What Does "MWI" Stand For?

Posted April 5, 2005 under Managing a Creative Agency

Full text available at: http://www.mwi.com/about/newsletter/newsletter_february05.html

Normally this newsletter contains helpful information related to advertising, marketing, design, or web development. However, just this once, I'm going to depart from the usual content and answer once and for all the question we get asked more than any other, although I doubt it will stop the question from being asked.

SOME HISTORY
In 1999 I started freelancing as a web designer under the label of Don Loper. Now don't ask what that name's about, because that's a entirely different story. By August of 2000 I was making enough money on my own that I felt I could start a real agency. I incorporated, brought on some people to help, and the name changed to Mindwire, and then Mindwire Interactive.

The problem was that we chose the name "Mindwire" by accident. I thought I had reserved the domain name "mindwire.com" but I had made a typo during the registration process (a $35 mistake). By the time the mistake was discovered, everyone was already hooked on the name Mindwire. So we registered domains such as mindwireinc.com, mindwireinteractive.com, and others, but those weren't as concise or easy to remember as mindwire.com.

We tried in vain to purchase mindwire.com, but the owner refused to sell it for less than $10,000 and said it was part of his "ethos" or something and dear to his heart. Failing in this attempt, we started looking for other domain names we could register. I came across the domain mwi.com in my searches which was taken, but was evidently not being used since there was no website up. I emailed the owner to see if he was interested in selling. Since three-letter domains, especially those with a .com extension, are quite rare I wasn't expecting him to give it up cheap. As it turned out he didn't want to sell it at all because although the website wasn't being used, he was still using the domain for email. I gave up on that domain and continued looking at others.

A few months later I received an email from the owner of mwi.com who informed me he had moved his email elsewhere and was willing to give it up. Certain domain brokers will tell you that any three-letter domain is worth a minimum of $20,000, no matter what it is, so I wasn't expecting anything we could afford. That's why I was surprised and suspicious when the owner told me he would give to me for nothing.

Wary, but curious, I started with the process of transferring the domain. It took a month or two but sure enough we got it for free and to this day I don't know why the previous owner gave it up for nothing when I was offering him money, but he has my gratitude.

A TRANSITION
During the course of Mindwire I had given certain persons ownership in the firm, essentially making them my partners. As other entrepreneurs will attest, partnerships don't always work out. By mid-2002 when I received an offer from another firm to buy out Mindwire I saw it as a way to peacefully part ways and start over. In January of 2003 I sold Mindwire Interactive to another firm. The other firm did not plan to use the name Mindwire but for legal reasons did not allow me to retain it. However, I was allowed to keep the domain mwi.com. Since I had this valuable domain, I decided to name the new firm MWI and put the domain to good use, figuring I could figure out what MWI should stand for later.

NO SUCH LUCK
The only problem is that it has now been over two years and I have not heard a good idea yet on what MWI should stand for, nor have I been able to come up with anything on my own. "Mormons Whipping Immigrants," "Mexicans With Integrity," or "Mid-Wives International" just don't seem to fit. If you've got any bright ideas send them to whatismwi@mwi.com and if it's good enough we'll send you an official MWI t-shirt that reads "Give me a hand, I'm going to milk the cows."

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...
If you've visited www.mwi.com lately you may have noticed some slight changes. We have changed the structure of our site and updated it with new content. Here are some of the changes:

-- Joshua Steimle, CEO

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