Oystro – The App Name and the Journey

Posted On March 4, 2019

The first step – once the idea for a mobile number based meeting planner app occurred – was to find an attractive name for the app. With the name, it was also important to see if the domain name was available.

While brainstorming the names revolved around anagrams and variations around words such as “Lets” and “Meet”, “Catchup”, “Huddle” and others

Some names for which domains were available were “LetzsMeet”, “LetsCatchApp”, “FtoFMeet”, “F2FMeet”, “LtzMeet”, “MeetNgApp”, “Meetiquette”, “YNotMeetup”, “Hudlz”, “Kachuhp” and some more.

The names did not sound great or convincing but I do remember making business plans using the app name “YNotMeetup” and “Kachuhp” 🙂

An attempt was made somewhere in the end of 2012 to get UI and coding done through a freelancer. The name of the app was “Buglez” during this time. I imagined the medieval ages where an announcer with a bugle would go to the town square to announce a decree or an event organised by the ruler. Since neither “bugle” or bugles” was available as a domain name, I put the “z” instead of the “s” at the end of the app name.

But the effort did not go too far because I was not impressed with the first draft UI shown by the freelancer. I believed strongly that however simple the app features may be, it makes sense to launch it only with a good UI/UX and robust code. I left the app idea in the back burner till such time I get to involve a good UI/UX professional.

During the end of 2015, I got connected to an UI/UX professional who was an ex-Microsoft employee and was running his own design studio. He was introduced to me by a professor at Industrial Design Centre (IDC) at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB). This design professional had completed his Masters in Design from IDC IITB. He agreed to be part of the Oystro project. I have located emails which help me recollect that when brainstorming during this time, I came up with the name “Croakle”. “Croak” is the sound a frog makes and the “le” at the end gave it a google kind of sound effect.

The UI/UX professional stayed in Bangalore and I stayed in Mumbai but his work at that time brought him to Mumbai occasionally and we met a couple of times. He worked on the initial wireframe on an A3 sheet. My expectation was that whoever gets involved in the project works on it part time till the MVP is launched.

In the meantime, I was looking for a developers who could work on the iOS and Android app. There were more than 2 or 3 developers in android and iOS who showed interest in getting involved but the nature of part time work, getting pulled into exigencies in their normal day job and for various other reasons the development of Oystro did not go as expected. On my part, I was patient because when it is part time gig it is very tough to be demanding on agreed delivery times. Also I wanted to build a team that was genuinely interested in the app idea. Finally at the end of 2016, an iOS developer from Chennai agreed to work on Oystro

By this time, I got the thought of naming the app “Oystro” and the UI/UX professional designed the app icon and logo with the help of a freelance designer. The name came about since my daughter’s favourite cartoon character was Ariel and that set me thinking about sea characters which lead me to the phrase “the world is your oyster” and thus the name “Oystro”. “Oystro” therefore signifies the opportunities that can sought and memorable experiences that can be created by meeting people that matter to you.

Mid-2017, we met as team in Bangalore at the UI/UX professional’s home to discuss about Oystro.

Still things did not start moving until the end of 2018 in terms of developing the app. While the part time efforts delayed the MVP, we interacted apart from Oystro over the past years to build a trust that has helped in getting into putting continuous efforts to build the MVP and launch Oystro soon.