AI Buildout Meets Capex Wall, The Browser Company Effect | Drew Houston, Jacob Andreou, Adam Fry, Ian Rogers, Molly Cantillon, Jonny Dyer, Mike Shebat

**John Coogan** (0:00)
You're watching TBPN.

**Jordi Hays** (0:01)
Today is Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 We are live from the TBPN Ultradome. The Temple of Technology, the Fortress of Finance, the Capital of Capital. Did you see this graphic in the Wall Street Journal, the Business and Finance section, talking about the circularity of AI deals? And I thought it was just a beautiful image that reflected nature. It looks like a conch shell.

**Jordi Hays** (0:29)
It looks like a conch.

**Jordi Hays** (0:30)
It looks like a conch, Max. Right? It looks fantastic. I was laughing to myself about Sachin Nadella just being like, yeah, I was in the circular deals with OpenAI like six years ago actually. So Larry Ellison, you're not as cool. Don't take a victory lap. I was doing crazy complicated deals with OpenAI back in 2019
But we've talked enough about OpenAI in this show. It's quickly turning into the OpenAI show. We have someone from OpenAI coming on the show later today actually to talk about the browser. I am excited for that. But we got to go a different direction. We got to talk about some other stuff. So I want to talk about how we name companies, how we build brands in Silicon Valley. I want Jordi to take the lead on breaking down his thesis for the uninspired company of Silicon Valley. But first, I want to tell you about ramp.com. Time is money, save both. Easy to use corporate cards, bill pay. County, hold a lot more. All in one place. Jordi Hays, you have the floor, sir.

**Jordi Hays** (1:34)
Thank you. This is an idea or an essay I have been thinking about for a while. Finally got around to writing it. And yeah, generally, I felt like the timing was right. The browser company's acquisition closed this week. Six years ago, they started the company. So I'll just read through what I wrote, and then we can chat about it. So six years ago, the browser company of New York was born. This week, its acquisition by Atlassian closed. Regardless of how you feel about the product or the ultimate acquisition price, it's undeniable that Josh Hirsch and the team brought an incredibly fresh perspective to what a startup brand could look and feel like.

**Jordi Hays** (2:12)
Six years is kind of crazy. I feel like I've found out about the browser company like two years ago, maybe three years ago. What a grind. Congratulations to the team over there.

**Jordi Hays** (2:22)
Overnight success.

**Jordi Hays** (2:23)
Seriously.

**Jordi Hays** (2:24)
The name, the brand design, etc. were all incredibly thoughtful, but they weren't new. Roughly 150 years ago, it was Standard Practice to name a company like they did. The Prudential Insurance Company of America founded in 1911

**Jordi Hays** (2:35)
Standard Practice sounds like a good name for a company. That sounds like a real name.

**Jordi Hays** (2:39)
Standard Oil Company of New York founded in 1911 That was a spin out. The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York founded in 1880 There was a bunch of others over history. Again, this was just like the way that you named a company. You weren't trying to think of, back then, you weren't trying to think of like a cute.com.

**Jordi Hays** (2:59)
No.

**Jordi Hays** (2:59)
It was, why don't we just name it what it is?

**Jordi Hays** (3:01)
So what I'd like to name it what it is or name it who we are, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley.

**Jordi Hays** (3:05)
So what was amazing about this naming convention, this isn't an essay, it's just like how explicitly clear it is what the company does. The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York. I can imagine what they do. It's good marketing.

**Jordi Hays** (3:18)
Pretty simple.

**Jordi Hays** (3:19)
So the Browser Company of New York was a perfect name for a specific reason. Juxtaposing a 150-year-old naming convention with a modern tool such as the web browser was an incredible way to stand out and signal to the world exactly what their mission was and that they would be bringing inspired thinking to the category. The browser company's name, brand, and marketing materials were so effective that they catalyzed a wave of companies to adopt the same naming convention. But between the browser company's emergence and their eventual exit, I'd estimate that somewhere between 50 to 100 companies adopted this type of legacy naming convention.
Naming a web browser company, the browser company of New York, signaled this sort of original thinking. The problem is that the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. company to use this sort of convention basically does the exact opposite. It signals like, okay, I saw somebody do something cool in my industry. I'm going to do the cool thing as well.