[philip1209]

Alinea is also a three-Michelin star restaurant in Chicago. I don't think names need to be 100% unique, but in the case of targeting wealthy investors - I'd assume they're one of the most likely groups of people to already think of "Alinea" as a restaurant. Plus, Alinea is involved heavily involved in tech via Tock.

[Impossible]

I thought this initially ("why is Alinea on HN?"). Name clashes are common in startups though (Robinhood Markets vs World Wide Robinhood Society and Clubhouse vs. Clubhouse Software), especially when it's a common word in an unrelated industry.

[Blahah]

Robinhood is a particularly silly choice of name, because he was a figure of historical significance, continues to be a figure of cultural significance, and the name carries connotations about values, mission and impact with which practically every organisation using the name is jarringly at odds.

[cheeze]

They have nothing to do with each other though. Alinea isn't really involved in tech... They have a Tock but that's it.

The groups owner is the CEO of Tock, but I don't think that means that Alinea itself (and its name) is heavily invested in tech.

[mpeg]

It's also an extremely common word in Spanish meaning "align" – which in the context of their brand can be taken to mean to align oneself to a set of beliefs.

[philip1209]

Wikipedia claims (without a citation) that the restaurant's name comes from a symbol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alinea_(restaurant)

[bgorman]

It will be difficult to displace the restaurant in search results as well as popular culture, especially for a US-based startup.

[philip1209]

They even have a wikipedia page!

[klmadfejno]

A while back there was a series of puzzles from the mystery league to promote that restaurant. I enjoyed them very much. But I didn't know what the restaurant was, or where it was. I thought Alinea was the name of the puzzle team. I gave them that feedback.

[jamesliudotcc]

I think the idea is, if you use this app, you will become rich enough to eat there.