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9) First of all, it's hard to parse. If you hear someone say /wEE-bOHl/ out loud, it's hard to know what word they're referring to. How do you spell that? So even for people who know the company or product, associating it with the spoken name isn't as natural.

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10) Second, it just doesn't sound great. It's not a real word, and the word that it's closest to is "weasel", which isn't a great brand association. I know this sounds nit picky, but I think it matters! Whenever I hear Webull, part of my brain thinks of this:

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11) Third, the phonetics just don't flow very well in English. It's not a real word, and it doesn't sound like a set of syllables that would be likely to form a real word. It sounds like a foreign word transliterated into English. Which I think it might be?

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12) So, what would I do if I were

? Well, the real answer is that obviously they know way more about their company than I do, and I'm just bullshitting. Probably this is all useless. But here are some off the cuff thoughts.

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13) There's a spectrum here. The easiest version is a tiny change to the brand: WeBull

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14) Just capitalize the 'B'. Or maybe 'We Bull'. Clearly Webull has already sorta thought about this, because of their logo. But if you wrote it as WeBull, then anyone reading it would immediately know what it meant. It's a lot easier to remember 'We Bull' than 'Webull'.

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15) Also, WeBull makes sense thematically. What is WeBull? It's not a misspelling of a rodent branded as being deceptive. It's a stock trading app for We the people, who are Bullish! Together, We Bull.

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16) And if you make this change, all of a sudden your logo is fucking baller. As is, I suspect a lot of people saw it in the first slide and weren't even sure what it meant. But if the app is WeBull, the logo is clear and on-message:

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17) So I think that alone would go a long way. It doesn't solve the fact that /wEE-bOHl/ just doesn't sound great phonetically. It also doesn't solve the fact that 'We Bull' isn't grammatically correct.

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18) So, if they wanted, they could do a fuller rebrand: maybe one of these? a) Bull b) Bullish (yeah, I know, the EOS DEX is trying to claim this one, but it's a really good name!) c) Bull Trade d) Bull Stocks I kinda think I like 'Bull Trade'? But I'm not confident here.

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19) Of course, this is all an English centric view. 微牛 might be a great name for an app in China. Maybe you can have it both ways -- with WeBull you certainly can! And, to state the obvious: I have no idea what works well in Chinese, and I don't try to.

6:41 AM · Jun 24, 2021Twitter Web App

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20) FTX has users from a large number of jurisdictions and languages, and as much as possible we rely on native speakers who have an ear for them. So don't take any of the above as thoughts on Webull's brand _except_ in English language countries.

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21) Anyway, why write this up? Because I don't have any background in branding. But one of the largest lessons I've learned as a founder is: that doesn't fucking matter. It's my responsibility for FTX to do well; I can't hide behind my ignorance.

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22) And so I've spent a bunch of time trying to think about things I'm weak at, so that I can become better. This was one example, and I wanted to write it up, partially just to force myself to be explicit in my thoughts and hold them to a higher standard (I'll hear if I'm off!)

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and

微牛 is good, similary as WeChat, and 微 meaning tech and mobile phone APP in China (however 微牛 could also be explained as a little bullish) 威牛 is also fine, same pronounciation, but 威 meaning strong, violent, super.

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interesting! yeah, WeChat works well in English--it's easy to say and pronounce, it's clear, and it's grammatically correct

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