Monkey Bed™
Company name: Monkey Bed™ http://www.themonkeybed.com
Mission: To help you connect with your inner monkey! At Monkey Bed, our roots may be in big cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco but that doesn’t mean we don’t love our outdoor time just as much as the weekend trail hunter. In fact, us active urbanites need to find better, faster, and more stylish ways to fit it all in. It’s no wonder our first product bears the name, the Urban Blanket Bag.
So what the heck is a Monkey Bed? It’s a place you can discover again what makes you, you. A place to be a kid, or to be all grown up if that’s what you prefer. In short, we hope Monkey Bed products help you connect with your inner monkey. Because c’mon, we’re all just monkeys jumping on the bed!
The Start: Summer 2009 in the middle of a trip to Boston Common with a comical number of bags meant to help the group of us “relax.” Our first orders will be shipping to retailers this April 2010.
Where: A proud member of the Newton, Massachusetts community!
Your name, email, phone: Simeon Margolis M’07, simeon@themonkeybed.com, +1.617.777.4606 and always feel free to also reach out at
Employees: 1 + a wonderful and talented group of designers, partners and advisors.
Founder’s Past: It’s been a windy road to founding Monkey Bed. From highflying days at RCA Records and Island Def Jam Music promoting artists like Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews Band, Foo Fighters and Mariah Carey to helping found Web 2.0 and social media startups like Utterli.com and Nutritter.com. Check out our press pack for a full bio and other details: http://www.themonkeybed.com/press
How The Idea Began: Our first product is the Urban Blanket Bag collection. Our high quality, partially recycled messenger bags all come with the same size 4-person fleece blanket with water-resistant bottom zipped sleekly inside along with many other park and office ready features. The Urban Blanket Bag collection was inspired by our overly burdensome trips to places like Central Park and Boston Common carrying so many bags, it made the trip a hassle instead of a relaxing outing.
The idea to found a company that makes kick-butt active gear designed for people who live in the city however, is really an outlet for everything that gets me excited including getting outside and developing product ideas.
Favorite Thing about the Business: After a career in various forms of media, getting to sell something that you can touch and feel is a real breath of fresh air. Besides getting to turn product ideas into reality, my favorite thing is the amazing people, retailers, designers and advisors we’re getting involved with the company.
Worst Thing About the Business: Check back with us next year! Biggest Challenge: Right now it’s all about runway. We’re getting great feedback and gaining retail distribution for this summer. Then the real challenges will begin as we manage our growth, cash cycle and fund raising.
Lesson Learned: Never stop moving. Most of success is luck and the only sure-fire way to create luck starts with showing up.