Let’s go through a few steps and explain why they must be done in a certain order. The items below are provided in a suggested order, but they are not required in that order, so do what you feel is best for your company and environment.

Come up with a brilliant idea – All startups start this way. They have a brilliant idea that is valuable to the public at large, or they can use it for another revenue-generating market. This is what makes entrepreneurship amazing, exciting, and scary all at once. It builds up a passion to excel and succeed because your quality of life, sometimes literally, is on the line, and people don’t like to fail.

Think of the guy who introduced Velcro wallets a long time ago. It was a gamble, however, for the longest time, Velcro wallets were the big thing for carrying your money in the 80's and 90's.

Come up with a company name – This is where life can get challenging. First, you must have a name that is marketable and hasn’t already been taken somewhere else. That means you need to do sufficient research to determine whether you are unique. We’ll go over a real Arrakis story on why this is super important.

Once you have a name, check your DNS options (see the next paragraph), and if everything looks good, immediately apply for an EIN with the IRS. This protects you at the federal level. In some respects, you may want to purchase DNS names first to ensure you have a name you can attach to a website or email address.

Check out possible DNS names – For those that don’t know what DNS names are, they are essentially your email and web address. For example, arrakisconsulting.com is the “primary” DNS name for Arrakis Consulting. This one step can quite often be the most difficult of all. Having a company name and a registered company is one thing, but having a DNS name that matches is vital for sales and marketing. There is nothing worse than having an awesome company name but using Gmail.com addresses to do business. Potential clients see that as an extreme lack of maturity, and cybersecurity professionals view it as a possible hacker website.

Once you find a great DNS name, purchase it immediately for the longest possible duration. Set up a recurring payment, so it automatically renews. If you can’t do this one critical step of acquiring the appropriate DNS name, then you may want to consider another company name seriously. Once you have a solid DNS name and the budget allows, purchase all variations of your DNS name to prevent domain squatting. You will regret it if you don’t.

Trademark your Company name – Once you have an awesome company name and an appropriate DNS name, get it trademarked. If you are lucky, it will just be some money you spend to help secure your company, and nothing else. But if it comes down to where you need this, you will GREATLY appreciate it. We’ll talk about a particular story on why this is important later in this article.

There are companies out there that will do this for you if you're willing to pay; however, it’s not that hard, and you can certainly do it yourself.

Come up with a Company logo – Human beings associate names with colors and images. When you think of an orange, you automatically visualize its color. Think about the Microsoft logo. As soon as you think “Microsoft,” the four-color logo pops into your mind. IBM is another great example of a company whose name and logo are combined. Brilliant marketing that uses the human brain, senses, and memory, and how they all interlink, really helps spread the good name of your company!

Your logo should be simple yet recognizable and “memorable” (if that isn’t a real word, it should be). You want people to see your logo and think of your company. You want people to see possible variations of your logo and still think of your company. So be sure and plan out the company name and logo, and how you can get the two to interact and support your business.

You also want to consider your website's color scheme and how it can support your logo. Doing a quick Google search on color schemes that complement each other for business purposes will help.

Copyright your Company logo – Just as you trademark your name, you want to protect your logo. Think about the revenue loss if Pepsi or Coca-Cola didn’t trademark their name or copyright their logo, and anyone out there made colas of any type, just using Pepsi or Coke logos instead. Think of the potential loss of marketing value that either Pepsi or Coke would spend only for it to go to a competitor. All of this is why you protect your company and its public image.

Just like trademarking, some companies will do this for you; however, it’s easy to do yourself if you want.

Pick the structure you would like your company to have – Specifically, do you want to be an LLC or a corporation? If you want to form an LLC, determine how it will be managed. If you want to be a corporation, figure out whether you want an S or a C corporation. All have various aspects that can help your company, but they also have rules you must follow, so you should do the research to figure out what is best. If you don’t know, discuss with a CPA or an attorney. It’s common for a company to start as an LLC because it’s the easiest to set up initially and offers a lot of flexibility.

However, as you grow, transitioning to a corporation may also be something to consider. You should also know that if you want to migrate from an LLC to a corporation or vice versa, there is a somewhat convoluted process to do so, as well as a period of time that must be met before switching back if you decide you regretted switching.

