Inkbox

Ephemeral tattoos: sell biodegradable ink to 21,000 parlors

Shaan's trend: Ephemeral raised $20M for a biodegradable tattoo ink that fades in 12-15 months and works in a normal tattoo gun. He argues the real play isn't opening their own studios but selling the ink into the existing ~21,000 US tattoo parlors as the 'diet tattoo' option.

“this new one, Ephemeral Tattoo, just raised $20 million. It got my attention. I said, what's going on here? So what these guys have is a biodegradable ink that you— that can go into even like a normal tattoo gun. So you got to go to a place. So Inkbox is sort of like a sticker you just put on your skin and then it just fades away. This is like actually a legit tattoo, but it's a 1-year commitment instead of a 50-year commitment”

Steal thisDistribute your new product through the incumbent's existing channel instead of building your own brick-and-mortar footprint.