Maria is Co-Founder & Creative Director of Catchword Branding and has personally created hundreds of brand names, including Asana, Upwork, Vudu, and VW Atlas. She’s also an avid domainer and oversees the Catchword Accelerator‘s inventory of 2000+ premium brandable domains.
Profile Questions
Name:
Maria Cypher
Company:
Catchword Branding
Favorite Domain:
Any domain I’ve sold that makes it as a serious brand.
Favorite Industry Conference: NamesCon
Favorite Industry Blog(s): I love Michael Cyger’s weekly roundup. He’s a born entrepreneur, and I love the fun and personality he infuses into helpful domain tips.
Tell us a little bit about your background and your personal story.
I’m Creative Director & Partner with Catchword Branding, which I co-founded in 1998. We’re a leading naming firm globally and have created household names like Asana, Upwork, VW Atlas, Vudu, and just recently, the Popcornmeter for Rotten Tomatoes. I also oversee our domain-name business, the Catchword Accelerator (https://catchwordaccelerator.com/), which lists 2000+ premium brandable domains—which we’ve registered very naturally as part of our work in creating names over the past quarter century.
On a personal level, I have three grown daughters and live in the Bay Area. I spent half my youth in Hong Kong and China and am half Chinese myself—so I have a lot of appreciation for other cultures and perspectives. My husband Charlie is an IP attorney, so we get to talk shop at home!
How did you get involved in the domain industry?
Funny story. Over 20 years ago, we were presenting name options to a Fortune 50 company and indicated the 10 or 15 that were available as dot-coms. The client literally paused the meeting to go register these domains. I immediately realized that we needed to maintain control over all the domains that wouldn’t ultimately be used by clients for their specific naming projects. That was the start of our brandable domains business! …
