I've been asked about the name of my company. I know, it does sound outdated and not so cool. I also conducted a small private poll among my native English speaking friends. The replies ranged from “rather anonymous” to “it sucks” .

So actually I apparently broke all those good marketing naming rules.

None the less I did not change the name in the past and I’m not going to change it now, when the commercial release is coming close. I already own the domain and that name is written in a few documents and contracts and changing it would be a pain the a§§. So I will stick with it until I have clear evidence that this name is pulling me back.

But I did not answer the question: where did the name came from?

We must go back a year or so. The idea of creating a company dates back to many years but the actual work begun about one year ago.

By that time I, also relocated to a new house in the country, in the outskirts of a small village west of Milan. For the first time in many years I saw animals again: hares, frogs, herons and storks were hanging around in the rice fields. Among the others a mother cat with three kittens came to live in the abandoned garden on the other side of the road. My wife and I felt natural pouring milk to them, and the natural distrust of the animals slowly went away. One morning, going to work, I heard a tiny meow. One of the kittens was alone in the garden. We never knew were the mother cat went with the other two. The little kitten came to live with us and become Ted the cat, a marvelous big fallow cat. I named the company after this story.