Tyler Handley (Inkbox) -Tattoos, Defining and New Market, and Why Stickiness Lies Within The Technology

I'd like to thank Natalie Dillon for introducing me to today's guest Tyler Handley, co-founder and CEO of Inkbox, the tattoos for now. These are temporary tattoos that last for 1-2 weeks and fade as your skin naturally regenerates. We talk about the state of the tattoo market - both temporary and permanent, opportunity he saw at the early stages, how he was able to fundraise and scale. I'll be honest, before our conversation, I knew nothing about the tattoo market before this conversation, so this was certainly an eye opener for me and an insightful conversation.

You can follow Tyler @tyler_handley. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

One book that inspired Tyler personally is Endurance by Alfred Lansing. One book that inspired Tyler professionally is Good to Great and Built to Last.

On this episode I ask Tyler -

1. What attracted you to entrepreneurship?
2. What led you to founding Inkbox? What problem were you trying to solve?
3. How were you able to measure if this was a real need?
4. In the early stages, how did you think about your target audience?
5. How did you approach building your supply chain in the beginning?
6. What led you to fundraising?
7. How did you approach fundraising?
8. Early on, what were some of the tough questions from investors?
9. Do artists apply to be Inkbox?
10. We spoke before about how you did a rebrand, in the beginning you were trying to be a tech company you didn't have deep brand guidance. Talk to me about that pivot and if you could give an example of trying to be too tech in the beginning.
11. Talk to me about the $2.5 million investment to release a new product. Talk to me about why that was so important.
12. How has COVID affected Inkbox? How has your strategy changed?
13. Talk to me about the future of Inkbox. What are you most excited about?
14. What's one piece of advice that you have for folks looking to start a B2C type business?