How a Solo Founder Built SaaS for Tattoo Studios

**Fexingo** (0:01)
There's a pattern I keep seeing with first-time founders.
They pick a niche everyone else ignores. And last week, I talked to a founder who built a SaaS specifically for Tattoo Studios. He's got 350 studios paying him monthly and he started less than two years ago.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:18)
That's fascinating. What's his background? Was he a tattoo artist or a software engineer?

**Fexingo** (0:25)
Neither, actually. His name is Marcus Chen. He was a barista who noticed that the tattoo shop, he went to use the paper calendar and sticky notes to manage bookings.
He figured there had to be a better way, so he learned to code over six months and built a booking and portfolio management tool. He called it InkFlow.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:44)
So he taught himself to code from scratch? That's a huge leap. How did he even know where to start?

**Fexingo** (0:51)
He started with YouTube tutorials and free coding boot camps online. He said the first version was a mess.
Just a PHP script that emailed the artist when someone booked. But the artist loved it because it replaced the paper system. That gave him the confidence to keep going.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:09)
And that first customer was the shop he frequented?

**Fexingo** (1:12)
Exactly. He offered to build it for free in exchange for feedback. They were his guinea pigs. After three months, he added a payment module and started charging $29 a month. They didn't blink.
That's when he knew there was a real business here.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:30)
So, how did he go from one shop to 350? That's a massive leap.

**Fexingo** (1:36)
He got really creative with distribution. He started posting on Reddit and Instagram showing behind the scenes of building InkFlow. Tattoo artists are active on social media, so they started reaching out. He also attended tattoo conventions and did on-the-spot demos.
His big break came when a popular tattoo influencer tried it and posted about it.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:59)
Word of mouth in a tight-knit community, like that must have been powerful.

**Fexingo** (2:03)
Exactly. Tattoo artists talk to each other.
Once he had a handful of shops in a city, others would see the software in action and ask about it. He also added a feature that let artists showcase their portfolios online, which became a huge selling point.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:21)
Portfolio hosting is smart. That's like an automated marketing tool for them.

**Fexingo** (2:26)
Right. And he kept the pricing simple. $29 per month for solo artists, $79 for studios with up to five artists. He found that flat pricing with no per transaction fees was actually a differentiator because tattoo artists hate losing a cut of their work.
I bet.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:45)
What about challenges? I imagine getting tattoo artists to trust software couldn't have been easy.

**Fexingo** (2:52)
The biggest hurdle was onboarding. Many artists aren't tech savvy. Marcus spent hours on the phone walking them through the setup.
He also created video tutorials tailored to their workflow. He said churn was high at first, but once they used it for a month, they stuck. Now his churn is under 3%.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:13)
That's impressive. And it ties into something we talk about a lot on this show, picking a niche where you can provide that level of support.

**Fexingo** (3:21)
Yeah. And speaking of support, a handful of listeners chip in monthly through by me, at coffee.com/fexingo.
And that's literally what funds making episodes like this possible. No ads, just the stories.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:35)
It's true.
That small group keeps the show independent. We really appreciate it.

**Fexingo** (3:40)
So back to Marcus, after the first year, he had about 150 studios. Then he hit a plateau.
He realized he needed to add more value beyond booking and portfolios.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:53)
What did he add?

**Fexingo** (3:55)
He built a client management system that tracked tattoo history, consent forms and aftercare instructions. That was a game changer because it turned InkFlow into the central hub for the entire customer relationship.
Studios started using it for everything.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:12)
So, he went from a niche tool to an all-in-one platform. How did pricing change?

**Fexingo** (4:18)
He introduced a tiered plan, $49 for the full suite, but kept the $29 basic plan.
About 60% of new customers now go straight to the $49 plan.
His monthly recurring revenue is around $40,000 now, and he's still a solo founder.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:37)
That's amazing. But being solo at that scale must be tough. How does he handle support and development?

**Fexingo** (4:45)
He's automated a lot. He uses a chat bot for common questions and outsources some development. But he still handles all customer calls personally. He says that's his secret sauce.
Every customer knows him by name.