{"id":42109,"date":"2023-10-20T15:18:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/you-chews-forced-to-change-name-after-cease-and-desist-letter-why-it-was-the-best-thing-that-could-have-happened-for-the-sydney-startup-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:18:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:48","slug":"you-chews-forced-to-change-name-after-cease-and-desist-letter-why-it-was-the-best-thing-that-could-have-happened-for-the-sydney-startup-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/you-chews-forced-to-change-name-after-cease-and-desist-letter-why-it-was-the-best-thing-that-could-have-happened-for-the-sydney-startup-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"You Chews forced to change name after cease and desist letter: Why it was the \u201cbest thing that could have happened\u201d for the Sydney startup – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

You Chews has been forced to change its name after receiving a cease and desist letter earlier this year, with the Sydney startup now going by the name Caitre\u2019d.<\/p>\n

But founder Liz Kaelin says this was the \u201cbest thing that ever happened\u201d for her startup.<\/p>\n

Kaelin was sent a cease and desist letter in April from another business with a similar name using \u201ctwo very common words put together\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the initial shock, the founder says she resolved to use this to her advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did some detective work and made the decision that this isn\u2019t going to be the end,\u201d Kaelin tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided I wasn\u2019t going to fight it or get angry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018this is something we\u2019ll have to get over, I don\u2019t know how but we\u2019re going to make it happen\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than just a name change<\/h3>\n

After consulting with a lawyer, she was given some pointed advice: \u201cJust change your name\u201d.<\/p>\n

And instead of just coming up with the name, Kaelin resolved to use this as an opportunity to tackle some of the broader issues that You Chews was facing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said to take it as an opportunity to change the business completely,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to weigh up your customers and reputation, and if you\u2019re early-stage you\u2019re better off doing something completely different.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an awesome opportunity to improve the business. We thought, \u2018what would we do if we were building a competition?\u2019 We took everything we\u2019d learnt and used it as if we were competing with ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

This process led the small startup team to shift the company\u2019s focus onto the users.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one little change \u2013 from we to your \u2013 has made such a difference,\u201d Kaelin says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt forced us to take a step back and think about why it wasn\u2019t working. It wasn\u2019t customer-focused enough. It\u2019s not about us, it\u2019s entirely about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt changed the entire culture of the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ‘holy shit’ moment<\/h3>\n

Across a three-week process, the team talked extensively with users about why they were on the You Chews platform. It was when one customer referred to You Chews as being \u201clike a maitre\u2019d\u201d that Kaelin had a lightbulb moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018holy shit\u2019,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat changed our entire brand and our entire business.\u201d<\/p>\n

After swapping a letter to focus on the startup\u2019s catering offering, Caitre\u2019d was created. And it comes with added security from any further challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefit of the new name is we\u2019ve actually created it, so it\u2019s much easier to protect,\u201d Kaelin says.<\/p>\n

With a new name and newfound purpose, she says Caitre\u2019d is like a whole new business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new brand is really reflective of entrepreneurial tenacity,\u201d Kaelin says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started You Chews I literally had no idea what I was doing. I made a lot of mistakes on that journey and this is the 2.0 version.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething so cataclysmic and potentially really damaging and negative can actually be the best thing that ever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

And none of it would be possible without the dedicated Caitre\u2019d team, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really chaotic, messy and stressful and they\u2019ve handled it like pros,\u201d Kaelin says.<\/p>\n

With the centred focus on customer service, she says she isn\u2019t concerned about a loss of brand recognition, even after a high-profile appearance on Shark Tank<\/em> under the old name.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ll have any problems with brand recognition provided we\u2019re doing what we say we will,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Never giving up<\/h3>\n

For other founders and entrepreneurs facing a similar make-or-break situation, she says it\u2019s crucial to face the reality and persevere.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to accept the situation and take responsibility,\u201d Kaelin says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I did was call the woman that sent me the letter and apologise to her. I said there\u2019s clearly an issue and I didn\u2019t do my due diligence properly. That reframed the entire situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur whole business is about people and I\u2019m trying to instill that culture into all the things we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

When faced the potentially business-ending letter, Kaelin says she made an active decision to give her all to helping the startup survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t give up,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that You Chews wasn\u2019t exactly right for a really long time but I didn\u2019t know why. Rather than saying, \u201cI\u2019m not going to do this\u2019, I said that we had to keep going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to give up and stop because we didn\u2019t hit some metric or because we got a cease and desist letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to push through until something happens. If I failed then I was actually okay \u2013 I knew there was nothing more I could have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the shiny new name and business focus, the startup\u2019s attention now turns to rapid growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking a page from the playbook of Google or Apple,\u201d Kaelin says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not focusing on advertising at all but on getting our products shit-hot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty good but how can we make it really, really great? That\u2019s what we want to do in the next six months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, <\/em>LinkedIn <\/em>and <\/em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You Chews has been forced to change its name after receiving a cease and desist letter earlier this year, with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}