding. If I'm putting the future of my company in the hands of so

Sorry but I would not trust a company that brands itself using a mythical monster to give me funding. If I'm putting the future of my company in the hands of some venture-capitalists I'd want to know they're the real deal and a company that uses: "Our goal, as Cthulhu, is to support initiatives designed to rise from the dark depths of R’lyeh (metaphorically speaking!) and end up destroying or at least disrupting, some market paradigm." As its opening line does not exude professionalism.

Apocryphon 7y ago
https://www.mithril.com https://www.mithril.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valar_Ventures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valar_Ventures
- kijin 7y ago
  You forgot Palantir. As soon as you see a Tolkien reference in a company's name, you know Peter Thiel is involved.
  - Apocryphon 7y ago
    Yeah, I just wanted to mention the ones that were specifically for investment, as the ancestral post talked about VC firms. Tech companies are known to follow more- whimsical branding schemes.
- happy_path 7y ago
  Tangencial question: aren't those names copyright by the Tolkien Estate? I remember TSR had an issue using hobbit in their D&D game.
- IceCreamGondola 7y ago
  These I don’t really see a problem with. The name is inspired by fiction that’s fine. When I go onto a firms website and see images of a mythical monster plastered everywhere that’s when it gets a bit ridiculous.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    A good chunk of countries, counties and cities on the planet have mythical beasts in their official signage. So do the militaries and companies dealing with them. From the other end, entrepreneurial scene is full of discussions about a particular mythical beast, the unicorn (as 'DoreenMichele pointed out upthread). And, of course, dragons. Really, it doesn't seem to me that you're uncomfortable with mythical beasts per se. It's just this creature isn't part of the old, baseline culture. It isn't Greek/Roman/Chinese mythology. It's a part of the nerd subculture. That's what I think you're uncomfortable with.
    - IceCreamGondola 7y ago
      > A good chunk of countries, counties and cities on the planet have mythical beasts in their official signage. So do the militaries and companies dealing with them. Yes they do and that isn't a problem. There is a difference between using symbols and names and then branding your entire website with said things. > From the other end, entrepreneurial scene is full of discussions about a particular mythical beast, the unicorn (as 'DoreenMichele pointed out upthread). The link 'DoreenMichele sent is not the point. I don't care about signage I care about branding. Starbucks isn't using the Mermaid mythology in how it describes its company, it uses it as signage. That's fine no issues there. Side note: I think the "unicorn" obsession in the tech sector is stupid and overrated. If a company advertises that it's looking for its next "unicorn-x" then I pretty much write them off. > Really, it doesn't seem to me that you're uncomfortable with mythical beasts per se. It's just this creature isn't part of the old, baseline culture. It isn't Greek/Roman/Chinese mythology. It's a part of the nerd subculture. That's what I think you're uncomfortable with. I think that's a pretty big leap to make. I have no issues with a company calling itself "Cthulu". I have an issue with how it is plastered all over the site and has even formed its mission statement around it.
      - yomly 7y ago
        Pretty sure this is on-point branding and differentiation. Some people want to work with your faceless pristine professional top-heavy VC firm oozing with pedigree (McK,GS,Ivy galore) and some people want to roll the dice with people who aren't afraid to distinguish themselves from the culture of their herd and go hard (maybe too hard?) on something niche. So their branding is probably serving some use in self-selection and mindshare - I'm sure plenty of people will remember Cthulhu Ventures, for instance. I'm ambivalent either way, I wouldn't judge too about this book based on its cover per se other than they've clearly thought about how they want the cover to be received which is a data point in and of itself. I suppose better that than not thinking about the cover whatsoever.
DoreenMichele 7y ago
Clearly, one will never become the next unicorn using silly mythical names (or other references). https://bizfluent.com/info-7791011-businesses-use-mythological-characters.html https://bizfluent.com/info-7791011-businesses-use-mythologic...
- IceCreamGondola 7y ago
  See my response to TeMPOral downstream. Using names isn't the problem, saturating your company with the mythology is.
  - krapp 7y ago
    Corporate culture and the grandiose, self-serving rhetoric of startups and VC culture are no less ridiculous than this, just less entertaining.
    - IceCreamGondola 7y ago
      Totally agree
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    It's a fictional mythos made up not hugely long ago. Odds are good that it was an expression of skepticism about the supposed loving God of Christian culture. It describes a reality in which the gods not only don't care about you, but you should actively seek to avoid being noticed by them because having their attention is very much a bad thing. This is consistent with the experience of a lot of children who are better off trying to handle certain things themselves rather than telling their parents or teachers. It's also consistent with how terribly homosexuals (among others) were punished by the authorities for simply existing probably around the time of the birth of this fictional mythos. The company positioning fairly openly acknowledges that a successful startup is "a destroyer of worlds." Wildly succeeding with a disruptive new tech creates a new reality that may or may not have its good points, but the old order is gone. The Cthulhu plreference is at a minimum left-handed acknowledgement that corporate culture is widely understood to be fundamentally uncaring and psychopathic. This might actually be a perfectly healthy thing to embrace. Much evil in the world grows out of the need to have a good reputation which creates friction because looking good and doing good tend to part ways at some point. Being in the public eye comes with inherent moral challenges that are frequently glossed over in discussions that place an excess of importance on things like transparency. Often, those critiquing the choices of people or entities in the public eye lack both the full story and first-hand experience with dealing with an equally uncaring and often openly hostile public that seeks to hold others to a standard it makes zero effort to pretend to try to meet itself.
arethuza 7y ago
Entirely possible that it acts as a filter for companies that have a superficial evaluation of 'professionalism'.

