Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

How Banana Capital Founding Partner Turner Novak came up with the bizarre firm name "Banana Capital"

22 Oct 2022 · 1 min

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In a casual interview, Turner Novak, founding partner of Banana Capital, explains the origin and branding strategy behind the firm's name. He recounts that he and his wife spent about eight hours over a few weeks brainstorming, with his wife suggesting a fruit name inspired by Apple. They settled on "Banana" because it was available, short, meme‑friendly, and could be represented by an emoji. Novak emphasizes the importance of owning a recognizable emoji in the internet era, noting that the banana emoji aids in creating memes and engaging with investors and online audiences.

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Why did you decide to name your firm Banana Capital? Me and my wife probably spent a total of like 8 hours just thinking through— it was over the course of a couple of weeks. Yeah, I think she— it was her idea. She was like, oh, isn't Apple the most valuable company in the world? Why don't you name your fund after a fruit? And then it was like, what about banana? I love that. And then it was available. Of course, there's no funds called Banana Capital. It's like a meme name for a fund, but it's also one word, banana. Like, it's just Oh, who's your investors? It's an emoji. Benchmark, Sequoia, Banana. Like, it's just, it's one word. It's an emoji too. So you got the banana emoji, the cap. I think it's important to like own an emoji, you know, in this, in this era of the internet. It's just, I don't know. And then, and now like anytime there's funny banana content online, I see it. Many people send it to me. It's, it's great. So I always, you know, you can make memes off the funny banana stuff.