We needed a name.
"What about Tiny?"
It felt down to earth. Friendly. And, frankly, kind of ironic and funny for a company whose entire plan was to buy as many businesses as possible. We went with it.
Chris put up 20% of the money. I put up 80%. We split the company 50/50. Equal partners. No partnership agreement. Just a handshake.
People think that's insane. After what Chris and I had been through together — years of building MetaLab from a two-person web design shop into one of the most respected agencies in tech — we didn't need one. I knew what kind of person he was when things got hard. That's the only due diligence that matters with a partner.
Chris and I were sitting in my apartment in Victoria, British Columbia, tossing ideas back and forth. We'd been at it for hours. Every private equity firm and holding company we could think of had one of those ridiculous, self-important names. BlackRock. Greywolf. Maverick. Cerberus. They all sounded like Bond villains or law firms that sue children. We wanted something different.