Pick the state you want to base your HQ in – This is super important because some states tax the hell out of you, while others don’t tax at all. Arrakis is currently HQ’d in Arizona because the founder lives there; however, the eventual intention is to move the HQ to Montana or Texas for tax benefits. States with high taxes, such as California, are obviously something that works against your revenue stream. For federal and Arizona state taxes (currently), Arrakis must pay 25% of all net revenue (21% federal and 4% state). Moving the HQ to either Montana or TX reduces the tax rate to 21%. You may wonder if 4% is something to really care about; it is to us!

If you don’t understand the difference between Gross and Net or how to have legitimate expenses that can reduce your tax liability, then immediately seek advice from a CPA before you do any business. Knowledge will help you, and ignorance will hurt you. There is nothing worse than having a great product or service that is in high demand and brings in all sorts of revenue, only to see much of that revenue go out the door in taxes. You need to plan both your revenue and your expenses so you can choose the best option to reduce your tax liability.

This is not tax advice, and you should seek advice from a licensed professional. Still, some areas that can reduce your tax liability “could be” new computers for your people (you want to do this anyway), employee level reimbursements (home office space, internet, cell phone bill, etc), company team building events, etc.

One particular area that qualifies for an instant tax write-off is the purchase of vehicles or aircraft. With vehicles, you depreciate over time; however, with an aircraft, you can depreciate 80% of the purchase price the first year and spread out the other 20% over time or the next year. Be sure and understand the inner workings of owning an aircraft before you do so, though.

Another reason to pick the right state is that some states have different laws regarding the disclosure of information. Nevada and Delaware are popular for disclosure and other benefits. The short story is to do your research before you HQ anywhere.

Pick the states you plan to do business in – in some cases, this won’t matter at all, especially if you are offering an online service of some sort. However, if your service or product is something you think a city or state government is interested in, be sure to register with the relevant departments within those states.

States may use different names for the various departments; however, look for departments with an indication of commerce, tax, revenue, etc. From the standpoint of a Department of Revenue or Department of Tax (and you have employees who reside in those states), ensure you are registered in that state and have an account for withholding that your employees will be subject to. Further down, we discuss automation and Rippling. This is another area where a product like Rippling can help, as it will alert you if an employee is in a state where the HQ is not.

We’ll discuss this later, but contractors don’t have the burden of tax withholding, as they're responsible for paying their own taxes.

Determine if you want employees or contractors - In some cases, contractors are far easier to deal with because it’s generally a flat fee for their time/services. You don’t have to deal with taxes and other things that come with having employees. Still, you also have to understand that contractors “are on contract,” so if you don’t have the right paperwork in order, then you could be exposing your company to risk (see below about company paperwork).

You also need to understand state laws regarding the differences in how a contractor and an employee are treated. For example, in some states, if you require contractors to show up at a certain time (say 8-5), have a company email address, require them to perform as they were an employee, wear company clothing, represent themselves as if they are an employee, etc.… then state law may indicate that they are actually an employee and not a contractor. Where this can hurt you is if you are paying them high contractor wages (and the state believes they are employees). If you aren’t taking out withholding, child support (if relevant), unemployment insurance, etc., the state may hold your company accountable for all of that and send you a big bill. Conversely, if you have employees, all of that applies, and if you recognize it at the beginning, there is less risk to your company.

You also need to consider how you will pay your employees. Unfortunately, most employees have grand visions of getting paid a lot of money and have absolutely NO CLUE about their relative tax liability, mistakenly creating a perceived quality of life based on their salary that can’t be sustained for a long time. The more you get paid, the more taxes you pay.

A possible solution to this, to the employee's benefit, is to pay them less (reducing their tax liability) and then figure out how to reimburse them for out-of-pocket expenses that benefit the company. Hybrid or fully remote companies are a perfect example of home office space reimbursement for employees who use it to support the company; you can reimburse them for the square footage used. Since reimbursements are not taxable, employees can maintain the same quality of living while paying less in taxes.

The caveat is that if you offer a particular type of reimbursement to one employee, you must offer it to all employees. That doesn’t mean that those employees must take the reimbursement or submit an expense report, but it does mean that your company must offer it.

You’ll also need to investigate salary vs hourly employees and the benefits and risks for both, as well as state employment laws. Do all of this before you hire or contract anyone.

Get insurance – This is a no-brainer, and companies of any size, maturity, or vertical that don’t have insurance are making a serious mistake. At a minimum, get Errors and Omissions (otherwise known as E&O) insurance to cover your company. E&O insurance is insurance in case someone makes a mistake, and the client suffers as a result. It will protect your company and reduce your company’s and your personal liability.

