Boulder startup Congo offers cash prize for new name

BOULDER — A company called Congo has no relationship to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the central African nation that changed its name to Zaire in 1971 and then changed it back in 1996.

Other than the fact that the Boulder-based startup is contemplating its own name change, that is.

And unlike the DRC, this Congo is launching a contest and offering a $1,000 prize to help it pick one.

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The local Congo – its name means Consulting on the Go – provides an online platform for people seeking legal advice to schedule time with an attorney and connect for free via video chat. Started in the spring semester of 2013 as a school project in an entrepreneurial class at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, Congo was named the Boulder Chamber’s 2014 Venture of the Year, now has five employees and is headquartered in the Galvanize building at 1035 Pearl St.

Congo recently closed a $250,000 seed round of funding to be used to help it expand beyond Boulder, Fort Collins and Denver into the rest of the state.

The quest for a new name began because co-founders Willy Ogorzaly and Tyler Cox were faced with a difficult decision: pay $750,000 for the Congo.com domain, which was being squatted on by domain holding company DigiMedia, or go through the process of rebranding.

“Basically, this was a classic story of David vs. Goliath,” said Cox in a media release this week. “We reached out to DigiMedia to try and broker a reasonable deal that would make both parties happy. They counter-offered with an egregiously overinflated valuation of $750,000.

“We realized how much more value we could produce with the $750,000 going towards the development and marketing of new features for our users,” he said, “and it became a pretty easy decision. We told them we’d give them $3,000, and not a penny more.”

Because they wanted to cast a wide net in their search for a new name, Ogorzaly and Cox decided to launch the contest, giving individuals the opportunity to submit suggestions for the chance to win $1,000. Entries are being taken online.

There is no limit to the number of entries per person. Contest submissions will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. MST on Nov. 11. The person who submits the winning name gets the money.

The only requirement for each submission is that the URL associated with the name has to feature a domain ending in .com and is available to buy for less than $3,000. Applicants can check the availability of a URL name at GoDaddy.com.

As of Friday afternoon, Zaire.com was still available.