Company and platform naming

A software company formed by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and programming whiz Justin Rosenstein was clearly not ordinary. It needed a brand that stood out from the IT herd and transcended Silicon Valley startup tropes.

Tapping into a 10,000-year-old practice, Asana, the Sanskrit word conveying “yoga pose,” connected the founders’ deep belief in yoga mindfulness with the business world’s quest for focus, flow, and clarity. The result: a productivity platform enabling team members to manage complex projects smoothly with a category-defying name proven to stand the test of time.

Asana is not just a lovely word. As a Sanskrit term that’s part of yoga’s basic vocabulary, it’s familiar to audiences all over the world. Plus its vowel-consonant-vowel construction makes it easy to pronounce for speakers of just about any language. Its symmetry both expresses balance and provides rich options for visual identity. In a marketplace of brands that was filled with descriptive-leaning names, Asana was unique, engaging, and highly memorable. And, like yoga, the name has continued to be effective and relevant, standing apart from the dozens of competitor brands that have followed.

After a decade of explosive growth, the company went public in 2020. It now serves millions of customers in 190 countries at some of the best-known companies in the world (Google, Amazon, Uber, Spotify, Deloitte). Fast Company designated Asana one of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2021 “for helping teams meet their goals.”