Most government contracts will also require insurance, and some of your more experienced clients will require it as part of doing business with them.

Pick the right backend that supports your company, and plan out your technology footprint – Arrakis is involved in numerous M&A activities with companies that want to scale and grow. It’s very common for a startup to want to use Google G Suite due to cost, or the completely incorrect belief that if you use a Macintosh computer, you must use anything other than Microsoft. If you plan never to sell your company or grow beyond 150 users, then G Suite is fine. If you believe you must have G Suite because you like your Macintosh, you are completely wrong.

Most larger companies that could consider acquiring your startup are likely to be Microsoft shops on the backend (aka M365 or O365… whatever Microsoft is calling it now). If your company is a G Suite shop, the acquiring company must consider how to migrate you into their environment. That isn’t entirely easy and may be a decision point on whether to acquire your startup. The Arrakis suggestion is to start with a backend that makes acquisition easier for a larger company if your initial intent is to build and sell. Now, we realize there will be some out there reading this who will completely disagree… we get it; however, that is our experience based on several decades of seeing it happen. FYI, most companies don’t really care what your personal endpoint operating system is, as long as you can do your job.

Your company may also consider having only on-prem devices; if that is the case, figure out which kind of devices, not only from the server standpoint, but also firewalls, switches, routers, and conferencing solutions.

You definitely need to determine whether you will be completely cloud-based, hybrid, or on-prem. If hybrid, you need to figure out how you will synchronize security settings between on-prem and the cloud.

Get your social media presence – You have a trademarked and copyrighted name/logo; now, ensure no one can steal your social media presence(s). Social media is where a tremendous number of people across the planet spend their time. Don’t lose that advertising opportunity. When you eventually run across situations where someone is trying to mimic your company, immediately reach out to the social media platform to get it shut down.

What endpoint operating system should I pick? Perfect segway from the other paragraph! Firstly, there are many hybrid companies that use a mix of Windows, Mac, and/or Linux. You should evaluate exactly what your company does, or will do, to figure that out. People have beliefs and misconceptions about what to pick based on what they know or what they have been told. First, can you hack a Macintosh? Yes, it’s possible. Second, do Macintoshes require patching? Yes, just as much as everything else that needs patching. Are Mac’s more secure than Windows or Linux? No, but there are some diehard Mac fans who disagree.

Security depends entirely on how the device is configured and managed; it doesn’t really matter what the operating system is. If it is poorly managed, it will increase your company's risk.

Arrakis runs Windows, Linux, and Macintosh; we use a specific tool for each mission, and we pick the right operating system for the right mission. You should take this same mindset. Having said that, if you are a graphics company, then Macintosh is likely what you should be looking at. Many programming companies are strictly Windows- or Linux-based. It all depends on the company itself.

What we absolutely recommend against, though, is forcing a Macintosh user to use Windows simply because that is what the company has. The risk potential is far greater. Having said that, if a company determines a particular type of computer is required, then it’s generally ideal to mandate that type of computer and stick to it.

Again, if a company is poorly managed from a technical standpoint, then supporting multiple operating systems is only going to make it worse.

Ensure your company paperwork is in order – I’m not talking about the paperwork required to form the company. Still, there are agreements that employees/contractors will sign when they start working with you, as well as documents they need to be aware of upon departure from your company.

Bringing anyone on for any reason, without a documented and mutually agreed-upon understanding in writing, is foolish and risky. No one should be allowed to work without an NDA in place, some sort of agreement, and the company understanding that the employee/contractor is legally allowed to work with or for you. Illegal employment can lead to serious fines and other sanctions. For example, if you are running a childcare and hire a pedophile without doing a background check, do you think the company isn’t going to get in trouble? Rest assured, it will be a bad day for the company. If you are running any sort of company that requires taxes to be taken out, and the person doesn’t have the ability for taxes to be taken out because they are illegal, do you think the IRS will just forgive the company? No, they won’t. If you have a top-secret concept and you hire a person without an NDA in place, do you think they can be restricted from discussing your top-secret idea? No, they aren’t.

However, what you should know in relation to agreements is that non-compete agreements are sometimes hard to enforce simply because people must earn a living somehow to feed their families. This may change as a result of current court deliberations. Non-solicitation clauses in client contracts are still very enforceable. It may be a good idea to have non-solicitation clauses in every client-facing contract, such that if an employee/contractor goes to work with a client, or if a client steals an employee/contractor from your company, then they have to reimburse your company for the loss. Remember, protecting your company is the most important thing at every phase and maturity of your business… otherwise, why have a business?

