CEO Gets Bored of Boring Tools, Decides to Make Slightly Less Boring Ones
KEY POINTS
- •Lidan Liu, an industrial designer, grew tired of her consultancy job in China and yearned to build something on her own.
- •In 2025, she founded iMonkey Technology, later renamed Hoto, aiming to shake up the masculine tool industry.
- •Hoto stands for 'Home Tools' and represents Liu’s vision to create more user-friendly and stylish tools.
- •The Verge covered the story highlighting Liu’s innovative break from traditional male-dominated power tools.
In 2025, CEO Lidan Liu, a hotshot industrial designer from China, finally snapped and decided consulting was too dull, shelving her fancy Designaffairs China gig to start a tool company called iMonkey Technology, soon rebranded as Hoto. Fed up with the overly macho, pro-only tool scene, she promised 'We can start something new' and bravely transformed boring hardware into 'Home Tools' — groundbreaking enough to be a page in the Almighty Manual of Doing Cool Stuff at Home, circa November 2025. The Verge has all the dirt on this revolution led by a workshop warrior sick of sameness.
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Who knew existential tool boredom could birth iMonkey Tech? Next up: fashion tips from screwdriver chic.
Lidan Liu: proving that being tired of your job is basically the startup fuel of the decade.
From macho tool industry to iMonkey, because nothing says innovation like a slightly friendlier hammer.
Source: Theverge | Published: 11/26/2025 | Author: Sean Hollister
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