Episode 4 | Marketplace to SaaS: How Inkzup is Transforming the Tattoo Industry with Community and Innovation

The Transcript

So I came across you on a tiny seed there. So I saw that you had a booking system for a tattoo artist and thought that was pretty cool. So if you don’t mind, just share a little bit about what kind of inspired you to start that business.

Anitra Davenport (00:50.304)
yeah.

Anitra Davenport (01:07.394)
Yeah, absolutely. So when I started INX up about two years ago, it actually was a marketplace. So, and where that came from was just my frustration within the tattoo community. I’m what they call a collector. I have several tattoos. And so it was an opportunity to create something that will help solve for the problem of using social media to find an artist.

So I was really frustrated about that whole process because my artists moved away. So I found myself in need of one. And it was just like, everybody was like, oh, you got to go to Instagram. You got to go to Instagram. And I’m like, what? Are you kidding me? So and then that’s when I saw how broken the system was. So it started at Marketplace. We were doing really well just with the marketplace element of it. But it comes definitely with the challenges. And so

Herdrapp (01:49.893)
Yeah, yeah.

Anitra Davenport (02:05.89)
the more I got into the shops and was doing more more customer discovery, working with the artists, they kept telling me they needed more outside of the marketplace. And I’m like, what more do you need? I then dug into it little bit deeper and based on their feedback, and they were just like, yeah, we need something associated with customer management, stuff like that. Be able to communicate with customers without like,

using their cell phone, they’re using Instagram. You know, how I get that customer back in my seat type of thing. So I just kind of like, you know, started thinking, I’m like, wow. So I started hearing it so much so, to where literally the market told me to pivot. Like, seriously, I was just like, it was just no kind of ignoring it, you know, in that sense. And I was just like, man, wow. I was like, okay, I never wanted to become a SaaS product.

Herdrapp (02:51.302)
Okay.

Anitra Davenport (03:02.35)
because there were already players in the game. So I didn’t want to be in that space. But like I said, the market kept driving me toward it. And I was just like, OK, let’s see how this goes. So I pivoted back in April of last year. No, no, May. May of last year. And then totally rebuilt my whole system. Yeah. Yeah.

Herdrapp (03:21.748)
2020, 2024? Oh, wow. Okay. Nice. So, so 2024, you, you’re, that was kind of your aha moment to, you know, kind of shift, you know, instead of being a marketplace where you go find. So, so really people used to go find a tattoo artist and that was it. They would just know where to go. There was like no booking, no, none of that.

Anitra Davenport (03:48.78)
Right, no, they were doing it. Most of them, and still most of them do, still use Instagram. They use Instagram email. That’s their biggest thing. It’s for in and for its payments. It’s Cash App and Zelle now. So it’s, yeah, it’s such a bad experience for the end user, for the customer. And I try to educate them on that.

Herdrapp (03:57.48)
Mm-hmm.

Herdrapp (04:11.497)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (04:15.224)
have a software system that can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, all you got to do is just use it. And so that’s the biggest thing. it’s been, it’s probably one of the biggest challenges, because my customers, most of them are not very technical savvy. So technology kind of makes them a little nervous.

Herdrapp (04:22.993)
Yeah

Anitra Davenport (04:42.146)
They’re so used to just Instagram and email to where it’s just like, my goodness, I got to learn something new. So it’s the learning curve of it a little bit. Even though I kind of built it, I feel like to be as simplistic as possible. There’s still some that are very nervous when it comes to new technology.

Herdrapp (04:48.328)
Yeah.

Herdrapp (04:56.894)
Yeah, yeah.

Herdrapp (05:02.13)
Yeah, you know, it’s funny because there’s like those businesses kind of that they’re not really introduced to like tech, like, you know, barbers or, you know, certain industries, they’re not really pushed to having to use it because they’re so used to just through either getting their normal clientele, but they’re not looking at ways to like drive their business growth or.

you know, expand to, you know, different areas or reach different customers and yeah, I kind of get what you’re saying. So what was the specific like, so now that you switched to that, kind of things do you do to kind of grow the, like, was this like funded through like a bootstrapping just through tiny seed or how are you kind of like growing the, getting out to more people?