Let's not forget offboarding either; upon departure, they should be reminded of their obligations under the NDA (which is also generally an audit item). As I mentioned earlier, a product like Rippling can greatly help in this area.

Develop the basics that everyone else overlooks – Word doc templates, PowerPoint templates, elevator speech, etc. Far too many startups have a great idea, but still stick to Times New Roman on a basic white background. Remember, every single email, every single document is an opportunity to advertise, and you should take advantage of that.

Figure out a repeatable marketing plan – This is critical for companies. Figure out how to rub elbows, introduce your company at gatherings, etc.… This one important step is something many people forget, and they end up losing money because of it. We're not talking about money left on the table during negotiations, but about money that never made it to the table because the table didn’t exist.

Plan for customer appreciation with gifts where appropriate, email greetings for birthdays or special events, and so on, but remember that gifts of monetary value, such as cash, gift cards, or anything that could be perceived as a bribe, are likely to be viewed as a bribe and could get you sanctioned. Don't confuse having a meeting in Hawaii for two weeks as acceptable either. Gifts must be appropriate for the situation and the client. Some clients may completely forbid gifts of any nature.

Marketing is key, and you should tie all instances of social media, public-facing material, documents, sales material, and so on into your marketing plan. If you don’t know how to do that, then you should consider hiring an outside firm to do so.

Figure out how you are going to compensate those who work with or for you – Offering equity can be a surefire way to reduce initial monetary outlay; however, do so carefully. If you are a prospective employee, be careful when accepting equity that gives the impression of value but really has none.

We’ve run across more than one startup that offered equity beyond the actual equity available. To adjust, the owner had to split the equity into halves or thirds to make the shares valid. That is pointless and can lead to fraud allegations, criminal charges, and employees holding an empty bag as compensation for their efforts.

Determine whether you need financing or capital. If you do, understand that you will lose some control of your company and that you are beholden to a third party to perform as you indicated you would when they agreed to help with financing. Failure to do so can lead to lawsuits and allegations of fraud.

Arrakis suggests that you avoid any external party offering capital for any reason unless you absolutely must. There have been numerous cases in which individuals received capital through fraudulent means and went to prison for it. If you accept capital under a promise, then make sure that you can deliver on that promise, or else you can face criminal charges.

Having said that, Arrakis has run across individuals that seem to always be in “startup mode” where they have one startup after another (generally about 2-4 years apart) and seeking capital for one then seeking capital for another and so on (investors generally don’t expect a return the first couple years), while offering equity in the first startup (for not paying employees), then selling the IP of the initial start up to a different start up also owned by the same individual…this ultimately screws the individuals that worked on the promise of equity out of the initial equity as well as the sale of IP that they worked on—situations like this scream of fraud and potential criminal investigations.

The short story is: if you make promises to raise capital, make sure you can live up to them, or don’t ask for external funding. Smart investors will also ask for some form of tangible collateral that can be held in escrow to protect their investment.

Automate as much as you can – If it’s not automated, then a human is going to have to do it. Numerous types of technology can be force multipliers for your company, with automation capabilities. For example, there is an HR application called Rippling that was spoken about above. If properly configured, Rippling can handle your entire HR onboarding, payroll, offboarding, employment taxes, and more without human intervention. Atlassian offers numerous products with automation capabilities that are either free or inexpensive. Both Microsoft and G Suite have automation as part of their backend solutions.

The key is to know how to implement automation. Still, the very first thing is for your company to recognize that automation is possible and be willing to implement it before it gets too far down the path of having to hire or retain human beings to do the same thing, at a higher cost.

The managed services offered by Arrakis also feature extensive automation that can help resolve IT or cybersecurity issues and are worth the money spent.

Register as a small business - If you qualify, get registered. There are contracts available (mostly government contracts) with funds set aside specifically to support small, veteran-owned, woman-owned, or minority-owned businesses. Take advantage of that while you can. Your goal should be to grow your business so that you have your small-business status revoked.

Common Questions

My company operates in a regulated environment (medical, financial, credit, etc.). Do I need to comply with the associated regulations? Yes, and from the very start, there are no exceptions to this, regardless of what anyone tells you. There is NO law out there that says you don’t have to be compliant because you are a startup, or a young company, or an understaffed company, or anything else. Laws must always be followed. Arrakis has a complete set of DIY platforms that can help reduce effort and risk, read more here.

