Part of launching a successful product is learning how to roll with the punches. Despite our preemptive work prior to the campaign, we were contacted by another company claiming that our name was too similar to theirs.
We were faced with an important decision. We could fight a legal battle for OLO, or go back and change the brand. Both options would use up resources and lead to delays. A legal battle would require an investment in lawyers and legal fees, while a rebranding would require retooling of molds and a migration of our broad and successful online presence. Our primary loyalty is to our Kickstarter backers, and to getting the printer ready as soon as possible, something that would be hindered by a legal battle. While we love the name OLO, and we still maintain the rights to use it in the future, we decided to take a step back in order to move forward. OLO became ONO.
The rebranding process took 6 weeks, between deciding on a new name, registering it, designing the new logo, and changing the tools for manufacturing. Some of the previous work was able to be modified, while some of it had to be redone from scratch. This rebranding delay shifted the timeline significantly, but through the hard work of the entire team, the delay was limited to about a month.