Did you know that “all billion-dollar [internet] companies have two ‘O’s’ in their name?”

That’s according to Academy Award-winning actress and founder and CEO of goop, Gwyneth Paltrow, who describes the process of how the name for her well-being brand, goop, came about in a recent interview that I came across on YouTube.

OK. Sure. There’s Google. Yahoo. Facebook … even Microsoft and MacBook …! Huh.

Paltrow describes the process by which the name, “goop” came about.

“I knew that I didn’t want to call it ‘Gwyneth Paltrow’ anything,” she says, talking about the early days in 2002 and the naming process of the e-newsletter and then the lifestyle brand.

“I was actually meeting with a friend of mine in New York who – he’s a marketing genius.

“And I was like I need, I need help.

“It would be great if it was a name, but didn’t mean something, and something short, and he was like: ‘OK! It’s goop. And I was like, ‘huh!’ Like, why,” she says.

Paltrow goes on to describe that said marketing-guru friend came up with the idea because: “Well, it’s your initials and then there are two ‘O’s’ and all billion-dollar internet companies have two ‘O’s’ in the name […] and so I followed his advice.”

Fair.

While Paltrow goes on to say: “We’re still not a billion-dollar company yet” – it’s clear that what started as her passion project (a leap of faith) has become a million-dollar lifestyle brand.

Love her or hate her – that’s a pretty great achievement.

For me, Paltrow’s goop e-newsletter (as it was back then) was one of my early inspirations, when I first started writing and experimenting with producing content, and just playing in the blogosphere really.

Controversial, maybe.

But even though it has largely promoted at-times contentious well-being ideas, expensive products, and mostly unattainable luxury, it inspired me to write and blog and create.

Side note: I’ve also been a big fan of Gwyneth over the years – everyone I wanted to be her in 1999 *Shakespeare in Love … sigh* – which is also why I started following and was inspired by goop.

Anyhoo. I digress.

The interview goes on to describe how Paltrow grew the e-newsletter into a brand – interesting insights for any budding entrepreneurs out there.

And while it’s still a little irksome when she says goop is all about “connecting people with really great products” …

Yes, if you’re rich!

… Paltrow’s insights are still worth a listen.

“In my case […] I started without any idea how I would monetise it, and I really, was just writing content for a number of years,” Paltrow says towards the end of the interview.

I hear you, sis!

“And then I realised that … we had done this piece on the French Pharmacy and how the products in French Pharmacies are so cool,” she says.

“And somebody actually came up to me on the street and was like, ‘I wish I could have just clicked to buy all of the products.’

“And it was the first time it occurred to me that commerce could act as a service. Like, that curation was actually valuable. And so, that’s how the business model came.

“It was very slow and a very organic process.”

For those interested, check out the interview below.

x G.