If you are going to offer services or products of any kind, in any fashion, that could be perceived as regulated, you must understand that you must be compliant.

One example Arrakis faced was a potential client (we didn’t accept them) who needed help and was in the medical field. So, the very first thing is we have to consider HIPAA. They wanted to build their own system because they couldn’t afford to buy one (red flag). We outlined the requirements for accepting, processing, and storing medical data. They didn’t want to go through all that (2nd red flag) because it would take a lot of time and money. We told them they had to. We asked them how they intended to take payment. They indicated that they used credit cards ( PCI must now be considered) and would keep the CC#s on file to process repeat payments. We explained the required PCI security requirements. They again said that it would be too difficult to do (another red flag). They also indicated they would be accepting government funds for those underfunded that were being serviced. We explained the concept of protecting personal data, the cybersecurity requirements for HIPAA and PCI, and the general cybersecurity culture needed to work there or do what they wanted to do. Again, too hard, or too difficult, and they didn’t want to do that (yet again, a red flag). Ultimately, their backup plan was that (if they got caught) they would declare bankruptcy and start over (it’s now a no-brainer that they won’t be a client). We explained to them that declaring bankruptcy doesn’t void any law violations, and that lawsuits can involve named individuals.

Obviously, from the “risk standpoint”, this customer wasn’t a good fit for Arrakis and would likely just increase the liability that Arrakis would take on. So, to reiterate: just because you are a small business, a startup, or don’t understand the regulatory requirements your company is beholden to doesn’t mean you are exempt from following the law.

Can I offload "accountability" to a third party? No, you can offload responsibility (the person who does the job), but you can't offload accountability (the person who will get sued or go to jail because the job wasn't done). MSPs, such as Arrakis, will gladly accept responsibility for helping a company get compliant faster; however, the regulatory environment itself will hold the company accountable for compliance, not any third party. This is one of the reasons why vendor due diligence is so important to a company, helping ensure that third parties are safe to do business with. Arrakis offers Vendor Due Diligence (VDD) as a service through our Prosikon platform if you require help.

Should I outsource functions? In most cases, you will likely have no choice but to do so. To perform all functions in-house, you would need a massive hiring budget. We mentioned Rippling earlier, which is practically a complete HR team that can greatly help. From the IT support standpoint, Arrakis can help. From a compliance or cybersecurity standpoint, Arrakis can also help. From either IT or cybersecurity, this eliminates the need for a human and the associated overhead, helping you better protect your budget.

Should I utilize Artificial Intelligence? At this point, we don’t see how you can avoid integrating AI in some fashion. AI is about the biggest improvement in computing next to the invention of the Internet itself.

However, including AI in your company environment comes with benefits and risks, and you should be aware of both. A significant benefit of AI is faster research, response, evaluation, discovery, and execution of simple tasks.

You also must understand that AI is essentially a baby, and it is up to you to train it properly. As your instance of AI matures, it still requires training to mature from a baby into a small child and then a teenager to help out even more. Don’t assume that AI will be awesome right out of the box, because that is a common misconception. It’s all about the training that you provide.

What you absolutely must understand as a risk when using AI is that you have to understand where your questions go (also known as "prompt engineering"), who is going to see your training material, who validated the training material to ensure there was nothing hostile embedded in it, what decisions are being made and are they the correct decisions, and is there a privacy impact related to AI having, or processing, data for the company.

Failure to truly consider the risks can rapidly put your company in a very bad spot and expose your company and you to sanctions.

If you are concerned about AI, Arrakis offers numerous consulting services related to it. If you want to get trained, we also offer AI-related courses that can help you and your company.

Do I need to care about privacy? – Yes, even if you don’t have anything to do with protected information, you should care about the privacy of your company. Especially when you are a startup, you don’t want anyone to steal your ideas.

Employee privacy is equally important, and you must take extreme care to protect those who work for you.

Do I need to get my company certified? In some cases, yes, and in some…no.

If you are doing anything with the USGOV DoD, then “yes,” and it’s mandatory with no exclusions or exemptions, and it’s called CMMC. If your company doesn't want, or can’t, get compliant with CMMC, then you should stop IMMEDIATELY doing any DoD work because you don’t want a DoJ investigation into your business or yourself.

