When I tell people the name of my company they often have questions about what it means so I thought I’d use my first blog post to explain what it means to me and what I hope it will mean for you.

When I was thinking about starting my company and what I would call it, I came up with a lot of bland nonsense words in a process that was kind of like this but not as funny or interesting. I spent a few days searching domain names, trying on and throwing out options for names. When regular words started to lose their meaning, I asked my husband, an entrepreneur whose business has a great name and story, for his ideas. He encouraged me to think about something that made me happy. I’d be spending a lot of time with this business.So what or where is a place where I liked to spend time? The place emerged:  a lake house in the Poconos.

If you know me, you know I have a big family. In the summer, that family grows to hundreds of cousins second, third, fourth and maybe completely unrelated. We all grew up together at the Lake and for our partners, coming to the Lake is a rite of passage for the relationship. The place is teeming with people, stories, and history. My grandmother’s family moved in when the Great Depression forced the powers that be to relax their ban on Catholics and my grandfather’s family, benefitting from the same new leniency, moved in next door. My grandmother and grandfather dated, married, and had children who spent summers in what is now my grandmother’s house. Their nieces and nephews and cousins still summer next door and in houses around theirs. As the family grows we find new solutions for sheltering everyone. The first solution for my generation is a house built in the footprint of a former property (a lake rule) that originally had the address number 12 and a half. We discussed other names when it was built but that name stuck. The name remains even though the addresses have all changed now and don’t remotely correspond to our names for them.

The half is not my place at the Lake; it’s our place. Me and 5 of my cousins, and our partners, and our children (and future children) have made what was originally a house of 6 now a house of 19 and counting. I emphasize the number of people for a couple of reasons. First, please don’t ask me to come visit. There’s no room. Second, as it relates to the business, it has always been a place of abundance to me. It signifies a big network, a loving and supportive safety net, and prosperity that transfer to generations. It’s important that we sustain the place and the relationships for the fifth and sixth cousins that will play together. For me, 12PointFive signifies what I want for you and your business; abundance, prosperity, a life rich in whatever makes you feel lucky.

Up to this point, when people ask me about the name I’ve said, “It’s the name of my family’s house in the Poconos.” What it signifies, is much more. And since I cannot bring you to the Lake (did I mention all the people?), maybe through my business I can bring a little of the Lake, and what it means, to you.