Anitra Davenport (05:45.622)
Yeah, so yeah, so when I first started with the marketplace, I actually got into Techstars. So I was in Techstars Atlanta in their cohort from last year. So that’s what kind of kicked things off, you know, as far as the funding and things of that nature. And then that’s when I made the decision to, you know, going to take this serious and, you know, leave my job.

and my stability and cushioning some days. Oh my goodness, I miss it. oh yeah, 100%. Yeah, I have them for the last two years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, so I knew if I was going to do it, needed my full time attention to really grow it considering that my customer base and things of that nature. like, I got to be all it.

Herdrapp (06:16.115)
Oh, so you’re full time in this then? Oh yeah. Oh yeah, okay.

Anitra Davenport (06:39.374)
all hands in, I really do. So then that’s when I made that decision. so yeah, and so, but before that, before Techstars, the marketplace was already up. So that was 100 % bootstrap. That was all my savings. That was all my money. Yeah. Like, so Techstars, yeah, Techstars just helped in the rebuild. And that’s when Techstars came in handy for the actual rebuild of the platform. And so I got,

Herdrapp (06:53.539)
okay, okay. wow.

Herdrapp (07:03.016)
Your turn.

Anitra Davenport (07:08.706)
what made me get introduced to Tiny Seed was actually podcasting, listening to Rob’s podcast. I follow him on YouTube. So just hearing about Tiny Seed until it was like SaaS based. And I was like, well, I am SaaS now. So I think that’s befitting. So when I heard about the launching applications, I was just like, man, this would be really cool to be like,

Herdrapp (07:28.999)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (07:38.574)
and connected with other entrepreneurs that are not trying to understand bootstrap. And I know that in most cases, it will be kind of like an ongoing kind of bootstrap type of situation, only because the market that I’m in is what VC deem as small. So because of that, it kind of puts me in this situation of bootstrap. But don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to go into this whole

Herdrapp (07:58.952)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (08:07.246)
BC will anyway. It’s a lot. If I can build and grow it without it, like I’m 100 % down for it. So the things that I’m most excited, I guess, with Tiny Seed and things with their investment, it’s the community aspect of it. Because this is a lonely journey, I’m sure you can agree. It’s kind of a lonely journey.

Herdrapp (08:07.43)
No, yeah… Yeah, no, right, right. Yeah.

Herdrapp (08:33.33)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (08:35.77)
They have other people that’s kind of going through the same things you’re going through or may even have a soft or something you would be going through. It’s kind of cool. So I felt like the community aspect was a great reason to join. As far as how I’m orchestrating further growth, it’s just naturally within the community. It was important to me to build community first before any one line of code was actually done. So when I first started out, I…

Herdrapp (08:59.495)
Okay.

Anitra Davenport (09:03.726)
I had a set of roundtable events here in Atlanta, just to connect with the artists, understand their pains, their challenges, stuff like that. I really have built an amazing tattoo community. We have a brand ambassador program now. have tattoo conventions to where brand ambassadors and protein members are a part of that. And they go to City to City. So yeah, the community aspect has definitely been important.

And I think that has tremendously played a role in our

Herdrapp (09:37.968)
Okay. And then for like people who may not be aware, like, so when you, when you say coded, so did you fully coded? Did you have a team or did like your investment kind of help, go to like a marketplace and gain like, like freelancers or something like that. What’s something like incentives? Yeah.

Anitra Davenport (09:54.06)
Right, yeah, so my background is technical. I didn’t code the whole thing. So I have a very unique skill set, operations, sales, like a little bit of everything and tech as well. So I didn’t create any code, but my team did. So before I went full-time with INXA, although I was working full-time corporate with Verizon at the time, for like eight years, I had a website design agency.

Herdrapp (10:05.32)
Mm-hmm.

Herdrapp (10:10.15)
Okay, yeah, yeah.

Anitra Davenport (10:23.766)
on the side. So that was something that was that’s what I was passionate about. And so I did that for about eight years before I stopped when I went full time with Inc. Sub. So I naturally already had a team because of that. And so although they weren’t skilled at really necessarily building the marketplace, I was just like, hey, I just need a first iteration of my idea to be created just to see if we would even get traction on it.