Apocryphon 7y ago

https://www.mithril.com https://www.mithril.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valar_Ventures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valar_Ventures

kijin 7y ago
You forgot Palantir. As soon as you see a Tolkien reference in a company's name, you know Peter Thiel is involved.
- Apocryphon 7y ago
  Yeah, I just wanted to mention the ones that were specifically for investment, as the ancestral post talked about VC firms. Tech companies are known to follow more- whimsical branding schemes.
happy_path 7y ago
Tangencial question: aren't those names copyright by the Tolkien Estate? I remember TSR had an issue using hobbit in their D&D game.
IceCreamGondola 7y ago
These I don’t really see a problem with. The name is inspired by fiction that’s fine. When I go onto a firms website and see images of a mythical monster plastered everywhere that’s when it gets a bit ridiculous.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  A good chunk of countries, counties and cities on the planet have mythical beasts in their official signage. So do the militaries and companies dealing with them. From the other end, entrepreneurial scene is full of discussions about a particular mythical beast, the unicorn (as 'DoreenMichele pointed out upthread). And, of course, dragons. Really, it doesn't seem to me that you're uncomfortable with mythical beasts per se. It's just this creature isn't part of the old, baseline culture. It isn't Greek/Roman/Chinese mythology. It's a part of the nerd subculture. That's what I think you're uncomfortable with.
  - IceCreamGondola 7y ago
    > A good chunk of countries, counties and cities on the planet have mythical beasts in their official signage. So do the militaries and companies dealing with them. Yes they do and that isn't a problem. There is a difference between using symbols and names and then branding your entire website with said things. > From the other end, entrepreneurial scene is full of discussions about a particular mythical beast, the unicorn (as 'DoreenMichele pointed out upthread). The link 'DoreenMichele sent is not the point. I don't care about signage I care about branding. Starbucks isn't using the Mermaid mythology in how it describes its company, it uses it as signage. That's fine no issues there. Side note: I think the "unicorn" obsession in the tech sector is stupid and overrated. If a company advertises that it's looking for its next "unicorn-x" then I pretty much write them off. > Really, it doesn't seem to me that you're uncomfortable with mythical beasts per se. It's just this creature isn't part of the old, baseline culture. It isn't Greek/Roman/Chinese mythology. It's a part of the nerd subculture. That's what I think you're uncomfortable with. I think that's a pretty big leap to make. I have no issues with a company calling itself "Cthulu". I have an issue with how it is plastered all over the site and has even formed its mission statement around it.
    - yomly 7y ago
      Pretty sure this is on-point branding and differentiation. Some people want to work with your faceless pristine professional top-heavy VC firm oozing with pedigree (McK,GS,Ivy galore) and some people want to roll the dice with people who aren't afraid to distinguish themselves from the culture of their herd and go hard (maybe too hard?) on something niche. So their branding is probably serving some use in self-selection and mindshare - I'm sure plenty of people will remember Cthulhu Ventures, for instance. I'm ambivalent either way, I wouldn't judge too about this book based on its cover per se other than they've clearly thought about how they want the cover to be received which is a data point in and of itself. I suppose better that than not thinking about the cover whatsoever.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

Clearly, one will never become the next unicorn using silly mythical names (or other references). https://bizfluent.com/info-7791011-businesses-use-mythological-characters.html https://bizfluent.com/info-7791011-businesses-use-mythologic...

IceCreamGondola 7y ago
See my response to TeMPOral downstream. Using names isn't the problem, saturating your company with the mythology is.
- krapp 7y ago
  Corporate culture and the grandiose, self-serving rhetoric of startups and VC culture are no less ridiculous than this, just less entertaining.
  - IceCreamGondola 7y ago
    Totally agree
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  It's a fictional mythos made up not hugely long ago. Odds are good that it was an expression of skepticism about the supposed loving God of Christian culture. It describes a reality in which the gods not only don't care about you, but you should actively seek to avoid being noticed by them because having their attention is very much a bad thing. This is consistent with the experience of a lot of children who are better off trying to handle certain things themselves rather than telling their parents or teachers. It's also consistent with how terribly homosexuals (among others) were punished by the authorities for simply existing probably around the time of the birth of this fictional mythos. The company positioning fairly openly acknowledges that a successful startup is "a destroyer of worlds." Wildly succeeding with a disruptive new tech creates a new reality that may or may not have its good points, but the old order is gone. The Cthulhu plreference is at a minimum left-handed acknowledgement that corporate culture is widely understood to be fundamentally uncaring and psychopathic. This might actually be a perfectly healthy thing to embrace. Much evil in the world grows out of the need to have a good reputation which creates friction because looking good and doing good tend to part ways at some point. Being in the public eye comes with inherent moral challenges that are frequently glossed over in discussions that place an excess of importance on things like transparency. Often, those critiquing the choices of people or entities in the public eye lack both the full story and first-hand experience with dealing with an equally uncaring and often openly hostile public that seeks to hold others to a standard it makes zero effort to pretend to try to meet itself.

arethuza 7y ago

Entirely possible that it acts as a filter for companies that have a superficial evaluation of 'professionalism'.