Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands 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 -
- What attracted you to entrepreneurship?
- What led you to founding Inkbox? What problem were you trying to solve?
- How were you able to measure if this was a real need?
- In the early stages, how did you think about your target audience?
- How did you approach building your supply chain in the beginning?
- What led you to fundraising?
- How did you approach fundraising?
- Early on, what were some of the tough questions from investors?
- Do artists apply to be Inkbox?
- 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.
- Talk to me about the $2.5 million investment to release a new product. Talk to me about why that was so important.
- How has COVID affected Inkbox? How has your strategy changed?
- Talk to me about the future of Inkbox. What are you most excited about?
- What's one piece of advice that you have for folks looking to start a B2C type business?