One of the common questions we get asked when introducing Rundl is: does the name mean anything?

Good question. Usually people have first taken a guess. And often they've looked for meaning in the “Run” in Rundl. It’s software, so it’s about running something? Wrong.

Instead take the “Rund” in Rundl. If you then make a leap from “rund” to “round” you would get much closer. As you can see from our logo and UI we’re quite keen on roundness.

So the story behind the name is actually quite simple. We set out to build a platform for providers of standard professional services. Things like legal, property, insurance, finance, medical and so on. And we felt there was a lot of collaboration software for project teams doing bespoke work, but much less for service providers doing standard work. The kind of transactional work a professional in a back office might repeat over and over again, following a set of standard steps.

So over many months we experimented with different ideas based on the main concepts, including all kinds of google and reverse dictionary searches, and eventually stumbled upon the term:

rundle
noun

1. a rung of a ladder
2. a wheel, esp of a wheelbarrow

Both definitions connected back to what we were attempting to do. The rung of a ladder signified the steps in a process. And a wheel in a wheelbarrow signified the repetition of a process.

The final part of the story is about the "e" on the end of Rundle. We tried to convince the owner of rundle.com that we had a higher calling and would he like to sell the domain, but we didn't get far (over my dead body, or words to that effect) so we settled on Rundl and registered rundl.com.

Of course now we think Rundl is way better than Rundle anyway. And while I can't claim a light-bulb moment or anything inspirational like that, our affinity for the name Rundl was immediate. It was an exciting moment and we could finally stop talking about "the new software project" and start calling it just Rundl.