Herdrapp (10:24.882)
Okay.

Yeah.

Herdrapp (10:35.122)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (10:50.984)
And so that was primarily their responsibility, you know, with kind of building that out. So while I do code, I don’t code anymore. So, but I know how to delegate extremely well to get the job done. So, so yeah, so that’s, that’s, that’s basically, you know, what I have. So I have a smaller team now. Well, I have the, the, my website design agency, the designers, I still use them. And then I built the, the platform now.

Herdrapp (10:59.312)
Okay, that’s good.

Anitra Davenport (11:20.13)
that we currently have is on Bubble. So it’s on Bubble for now until I decided to get to the point, which is we’re getting really close, because Bubble has its limitations to where I got to go back to custom code. But I wanted to really make sure I could build a business with this first, you know, within Bubble, because obviously it was less expensive.

Herdrapp (11:22.981)
okay.

Herdrapp (11:31.604)
In, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Anitra Davenport (11:46.156)
you know, to kind of build that way. So I was just like, let me, you know, try this first. And if all goes well and I’m really able to grow the business, then I was like, okay, then I’ll, started working on, you know, getting back to custom code. yeah.

Herdrapp (12:00.156)
Okay. Yeah. And so like you’re mentioning traction. What was that that moment when you, know you said you did like the community events, but what was that moment you noticed like traction was really picking up? Like, you specifically in the Atlanta area? Was it like your Instagram page starting to blow up and stuff? Like, what was that? Like that moment for you.

Anitra Davenport (12:08.642)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (12:21.198)
Well, Instagram was a big one. Yeah, we really took off really quick with that, with the growth on Instagram. So that was really cool. So that was like that first small indicator, you know, and then the second was just the number of bookings, you know, coming through through the marketplace. So that was a big aha moment. And, know, I’m just seeing new accounts created, new accounts created constantly. And I’m like, whoa, wow. That’s when I like, because it was just a side project because I was still working corporate.

Herdrapp (12:26.728)
Okay.

Herdrapp (12:31.473)
Mm-hmm.

Herdrapp (12:44.722)
and

You

Anitra Davenport (12:50.882)
So I was just like, let’s see how this goes. And actually I was super nervous that anyone would even sign up for it to be honest. But I think words kind of work, kind of got around about the marketplace and it just organically just started to grow alongside the Instagram account as well. like once we hit about, I’m gonna say about $5,000 in bookings,

Herdrapp (13:00.233)
Yeah.

Anitra Davenport (13:20.782)
That’s when I kind of started to take it serious. And that’s when I was just like, uh-oh, I might be onto something for real. So having so many artists, think the first year we had, I think the first year we had about 200 artists signed up within the first year. Yeah, so it was really quick. And as you can imagine, because it’s such a niche,

Herdrapp (13:28.753)
Mmm, yeah.

Herdrapp (13:41.903)
Okay.

Anitra Davenport (13:50.348)
community, you know, where it kind of get around organically and people telling other people. So it was just, yeah, a lot of it was just natural organic.

Herdrapp (13:58.662)
Do you see it being, since this platform specific to ink tattoo artists makes it a lot more desirable than another platform out there for a booking system?

Anitra Davenport (14:09.71)
Oh, 100%. Yeah, that’s why I’m so passionate about it. I know like in the kind of BC world, they look for huge, huge, huge, huge markets. And so, I know that there’s something special about being niche in a particular area to where they feel like, oh my goodness, this is built just for me. It’s not.

Herdrapp (14:14.196)
Mm-hmm.

Herdrapp (14:20.625)
Right.

Anitra Davenport (14:36.674)
built for the beauty place down there or the wax place down there or the Harrison line here, you know, it’s so custom made just for them. It definitely plays a big role when I’m doing demos or educating about it. They’re like, my goodness, this is really cool because a lot of them do use, you know, these beauty platforms and stuff like that because they think that’s the only thing that’s out there for them, you know, for those that are not aware of Xup.

Herdrapp (14:41.747)
Yeah.

