Why is United Virtualities called “United Virtualities”?

A name is more than just an identifying phrase; it brings out and perhaps even creates the essence of that which it underlies itself. Take the great modern tech companies as examples. Think of the perfect name “Google” whose “ooooo” implies a huuuugeness. Think of Apple — the healthy food that keeps the doctor away yet is still a sugary treat we love. And the genius of the bite in the logo, that implies a slight mischief, like you’re doing something naughty and rebellious in buying their products. Perhaps a great mischief. Or think of the more perfect name “Amazon,” whose name implies A to Z (and the logo directly emphasizes that: I bet ya never noticed that!) – that is, they have everything the alphabet can spell, while the name also implies both the currently-burning forest that contains more diverse objects (in the form of biodiversity) than could be imagined, while finally the name also contains Masonic, or we could say, mazonic, hints.

And this is why the team here at United Virtualities tends to love our name, “United Virtualities.” It captures a lot of our essence. Here are some ways “United Virtualities” as a name can be interesting to articulate.

United: As a team

The word “United” in United Virtualities’ says clearly: we’re united! Did you know the company’s first name was going to be “United Sites of America”? That name is easily confused with a very similar country name (perhaps the “United Mexican States” — the official English name of the country in which our Guadalajara office is based!) so I’m glad we didn’t go with that name. And the whole team, the whole company, being unified on our mission, and our ways for going about the mission, and our core values — that’s the fundamental prerequisite for doing anything that lives up to our standards and expectations.

United: With our clients

But it’s not enough for United Virtualities to be united within ourselves: we also need to be deeply united with our clients as well. It’s a classic problem: when two teams are working together, but their incentives are misaligned, or there is tension between them at a high or perhaps a low level — it’s hard for them to work together to make magic happen. And, for better or worse, in the real world, you can’t do anything alone, and you need your partners!

Virtual: We work from all over

The “Virtualities” in “United Virtualities” is important because we pride ourselves on treating in-office and at-home work identically: we strive to be a truly virtual company. Most of us have the option of working either from home or the office. Our Buenos Aires office even has free lunches on Thursdays for those who come in. And of course, maintaining a culture of largely virtual work requires first-rate collaboration hygiene — something else we pride ourselves on.

Virtual: We breathe the internet

But the “Virtualities” in “United Virtualities” implies something else, as well, that is just as important: we are “of” the internet itself. To excel at anything, you need to live and breathe it, you need to emerge from its head, fully born, in armor — as Athena did from Zeus’ head! To build (or market) anything for the internet, you have to understand it at a deep, internal level. And we do.

Virtual: We believe in the transformative power of the virtual universe

It’s not just that we have internalized the nature of the internet-first life, but, we believe in its power to transform: to transform business models, to transform businesses, to transform products, to transform communities, to transform people — ourselves. We are committed to the notion of using this virtual power that we breathe to not just make everything efficient, but to improve and to rethink how we do everything… and why.

UVA: The ancient symbol of plenty

United Virtualities’ abbreviation “UV” — and we often call ourselves just “UV,” as in our site name, “We Are UV” — sounds a lot like the Spanish “uva,” meaning “grape”. (We have a few offices in Spanish speaking countries: Argentina, Mexico, and Spain, in case you forgot or missed the press release.) Grapes, since ancient times, have symbolized abundance. Think of the cornucopia — literally, the “horn of plenty” — the ancient symbol of endless fruits and wonderful things. This is precisely the spirit we try to capture with our clients as well. This same spirit, said more prosaically and in modern business-speak: with all client engagements, we strive to under-promise and over-deliver.

We put the “You” in “You Vee”

United Virtualities, abbreviated to “UV,” when said out loud is pronounced “you – vee”. This is great because it includes the word “you.” Even if it is subtle, it doesn’t matter: when we say it, you still hear “you”. This is wonderful because we try to make every experience with everyone not about ourselves, but about you. We try to help you with your problems, to build for you the right solution that you need, and so forth. We put the “you” first and last in all interactions. But there is one exception: when things go wrong. It doesn’t happen too much, but sometimes it does: no one is perfect. When things do go wrong, then, of course, that’s when we look into ourselves, see what we did wrong, and see how we can improve for next time.