First there was nothing, then there was Hoto and Fanttik
Hoto exists because someone got bored.
CEO Lidan Liu, the company's founder and a notable industrial designer, tells The Verge she was tired of advising from her consultancy Designaffairs China. I have to build something on my own, she thought. And back then, she was spending a lot of time in her workshop surrounded by the same old tools.
"The tool industry, it never changes, the products are boring, very masculine and very much designed for professional users," Liu thought. "We can start something new." So she founded iMonkey Technology, which later became Hoto, short for "Home Tools."
She didn't have to build it alone. She knew a cofou …