Anitra Davenport (15:04.854)
So, but then when they see what we built and they’re like, my God, this is wonderful. It’s an absolute no brainer, absolute no brainer. So it’s something special I think about being niche. Although some would argue that, you know, cause the market is a little bit smaller. It’s probably not the best idea in the world, but no, but I absolutely, absolutely love it.

Herdrapp (15:05.128)
Yeah.

Herdrapp (15:12.68)
Okay.

Herdrapp (15:28.56)
Okay. And what was like the one biggest like impact or strategy that you implemented that was like a big impact on your business? for as far as like, I guess, like the tiny seeds or the, you know, investments when they’re looking at it, like, did they have a particular strategy that they want you to follow? Or was there something that you kind of have in place that you kind of stick towards?

Anitra Davenport (15:57.506)
Yeah, so nothing necessarily. mean, Tennessee, we just kind of just started, you know, kind of our cohort. So we haven’t had a lot. I think we’ve had like maybe three like meetings or sessions and then we had a kickoff in Arizona. But I have, but even with that small amount of time, I have learned, you know, a few things, you know, from them. And I’m sure we’ll continue, you know, from a strategy perspective on, you know, how to best navigate and continue to grow the brand and grow the company.

Herdrapp (16:03.102)
Okay.

Herdrapp (16:24.914)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (16:26.126)
But I think the thing, the strategy, at this point, I think the community building, kind of doing that first, instead of like most companies build product and they’re trying to build community, which was intentional on my part, I think has played a tremendous role in the growth in general. So I think that strategy that I had in mind, because I,

The tattoo community is so niche and so like, you know, put together or so close knit to where even me as a collector, I’m an outsider. Even though I got tattoos, I’m still considered an outsider. So I knew that, you know, because if you’re not an artist, a shop owner, shop manager, you know, like or something, you’re an outsider, you know. So I knew that I had to come in, in a sense to where, because I wasn’t an artist.

Herdrapp (17:14.897)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Anitra Davenport (17:23.706)
I had to come in with, you know, hey, I’m really here for you. Just kind of really express this whole community portion of it and say, no, I’m not about just trying to get your dollar. I’m not trying to, I’m like really trying to build something that you can actually use that’s going to be helpful, you know? So building community was top priority in order to, you know, catch their eye as to say, okay, well, this company seems like they genuinely care, you know?

Herdrapp (17:39.336)
Yeah, yeah.

Anitra Davenport (17:51.218)
And building out the brand ambassador program, the pro team, which is a set of veteran tattoo artists and stuff like that was really important to me. I put a lot of money into kind of building out that program. And that’s, I think another reason as well to where they know it’s like, this is really different. They generally do really care about our success.

by having such programs to kind of help and enhance their skills and being able to do a tattoo convention. We have like over 65 brand ambassadors and then we have 12 pro team members. And with the tattoo conventions that we did last year, I wanna say at least 20 of those artists had never been in the tattoo convention, had never went to a tattoo convention ever.

Herdrapp (18:42.489)
wow.

Anitra Davenport (18:44.65)
So, you know, like it’s things like that. And I think like, you know, just the highlights and things that we post on social media continues to kind of help elevate that message that we’re community, you know, that X-Up is part of their community and not, you know, just trying to grab at what we can grab at dollar wise. Yeah.

Herdrapp (19:02.158)
Grab it. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And that’s good. Yeah. Because you know, a lot of businesses or startups or founders, they it’s hard to, you know, it would be hard for someone to navigate a terrain they’re not in. Right. So, you know, you being like an outsider, like you said, yeah.

Anitra Davenport (19:15.758)
Yeah, it is. It’s very, very difficult. Yeah, it’s very difficult, but I feel like I’ve earned their respect, you know, at this point. Yeah. Yeah. So, but it’s, yeah, I knew that I had to do that. If I would’ve just went in, just like trying to say a product, you know, with not taking the time out to really understand them and their true pain points, because I understood the pain points from a customer’s perspective, but I didn’t know the pain points, you know, from them.

Herdrapp (19:23.016)
That’s good, yeah.

Herdrapp (19:34.94)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (19:45.302)
So it took some heavy, heavy customer discovery to really, really try to understand all of the pain points from their position when kind of building out the SaaS model of the business.

