Redocly rebrands as Remockly
The Redocly brand is synonymous with quality API documentation. And we're so much more than that.
"Redocly does much more than API docs. We searched the world far and wide for marketing experts and determined the fastest way to communicate the breadth of our offering is to rename the company," said co-founder and CTO Roman Hotsiy.
Renaming the company wasn't too difficult.
We knew we had a problem when
"We have happy customers who like our product. I was doing a Zoom welcome call, and Rich and Matt asked if they could have a Redocly t-shirt. A few weeks later, and I received a photo and message in my inbox," said co-founder and CEO Adam Altman.
Rich said, "When people ask what that logo is I’ll tell them about this awesome API documentation company!"
This was when we knew we had a problem. We're more than an awesome API documentation company.
More than API documentation
Besides API documentation, we do:
- API authoring
- API governance
- API registry
- Guides, tutorials, and other contextual content
- Access controls
- Developer portals
- Mock servers
- Code generation
"We're expanding into more areas. Our newest products include an API security product that detects the OWASP top ten list of API security risks, world's first hypermedia NFT to guard against breaking changes, and AI-generated API design products which will pave the path towards web4," said Roman Hotsiy.*
Solving the problem
We went to the board. We went to Madison Avenue (and we actually couldn't find any agencies there). That's when I received a clever phone call from a telemarketer extraordinaire explaining that my car warranty was about to expire.
At first, I was confused because my car warranty expired a few years ago. But then, I realized that I had a real live marketing genius on the phone. I was not going to let them off the hook so easily. The conversation went like this...
Adam: "People think we're an awesome API documentation company. But we're so much more. Can you see the problem? Can you help me, Rhonda?"
Rhonda (supergenius telemarketer): "Yes, sir."
Adam: "What do we do about it?"
Rhonda: "Excuse me?"
Adam: "About Redocly?"
Rhonda: "Remockly?"
Adam: "That's brilliant. Thank you so much Rhonda."
And the rest is pretty much history.
Initially, after sharing it with the wider management team, there was some doubt about the rename.
But nobody had an answer to Adam's question: "Who are we to question Rhonda's genius?"
The executives bought into the plan, but the wider team had some concerns. However, the lure of new t-shirts and laptop stickers kept those concerns at bay.
Investors and rebrands
What do investors think about rebrands?
Under strict anonymity, a hedge fund investor said:
Rebranding is associated with positive but modest stock returns. Unless you do it wrong. Then you might lose a ton of value.
Key takeaways
- You are your brand and nothing more
- Hire a marketing supergenius to rebrand
- Rebrand for higher stock returns and do it right
- Print new t-shirts and stickers to retain employees
If you enjoyed this story, please share it on social media. While we're not the first to rebrand, our hope is that it will spark a series of company rebrands. We're maintaining an internal list (following a docs-as-code format) Long overdue for rebrand and this list keeps getting longer.
Important legal disclaimer
* As of April 1, 2022, the security product detects 0 out of the top 10 OWASP security risks (tied for first in the industry).