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Dapulse launched in 2014 as a tool for startup managers and grew into a team management platform, doubling in size every five months by its own account, with more than 18,000 paying teams in over 140 countries and 34.1 million dollars raised. The name was the problem. Business Insider reported that it had been chosen simply because the domain was available, and that people kept making fun of it.

The company leaned into that. A launch video showed employees reading confused tweets that said dapulse sounded like a rapper, and marketing lead Joel Goldstein being laughed at by a TV anchor who asked what the word meant.

Chief executive and co-founder Roy Mann framed monday.com as the vision finally encapsulated in a name. He said he had never liked the term project management, because it is people being managed, not projects, and the new name stood for tackling the workplace challenges everybody faces. Co-founder and CTO Eran Zinman said the only thing missing as the company refined its values and voice was a name, until it found monday.

The change was announced on 13 November 2017, effective immediately, and rolled out across the platform by the end of the year, alongside faster infrastructure, onboarding templates and improved mobile apps.

Business Insider added a nuance to the mockery. Research had found that unique names can make a real difference to startups in early funding rounds, though the novelty wears off for investors in later stages, so a funky name may have been what dapulse needed to get its grounding. The company itself said the new name was more closely aligned with a broader commitment to spark a dialogue on how to improve working together as humans. That is the life cycle of a startup name in miniature: odd enough to be noticed, then plain enough to be trusted. monday.com is the second stage, and it is the right one for software sold to whole companies.

Naming a work tool after the most dreaded day of the week is a risk, and Business Insider pointed that out. It paid off. The name is plain English, memorable and owns a concept no competitor can, and the dot com is part of the brand rather than an afterthought. It is one of the better software renames of its decade.