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This week I talk with Mike Cheung, Founder of Tinkering Monkey! In this episode we talk about being a maker as a kid, design school, getting laid off, creating 1000 wooden iPad stands by hand, making connections to create signage for huge tech companies, how to balance tools versus skills and a lot more!!
Show Notes
- 2:42- Growing up in Georgia
- 4:01- Natural inclination towards wanting to build stuff and growing up without television
- 6:26- Being hyper-creative versus the technical aspect of creating things
- 7:24- Going to art school and avoiding math at all costs
- 9:52- The dream was to work at a big firm…not to start a business
- 11:20- Being exposed to engineers and learning how things work
- 14:24- Internship at SmartDesign
- 16:35- Setting up a workshop
- 18:00- Getting laid off after the economy crash
- 18:57- Inspiration
- 20:53- Getting exposure because of the website design
- 21:56- Buying a laser cutter and looking for new spaces
- 23:45- Feeling risky going all in on Tinkering Monkey
- 23:59- Getting past the feeling of it being really risky
- 26:28- Making tons of iPad stands
- 28:55- Dabbling in custom branded things
- 30:18- Creating office signage for big tech companies
- 32:54- Understanding branding and how to run a business
- 34:10- Tool quality
- 38:15- Creating content around the products
- 40:12- “The work that we get paid well enough for is also work that we want to do”
- 41:25- Working more hours and “changing hats” throughout the day
- 46:53- The next year for Tinkering Monkey
Follow along with Tinkering Monkey
- Twitter- @tinkeringmonkey
- Instagram- @tinkeringmonkey
