[alexatkeplar]

If you need to change your great company name to a worse company name because of an external legal threat, it's really really important that you communicate that rationale to your users. Otherwise they'll just think that you have terrible judgement and don't have your priorities in order.

[Mike_McDerment]

FreshBooks is not changing it's name - we are changing the way we describe our services. Why? When we started almost 10 years ago we only offered online invoicing. Since then we have added things like the ability to track expenses and a profit & loss statement. As a result our customers have started calling us cloud accounting, so we are changing the way we describe ourselves to reflect that, and to better signal what they can expect from us going forward.

I wrote a very long letter to our customers about this. I encourage anyone interested in getting more clarity to please read it in its entirety. Here's the link:

http://www.freshbooks.com/cloud-accounting-letter/

Mike McDerment Co-Founder FreshBooks

[alexatkeplar]

Ah, I think the confusing line in your long letter is:

"So here's the news: from this day forward, FreshBooks is Cloud Accounting".

That turn of phrase is normally used when you are rebranding a company, not changing its tagline; the confusion is reinforced by using capital letters for Cloud Accounting.

I think you meant:

"from this day forward, FreshBooks means cloud accounting"

I'm not a customer but you have some confused customers in this HN thread.

[Mike_McDerment]

Well said. That's a better way for sure. Will take it with me.

- mike

[codegeek]

I agree. The letter should have said "Changing tagline from painless billing to cloud accounting" etc.

[yo-mf]

Personally, a lot of folks would love to hear more about those early days of getting by on $99 of revenue. You should post more about that for founders of SaaS startups getting off the ground today as it is an inspiring message.