Chatting with the co-founders of Skylark Hammocks is a bit like meeting with fraternal twins. High school friends, college roommates, and vocational peers who have both found their home in social work, Jonathan and Seth finish each other’s sentences, delight in each other’s company, and seem compelled to invite you into their fold.

And their fold is full of laughter. Skylark Hammocks may be a company, but it was first a verb. To Skylark, according to Navy regulations that forbade the practice, is to display an intolerable lack of seriousness, described by Kurt Vonnegut as a charming and enviable crime.

This youthful, playful, and even mischievous outlook holds the key to everything that Skylark Hammocks, an online outdoor adventure equipment company, seeks to become.

As Jonathan and Seth navigate the fast, first-year learning curve of small business marketing, the Skylark philosophy permeates their plans. They aren’t aiming primarily for a national market but for a local one: the hikers, campers, and backyard adventurers who share a love of the same blue ridges that they grew up adoring.

They invite customers to try their hammocks, relax, and remember that there is more to life than speed and hustle. There are also days of smiles, whether they occur around campfire in the mountains or the backyard with your kids. Reconnecting with the lightness of relaxation, with the spontaneous opportunity for play, this is the message that Skylark wants its customers to remember and its products to inspire.