In January 2021, Raymond Hou (Raymond) and his wife Yuzu (Song Zhiyou; see Yuzu (Song Zhiyou)) formally registered their jointly founded business as “Nomadic Youth Digital Content Co., Ltd.” The name did not reuse their existing public-facing brands, “Raymond Thirty” or “柚智夫妻”; instead, it created a parent name that could hold the values they shared. Raymond compares naming a company to naming a child: a few short words compress a choice of lifestyle, the people one wants to serve, and one’s way of working.
Background: A Company of One Moves Toward Formal Registration
The naming took place early in the period after Raymond left traditional employment and began operating content and knowledge services as a company of one (see The Self-Employed Era (2020–)). Before the company registration was approved, Raymond and Yuzu already had public products such as the Raymond Thirty podcast, a newsletter, and an online bootcamp. Registering the company formalized a business line that was already running. When the accountant notified them that registration had been approved and they received a tax identification number, Raymond described a mixture of happiness, anticipation, and a weighty sense of responsibility—a feeling he called “suddenly growing up.”1 Yuzu described becoming the company’s responsible person as making her feel that her “burden of responsibility had grown heavier.”
Three Layers of Meaning: Nomadic, Youth, Digital Content
The company name consists of three terms, each corresponding to a different layer:
- “Nomadic” refers to the lifestyle and work style they were practicing at the time. Raymond summarized it as “being nomadic in the city, working without going to an office”—earning a living through remote work and independent projects without relying on a fixed employer or office (see Remote Work).
- “Youth” refers to the people they wanted to serve: young people who wanted freedom and greater control over their lives. Defining this audience later shaped the core reader profile of Raymond’s entire content business.
- “Digital Content” refers to their method: delivering value through online content such as newsletters, podcasts, and courses.
Raymond’s standard for the name was that “when you see it, you know what you should work toward.” Yuzu responded that “when you see it, you feel that this is what we want to do now.” They used these as their criteria for an acceptable name.
Compressing Values into a Name
The name placed Raymond’s deeper position on life on the company sign. In the same podcast episode where he announced the public name, he situated becoming self-employed within what he called “three growth thresholds”: realizing that one is not the center of the world; realizing that no matter how hard one works, events may still go against one’s wishes; and wanting to keep trying even when one knows some things are beyond one’s control. He associated entrepreneurship with the third threshold: understanding that society’s overall values of success are difficult to change, yet still wanting to prove that “people like this can find a better way of living in society.” The name was therefore more than a business registration. It made an identifiable marker of the position that one should try even when one knows the path is not mainstream.
“Nomadic Youth” as the parent-company name coexists with public brands such as “Raymond Thirty” and “柚智夫妻” (see Three Seasons of the Raymond Thirty Brand (2020–2023)): the former carries values and legal identity, while the latter carry content lines for different audiences. This division continues Raymond’s broader transition from an identity under his personal name to brand operations (see From Raymond Hou to Raymond Thirty).
Source
Footnotes
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Raymond Hou, “[Company of One #10] We’re Revealing Our Company Name! What Makes You Feel Grown Up?” podcast, 2021-01-18. View original ↩