Herdrapp (20:01.318)
Okay, and then like so with all that, is there like a mistake or a time or a time you’ve had a bad decision where you was like, this kind of, you know, the wrong way to go? Like, how do you kind of overcome that if you have been in that position?

Anitra Davenport (20:15.786)
Yeah, you know, this startup world is, the startup life is just like up, down, down, up, all the time. Yeah. So, So one thing, when I released the first iteration of Eat Now Pay Later, which is a financing option for customers, when I first released it, I had a partnership with a startup out in California.

And I thought that it was the best thing since sliced bread. I’m just like, my God, this is perfect. This is exactly what I’m looking for. I’m like, yes, this is it. This is it. And yeah, yeah, it didn’t work out too well. I was so disappointed. And what the problem was is that there weren’t, know, because it’s a direct to consumer product, the way their platform is set up.

Herdrapp (21:05.812)
Yeah.

Okay.

Anitra Davenport (21:09.358)
And so there were a lot of, it was great for giving me the validation that I needed for the product to sell. But no, it was a total flop because of the approvals. So it was very hard to get approved for the customers. The shops were signing up left and right, because I started with shops and they were just like, yeah, this is great. Yes, I it. And so I’m just like, sign them up, sign them up, sign them up. And then like a month later, it was just like,

So I’m gonna have to cancel this and I’m like, what, what’s going on? What’s going on? It’s like, I’m not getting any approvals. And then I started tracking and looking and I’m like, yeah, this is not gonna work. It’s not gonna work. So was Suzy. Right, right, right. So customers wanted it, tattoo shops wanted it. They were signing up left and right. Customers were applying, but no one was getting approved. So I’m just like, oh my God. So it was,

Herdrapp (21:46.33)
Hmm. so on the financing side people weren’t getting approved for it. Gotcha. Gotcha.

Herdrapp (21:55.015)
Mm-hmm.

Herdrapp (22:03.22)
Yeah, it almost sounded like something, yeah, that could have been like, no, I was gonna say, yeah, it almost sounded like something that could have been, because, you know, if someone wants like a big tattoo that they can’t upfront pay for, you know, if you could pay it in installments, yeah, that would have been a great opportunity.

Anitra Davenport (22:13.475)
bright.

Right, right. So, but it’s unheard of in the tattoo industry. So because there are tattoos, you can’t repossess the tattoo, right? So I knew that it was gonna be a huge challenge. And I knew that, you know, I wanted to concentrate on that being truly my moat versus other, you know, tattoo software platforms that are out there. And so this, I introduced the first iteration of Ink Now Pay later before I even…

Herdrapp (22:20.628)
Yeah, I’ve never heard of it. Yeah, yeah. You can’t get it back. Yeah, yeah. Right.

Herdrapp (22:30.984)
Dear.

Anitra Davenport (22:45.998)
had the extra SaaS product actually created. So I really wanted to test that out first just to see if I could get traction from shops, just from that product or feature alone, before I started kind of building it out. And then I was just like, man, this is really good. You know, that people were excited and you know, wanted to use it, but the flop was nobody was gonna approve. So I experienced a lot of churn and I’m just like, Jesus Christ, what am I gonna do now?

You know, so at that point I knew I had to regroup and I had to figure out another option. So there was two big, two biggest flaws with that. One was the fact that customers weren’t getting approved. And then the second one was the money wasn’t going to the shop. So the money was going to the artist. So a lot of, I mean, not the artist, it was going to the customer because it was direct to the consumer. So, you know, a lot of shops, you know, it was just like booking at that, of course.

Herdrapp (23:15.412)
Mm-hmm, yeah, right.

Herdrapp (23:32.816)
Okay. Yeah.

Okay, you’re up to go.

Anitra Davenport (23:44.43)
And they were like, man, so you mean to tell me they can get the money and they can use it on something else and not the tattoo? I was like, yeah. They was like, I don’t know about that. So that was the other thing I needed to solve for as well. So I ended up now at this point, fast forward, have a really great partnership with Sezzle.

Herdrapp (23:50.757)
Yeah.

Right here.

