About six years ago, Peter Merholz sat me down and told me he had an idea for a way to organize a bunch of us independent dotcom consultants in the Bay Area, people he knew through work, SXSW Interactive and by reputation. His original idea was to call it the Loose Consulting Group and for us to share marketing, office and infrastructure resources while continuing our independent consulting practices. We started a mailing list and began chatting on IM and at regularly meeting. After several months of meeting, it turned out that what we were looking at, and an idea we had initially avoided thinking about, was starting a complete company. Not a loose group, but one that was much tighter and organization-like than originally intended, although totally virtual at first to keep overhead low. We wrote first principles for the company philosophy and, at a naming brainstorm in Judith Zissman's apartment, overlooking San Francisco, I think it was Jeff who came up with the name "Adaptive Path." We were lukewarm about it as a group--it wasn't ideal--but it was better than the other 200 names on the list, so we decided to keep it for a while, at least until the formal announcement at SXSW Interactive in March 2001.
Five years later, the name seems perfect, as it embodies exactly the route that the company has taken since its founding.
Thank you, former business partners, colleagues and collaborators. Happy birthday, Adaptive Path!
Ah, I stand corrected. Clearly, a microcosm of our interactions: Jesse has an interesting seed of an idea, Jeff runs with it, and I'm hazy on the details. ;-)
Thanks Mike! (I will note, however, that the name was my idea. Jeff was the one who liked it so much he went ahead and registered the domain before we even voted on the name.)
Awesome. Thank you, too, Mike. Bummer you couldn't be here, but know that many were raised in your honor!