The Long Now Foundation

Name

The Long Now Foundation

Legal name

The Long Now Foundation

Website

https://longnow.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit cultural institution founded in 1996 that fosters long-term thinking through lecture series, publications, and flagship projects including the 10,000-year Clock, the Rosetta language archive, and The Interval venue in San Francisco, supported by individual members and donors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Membership and Donations: The Foundation relies on supporting members who contribute financially to sustain operations. Membership provides access to member benefits and the satisfaction of supporting long-term thinking initiatives.
2. Shop Sales: Sale of branded merchandise including books (The Clock of the Long Now, Pace Layers journal), the Interval Bottle Keep program, challenge coins, Rosetta Archive pendants, and gift cards. Prices range from $20 to $2,500.
3. The Interval Venue: Revenue from the award-winning bar, café, and event venue at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, which hosts Long Now Talks and serves as a community gathering space.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit cultural institution that fosters long-term thinking and responsibility across a 10,000-year horizon. Its core offerings include The Interval (an award-winning bar, café, exhibit space and event venue in San Francisco), the Long Now Talks lecture series, the Pace Layers annual print journal, and the Long Now Ideas digital publication, along with flagship projects such as the 10,000-year mechanical Clock, the Rosetta language archive, and the Nevada Bristlecone Preserve for environmental research.

Product overview

The Long Now Foundation operates as a nonprofit cultural institution offering a portfolio of physical and intellectual products centered on fostering long-term thinking. Its core offerings include The Interval, an award-winning bar, café, and event venue in San Francisco; Long Now Talks, a lecture series featuring civilization-scale ideas; Pace Layers, an annual print journal exploring long-term thinking themes; and Long Now Ideas, a digital publication. Flagship projects include the 10,000-year Clock and the Rosetta language archive. The foundation also publishes Stewart Brand's founding book 'The Clock of the Long Now' and maintains the Nevada Bristlecone Preserve for scientific research. Membership and donation programs support the organization's mission.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Interval at Long Now: Award-winning bar, café, exhibit space, and event venue located in San Francisco's Fort Mason Center.
• Pace Layers
• Long Now Talks
• Long Now Ideas

Products and services

• The Interval at Long Now Award-winning bar, café, exhibit space and event venue at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco that hosts Long Now Talks lectures and serves as the physical community hub for members and visitors.
• Long Now Talks Live lecture series featuring speakers on long-term thinking topics, recorded live at venues such as Cowell Theater and Fort Mason Center, with recordings distributed via podcast and YouTube.
• Pace Layers Journal Long Now's annual print journal exploring civilization-scale ideas through essays, interviews, fiction, poetry and visual art, named after Stewart Brand's Pace Layers framework.
• The Clock of the Long Now (Book) Stewart Brand's 1999 book serving as the founding manifesto of The Long Now Foundation, covering concepts such as Pace Layers, the Digital Dark Age and the 10,000-year library.
• Membership and Donation Program Supporting membership program that enables individuals to financially sustain the Foundation's mission and receive member benefits; donations are tax-deductible.
• Long Now Online Shop E-commerce storefront offering branded merchandise including the Interval Bottle Keep spirits package, Rosetta Archive pendant, Pace Layers journal bundles, Bristlecone Pine challenge coins, The Clock of the Long Now book and gift cards.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Stanford UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 200-01-01David Rumsey, Long Now Board Treasurer, entered agreement to donate his map collection and digital archive to Stanford University over 10 years. The Rumsey Map Center at Stanford Libraries houses and digitizes the collection.
• St. George SpiritsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerExclusive partnership with St. George Spirits to develop two custom spirits (single malt whiskey and gin with foraged juniper berries) for The Interval Bottle Keep program.
• Prelinger ArchivesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRick Prelinger, founder of Prelinger Archives, has collaborated with Long Now on Lost Landscapes archival film presentations. Rick Prelinger is a frequent speaker at Long Now Talks.
• Prelinger LibraryminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-founded by Rick and Megan Prelinger, Prelinger Library is a publicly-available collection of historical materials. Rick Prelinger collaborates with Long Now on historical programming.
• Nevada Bristlecone PreserveminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong Now's preserve in Nevada where juniper berries are foraged for St. George Spirits gin. Site of long-term environmental research and art collaborations.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• The Exploratorium: San Francisco-based museum and exhibit space focused on science, art, and human perception. Comparable as a nonprofit cultural institution operating an award-winning venue with exhibits, events, and member-supported programming in the same city.
• TED (TED Foundation): Nonprofit media organization that runs a lecture/conference series distributed globally via video. Directly comparable model: thought leadership talks, a digital content library, and a brand built around big ideas.
• The Institute for the Future: Nonprofit futures research and foresight organization producing long-horizon research and events. Comparable in producing civilization-scale, long-term thinking content and convenings for a similar audience of donors and intellectually curious members.
• The Club of Rome: International think tank focused on civilizational-scale challenges and long-term planning. Strongly comparable in framing ('Limits to Growth') and in advocating for multi-decade thinking, with similar membership-and-grant funding model.
• The Aspen Institute: A nonprofit cultural and policy organization that convenes thought leaders and produces ideas-based programming. Highly comparable mission shape: long-form ideas, lectures, and a strong membership/donor base anchored to a flagship venue.
• Edge Foundation: Nonprofit that curates conversations with leading intellectuals and scientists online. Comparable as a long-form ideas platform with a donor-supported model and an audience interested in frontier, civilizational questions.

Broad incumbents

• World Economic Forum: International organization for public-private cooperation that convenes leaders around long-term global issues. Comparable in mission framing and convening model, though it operates at a vastly larger scale and is more policy-oriented.
• Smithsonian Institution: The world's largest museum, education, and research complex with multiple venues and a focus on cultural heritage and long-term stewardship. Comparable as a nonprofit cultural institution that combines public programming, exhibits, and membership support, though at a much larger scale.
• Santa Fe Institute: Independent research center studying complex systems science. Comparable in producing long-horizon, paradigm-shifting intellectual work with a nonprofit/grant-supported model, though its core output is scientific research rather than public programming.

Emerging players

• Long Player: A 1,000-year-long musical composition installed at a London church by Jem Finer. Comparable as a civilization-scale cultural artwork project with overlapping founder networks (Jem Finer connected to Brian Eno's experimental music world) and similar long-term-thinking framing.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/longnow
• YouTubeyoutube.com/longnow
• Facebookfacebook.com/longnow
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-long-now-foundation
• Instagraminstagram.com/theinterval

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Long Now Foundation