Anitra Davenport (24:09.454)
So I was able to show them all the data and information that I was able to get from that actual what I consider a pilot. A pilot for their first iteration and be able to kind of show them, know, like, hey, we processed, you know, like over $108,000 in like four months, you know, of application. So the demand is there, you know, I just need a strategic partner to give me a chance.

Herdrapp (24:34.44)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (24:37.912)
to really show that this can really work. So Cynda was like, all right, well, let’s test it out. Let’s see what happens. And so yeah, here we are. Yeah.

Herdrapp (24:48.444)
Yeah, nice, nice. OK. So with a lot of the stuff you guys got going on, what kind of habits or routines do you kind of have to keep you and your team focused on projects, deadlines, making sure stuff is put into place on time, features, and stuff like that?

Anitra Davenport (25:10.848)
Yeah, yeah. So what we’re using now, because I’m a huge communicator, you know, we as far as project management, what we’ve been using that has been helpful to kind of track everything, at least at this point in a way, has been Twilio. So we’re able to, you know, just kind of have everything kind of lined up pretty visible for everyone as far as like what’s on the backlog.

know, bugs fixes, know, you know, was currently in development. You know, any type of request or anything that anyone gives me to be like, hey, you know, it’d be great if we had this or we had that, you know, I just added on, you know, it’s Twillow and it’s something that we, you know, talk through when we have our meetings and we talk through some of the features and, know, kind of the importance of them and kind of stack them, you know, like, would this be important? You know, this is a

one to 10 item that we need to focus on now, any bugs or anything like that, then we obviously address pretty quickly. And then we use Slack for like everyday just communication. If it’s a heavy mouse on the sprint, then we’ll have weekly standups and stuff like that or whatnot, just to make sure everybody’s on the same page, we’re not missing anything. But we’re at a point now, thankfully, that…

all of the product pretty much is in a good position. So, know, and wish that was really all of 2024 because of the pivot. So now I’m excited because now it’s just like, now I can focus on operations and really scaling and really selling and really growing, you know, the company and getting the word out there about INX up. Because like I said, it’s, when I demo, it’s, it’s an absolute no brainer, you know, to shops.

Herdrapp (26:37.768)
Mm-hmm.

Anitra Davenport (27:02.542)
especially even more so for those that are not using anything. You have some shops that have used a competitor or is currently using a competitor, but no one has no significant market size at all, at all. So that was one of the reasons why I felt a little bit more comfortable with the pivot because no one has no significant market share. So I saw that as an opportunity. So I was like, well, let’s just…

Herdrapp (27:16.528)
Okay.

Anitra Davenport (27:30.52)
see what happens. It might be something golden here that I don’t really see right now. Yeah.

Herdrapp (27:35.252)
Okay. And so for anyone that’s watching, like if they were, you know, people who are wanting to start their own company, having to bootstrap it, I know you said you, you you left your job and that’s like one of the things a lot of people are like, oh man, I don’t want to lose that comfy, you know, paycheck every two weeks or something. What’s some advice you would give someone to understand when it is time or what avenues to take to make sure that’s the right decision?

Anitra Davenport (27:47.245)
Yeah.

Anitra Davenport (28:01.972)
yeah, absolutely. Great question. so I know like for me and the advice that I would give is that this was something being a full-time entrepreneur was something that had been on my spirit, my heart for about a year before I actually did it. And, and I was just like, my goodness, I really, you know, should really consider thinking about this. Cause I, although I was doing K and P, which was my website design H on the side.

I didn’t feel like that was a strong enough reason to go full time because it was fine just doing it on the side. It was fine. It was still comfy. We’d get my nine to five paycheck from Verizon and then doing that on the side is my passion. It was a great combination. But it was really on my spirit to really do it. so once I got that true validation, I think from Techstars,

That’s when it really was kind of like a true golden light bulb moment, you know, for me that I was really onto something and that it was much bigger than just, you know, something on the side that I’ll do here and there, you know. But a few other things that paid into that decision as well, not only the validation from Techstars, but, you know, I had a good savings, you know, account.

you know, already built up. So I had that, you know, comfortability as well. knowing that bills are still get paid, you know, all that good stuff. If I need to tap into my 401k that was there. That was a good amount of money as well. You know, so I felt even more comfortable kind of taking that leap of faith. So I do advise, you know, anyone that’s thinking about it, you know, just to make sure you got your basis covered, you know, cause

Herdrapp (29:22.452)
Mm-hmm.

