Maneesh Jain is the chief executive and co-founder of biotechnology firm Mirvie.Credit: Mitch Tobias
The meaning behind our moniker
Mirvie is a biotechnology company in San Francisco, California, that is developing blood tests that can predict pregnancy complications. It hopes its RNA-based technology will offer a non-invasive way to identify those at risk of conditions such as preeclampsia and premature birth. It was co-founded by physicists and serial entrepreneurs Maneesh Jain, the firm’s chief executive, and Stephen Quake, the company’s scientific advisory board chair. Quake combines his role with a bioengineering research position at Stanford University in California. Mirvie came about, says Jain, after both their partners had unexpectedly difficult births, and, they each thought: “Why is it that we know so little about something that matters so much?” In the final article of a six-part series about science-company names and how to choose them, Jain describes how Mirvie came about.
When we first explored ideas for the company name, we involved the the first employees. This was back in 2019 in its first six months. One of the things with start-up firms is they don’t have as many resources as bigger companies, but they do have a culture that means problems can be solved in a focused, efficient manner.
So, we held a naming contest within the company and came up with all kinds of interesting options. It was a really good exercise in terms of being thoughtful about the process, but we were going in a bit of a literal direction.
One suggestion was Jurni, because we aspire to understand the biological changes throughout the pregnancy journey. There was Radiant, to convey something about the hormonal glow that is often experienced during a pregnancy. There was Bryo, a take on ‘embryo’. Ahana was another one, with the sense of wonder from the term ‘Aha!’ but also recognizing that pregnancy is a lot of work (hana is the Hawaiian word for work).
With some of my previous companies, we’ve been literal — in terms of the technology or the product — when choosing a name. But in this case, we wanted to be more aspirational. Also, empathy is one of our company’s core values, and we wanted the name to reflect that.
At the beginning, the company was called Akna Dx, named by Quake. In Mayan mythology, Akna was the goddess of motherhood and childbirth. We decided to change the name because of the subjective feeling that it was a harsh-sounding company name, it didn’t roll off the tongue easily and it might be consciously or unconsciously associated with the term ‘ack!’
It’s always true that a company’s name isn’t set in stone. However, the more brand equity a company builds around a name, the harder it becomes to switch to a new one.
Thankfully, at the time of the transition from Akna Dx to Mirvie, the company was still in stealth mode. This is the period before a company garners protection from legal challenges and competitor attention, usually before publicizing a proof of concept or results. Because of that, there was little concern about brand equity.
Series: The meaning behind our moniker
After our in-house contest, we engaged a naming agency in East Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, which was helpful. Eventually it came up with Mira Vie, and we shortened that to Mirvie and that’s where we ended up.
