We're renaming Hyprnote to Char. If you've been following us for a while, this might come as a surprise. But if you've been paying close attention, it's been a long time coming.
We Never Liked the Name
When we started, we were building "sales note". It was a note-taker for salespeople, born from my own experience in sales. Yujong, my co-founder, came up with "Hypernote," but when I searched for domains, nothing close was available with a .com. So I dropped a letter and went with Hyprnote.
Honestly, I was never happy with it. People constantly called us "Hypernote." Every email. Every calendar invite: "Acme <> Hypernote sync." It was a recurring frustration, but we shipped and moved on.
We Tried This Before
Back in August, I pushed for a rebrand. I chose Arx, Latin for fortress. Yujong didn't like it. And thanks to Harshika's SEO work, we had constant inflows of traffic. So we grew into our name and shelved the idea.
Then Came the Letter
In December, we received a cease & desist from another company with a similarly named product. After talking with our investors and legal counsel, we decided it was time to get a new name.
A Rebrand was Long Overdue
The cease & desist forced our hand. But the truth is, we were already there.
Over the past year, something became clear: we hadn't built just another privacy tool. We'd built something people couldn't get anywhere else - complete control.
Control over which AI models process their data. Control over their notes as actual files on their machine, not entries in someone else's database. Control over whether their information ever touches the cloud.
Privacy mattered, but it was never the full picture. What we'd really built was ownership. Total ownership.
The product had evolved. We knew exactly who we were building for. But we were still calling it Hyprnote, a name we'd grabbed in a hurry just to ship.
That needed to change.
The Search
We went through the options. Inklave. Artifact. We even revisited Arx.
Nothing landed. Either the domain was taken, or the name didn't capture what we were building. We needed something that felt right, not just available.
Then char came up.
Why Char
In C programming, char is the data type for text. It's what you use when you need to work with text at the most basic level—no frameworks, no abstractions, just the raw building block you can manipulate directly.
That's exactly what we're building. We give you the raw files. Plain markdown on your machine. No platform layer between you and your data. No abstraction hiding what's actually happening.
Just like char gives engineers direct control over text, Char gives you direct control over your notes. No intermediary. No black box. Just the fundamental unit you own completely.
What's Next
We're not just changing the name. We're doubling down on direct control. All wrapped in something simple and clean enough that the tool disappears and you can just work.
If that sounds like what you've been looking for, come check out what we're building.
Talk to the founders
Drowning in back-to-back meetings? In 20 minutes, we'll show you how to take control of your notes and reclaim hours each week.
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