Master-McNeil, Inc.

Automating some of the hardest and most valuable parts of what we have done so successfully for years at naming.com

1-15 employees
  • News, Media, Advertising, & Publishing
  • Headquarters address
    Addison Street, Berkeley, CA, USA

    While still stealthy, this spin-off seeks to automate and democratize many of the hardest and most valuable aspects of what we have learned at Master-McNeil, making this expert knowledge accessible to vastly more entrepreneurs and enterprise innovation teams. A pioneer in the professionalization of name creation, Master-McNeil is known for its innovative methods and thinking around name creation and brand architecture which became industry standard, and for the great names it creates.

    Our spin-off team includes advisors from Yelp, AirBNB, PayPal, Quid, etc.

    Spin-off founder SB Master began her career at Landor Associates, where she was Associate Director, Corporate Identity Worldwide; after five years she launched Landor's first verbal branding practice across 12 office, leading strategy and creative for numerous corporate identities including creating Westin, Touchstone, Fleet Financial, Asiana, and Principal. Her next company, Master-McNeil, (naming.com) is known for its hundreds of new names and brand architectures with a focus on technology, and for its enduring relationships. Clients include AMD, Disney, Schwab, Nestle, VW, Apple (over 60 projects), Levis, Cisco, Motorola, PayPal, GM, Edwards, Adobe, Microsoft, Concur, SunGard, Clorox, Connexant, Cadence, HP, Walmart, Xerox, Yammer, AppNexus, Wells Fargo, and Ariba, as well as many small and mid-sized companies. The firm enjoys a close relationship with several PayPal founders, has worked with and named many of their later ventures, and is a senior advisor to several of these.

    Between December '09 and February '12 SB worked with tech start up Quid, first as their M-McN project director, and from October '10 as Director, Marketing & Communications. Her work included brand roll out, web presence, name architecture, and the video “A little story about Quid." Quid recently announced a $39M round.