If you have international clients, Arrakis recommends obtaining ISO 27001 certification. If you have only USA clients, Arrakis suggests either SOC2 or ISO27001, with ISO27001 being the preferred certification for future growth opportunities.

If you are doing anything medically related, then HIPAA/HITRUST would be good to consider.

If you are doing anything with EU/UK subjects, you want to ensure you are GDPR-compliant (there is no certification yet, but some ISO certs are closely related).

If you aren’t doing any of that, and in the USA, then you should understand what the FTC can do if you run your company willy-nilly. Again, ignorance is no excuse and can hurt your company.

What concerns do I have relating to growth? – Well, first you need to realize that the more popular you are, the more attention you will attract. The good attention could be from potential clients or other companies that want to acquire you. The bad attention would come from hostile parties seeking to harm your company.

Harm could come from a variety of sources, ranging from nation-state actors seeking to exert influence to aspiring hackers who are just bored and want to see what they can do or how they can “f*ck you up” (that’s a technical hacker term).

How can Arrakis help? – Arrakis understands the trials of being a startup and working 90-hour weeks for 20 hours of pay with equity…or maybe no pay and all equity. We’ve been there, and we continue to be there for our other startup clients.

Arrakis offers numerous managed service packages that can help a startup become compliant faster at a much lower cost than doing it themselves.

Arrakis also offers virtual services to help startups fill roles in need, at a fraction of the cost of hiring a person.

Overall, Arrakis is a force multiplier towards success at a faster rate.

OK, so the personal story that Arrakis had to deal with, and why we push trademark and copyright protection at the very beginning. Also, why should any company reading this for the first time ensure it is addressed immediately if it hasn’t already been?

Several years ago, Arrakis was bidding on a California Government project. We submitted all our paperwork and thought we were good to go in all respects. We never heard back and accepted the fact that the contracting officer had just selected another company.

However, as part of the bidding process, Arrakis always wants to know how we can improve and do better, so we called the contracting officer and left a message. Shortly after, we received a call from an anonymous individual within the contracting office asking us why we had never responded to their inquiries. We told them that we never received any inquiries to respond to; however, their response was quite eye-opening. “We sent our inquiries to your California office and wanted to select you, but you never got back to us”. What?!?!?!?! We don’t have a California office; we have California personnel, but not an office.

They gave us the address and sure enough, there was a company called “Arrakis Consulting” based out of California offering cybersecurity services, managed services, etc, essentially everything that Arrakis does. This would be in clear violation of trademark and copyright laws and in clear competition in the same “space” as Arrakis. Having the same name is one thing, but having the same name in the same space with the same offerings is a complete violation of federal law.

We did a background check on the company and the CEO, then called the CEO (who quickly got angry that he'd been caught), and he told us to call his business partner, who happened to be a lawyer.

To be fair, Arrakis Consulting (ours, not theirs) is a cybersecurity firm that specializes in many aspects of security. We looked up this lawyer and found out that his business partner was a trademark and copyright lawyer. We found this very interesting.

A few days later, the lawyer received a very pointed email about trademark and copyright law. We explained that we found it extremely difficult to believe that a trademark and copyright attorney didn’t know better, didn't advise their business partner of the risk relating to this, as well as what could be viewed as grounds for being disbarred, and that the infringing company must be completely closed down within 7 days or else lawsuits and criminal charges would be filed.

The lawyer agreed (she had no choice); however, the only reason she was forced to agree was that Arrakis had filed for trademark and copyright protection years before this even came up. Your start-up company should do the same thing!

Now, at this point, someone reading this is likely to think, “Wait a minute, Arrakis is from the Dune movies, isn’t that the same thing?” Great thinking, and a few of us within Arrakis are Dune fans; however, the actual lineage of the word Arrakis is derived from an Arabic word (الراقص ar-rāqiṣ) that means “the dancer” or possibly (أرخص ar-rakhiṣ), which means "cheapest" and predates the English language by centuries and certainly the Dune movies. Some have speculated that the word originates in Iraq, which may be accurate, and the founder has many years (aka tours) in Iraq. Regardless, the Herbert family has never explained where they came up with the word Arrakis for their series of books. There could be other origins that are centuries old that we don't know about. It doesn't really matter, as there is no infringement by our company, just as there is no infringement on the word' cola' when comparing Pepsi Cola with Coca Cola.

However, we certainly appreciate the advertising the Dune movies provide for Arrakis and strongly encourage everyone to watch them… right now!

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