I interview my dad, A Hundred Monkeys founder Danny Altman, on the early days of the company and the evolution of naming.
We try not to dwell on the the past too much around here but every once in a while it’s nice to take a look around and ask, “how did we get here?” 2020 marks 30 years of naming for A Hundred Monkeys. While many creative endeavors are short-lived, this one somehow found the staying power to outlast two tech bubbles, a financial collapse, and, unless we take a serious turn for the worse, a pandemic.
This company is more a part of me than I’m willing to admit. In 1990 I turned six. My dad left his ad agency Altman & Manley to start A Hundred Monkeys. My earliest memory is laying out long rolls of faxes in the hall outside my dad’s office and cutting along the dotted lines. I started naming with LePens on canary legal pads soon after that. Technology has come a long way since 1990, and so has the company.
Eventually, if/when things get to back to normal we’ll throw a party and celebrate the old fashioned way. Until then, here’s a conversation my dad and I had this week talking about the company and how it’s changed over the years.
A note on the format: I’ve been on some podcasts but have never created anything like this on my own. Let me know if you have any production pointers or if this is something you’d like to hear more of. I took the opportunity to do some Marc Maron-style guitar noodling intros/outros.
Links: airlift.fund, don’t call it that