Meeting new customers, prospect and investors over the phone is integral part of being a founder. Unfortunately, with an uncommon name like mine almost every introduction has this awkward moment of “Excuse me, what did you say your name was?”

Reconstructing my name from the various spellings I’ve seen, “Florian Waas” is frequently understood as something like “Fvluohhreeuahnvwwaaohhsz”. This is mostly due to my German accent and–in an attempt to help the conversation along–I’d quickly spell it out. Yet, besides being a cumbersome exercise, it still leaves the other side wondering how to pronounce it.

So, I decided to drop my first name and just go with my middle name, Michael instead. Now introductions are simple: everybody gets “Mike” right away.

So, just call me Mike!