Herdrapp (29:43.508)
Right.

Anitra Davenport (29:48.648)
It’s hard out here and it’s a lot of times it takes a minute for you to really start to generate revenue to where you feel comfortable that you can leave your job. Now, if you don’t feel comfortable leaving your job, just continue to bootstrap on the side to where you feel like you can, you know, and it will take care of home. It will take care of the bills. So I took the leap without having that really secure net. The marketplace was making some money, but not enough for me to really quit.

Herdrapp (29:50.629)
Yeah.

Anitra Davenport (30:18.03)
you know, but having that validation for Techstars and then my savings and all that stuff. And I just felt that really in my spirit. And I was like, hey, what’s the worst that can happen? I cannot do it. And then, you know, feel like I regret that I didn’t do it or I can do it. And I have three degrees. I can always go get a job if it fails. So I was like, it’s one of, you know, I felt I kind of looked at it as like an amazing opportunity to

Herdrapp (30:18.344)
Thank you.

Herdrapp (30:31.109)
Yeah.

Right.

Herdrapp (30:38.59)
Yeah, yep, exactly.

Anitra Davenport (30:48.878)
extremely, I’ll say, challenge myself. It’s a lot more challenging than I thought, to be honest. So taking this risk, but you know, like it’s extremely rewarding all at the same time. Like it gives me headaches, it stress me out. But then when you see the reward of how, you know, you hear feedback or testimonials from shops and artists that are using the platform or the marketplace or whatever the case may be and say, hey, you know, this is

Awesome, this is great, I love it. It completely changed the way that I do business. It’s all worth it. It’s all worth it. Yeah.

Herdrapp (31:21.916)
Yeah, that’s good. Yeah. So what’s like, as we get closer to the end here, what’s like the next goals for Inkset? Like, you know, one year, five year goals. Like, what’s your next thing you want this to kind of come out of, you know, for the future? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Anitra Davenport (31:38.094)
Yeah, yeah, good question. So besides take over the world, that’s you say. no, the biggest thing, like I said, 2025 is all gold, like full steam ahead now that product is in a good position. Finally, so operationals, just sales and growth and continuing to get the word out there. So marketing is a…

big piece of 2025 and putting money into that. So that’s where, know, Tiny C’s investment is going to come in handy to, you know, kind of focus on that. So we’re the good, you know, middle ground. The big goal is to get to like 10K, you know, monthly revenue. That’s my big eyes I have set on. We’re close, you know, we’re halfway there. So I’m really excited to get to that.

Herdrapp (32:26.459)
Okay.

Herdrapp (32:31.388)
Okay.

Anitra Davenport (32:33.006)
point to where we’ve reached actually 10K and hopefully it’ll be before the end of the year. But if not, then I definitely have to hit that. So in order to do that, yeah, I get people to have more eyes on the brand. So yeah, so that’s the major focus for the first year, for this next year. Five year goal, yeah, to be a household name in the tattoo industry because

Herdrapp (32:40.097)
Yeah

Herdrapp (32:57.575)
Yeah.

Anitra Davenport (32:59.468)
Like I said, there’s no one that has any significant market share. So I want people to think about, you know, inks up, you know, the way they think about, you know, square, you know, like, my goodness, I’m starting to do business. I got to create a square account. got to, you know, whatever. So I want that to be the same, you know? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So super excited about the continue, bro.

Herdrapp (33:13.598)
Yeah, they’ll be showing it on Ink Masters or something. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Well yeah, well thanks for jumping in. So we’ve got inksup.com. How else can everyone follow you? Instagram, Facebook, what’s your other platforms?

Anitra Davenport (33:29.218)
guests.

Herdrapp (33:37.054)
Okay.

Herdrapp (33:41.52)
Okay. yeah. Well, thanks for taking the time out for me. Like I said, I want to be respectful of your time and you know, thanks and hope you have a good day.