Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sean Finney. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sean, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The idea for Tano started long before I ever thought about skincare. When I was nine years old, I was playing in the waves on a beach in Brazil when I got slammed into a coral reef. My leg was torn open so badly that my dad was preparing to use a tourniquet. We were four hours from the nearest hospital, and if he had gone through with it, I probably would have lost my leg.

But one of the local Brazilians stopped him. He chopped the trunk out of a banana tree, squeezed the sap directly into the wound, and the bleeding stopped almost immediately. That moment changed everything for me.

After that, I was obsessed with understanding what made banana sap so powerful. I saw it used for burns, bug bites, and scrapes, and I used it on myself countless times over the years. My focus was always medical — the sap is proven to stop bleeding, speed up wound healing, and fight bacteria.

In fact, Tano actually started as a wound treatment company. We were focused on trauma and casualty care. But when research showed how banana sap affected healthy skin — increasing collagen production, improving barrier function, and reducing inflammation — the opportunity became clear.

That’s when we made the transition into skincare. It wasn’t about chasing a trend; it was about following the science and realizing that the same ingredient that saved my leg could also help people care for their skin in a completely new way.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I came into skincare almost by accident. My background is in the military and construction, two worlds built on precision, grit, and solving real problems. That mindset shaped how I approach everything we do at Tano.

At its core, Tano is a science-backed, nature-based skincare company built around a patented ingredient that no one else in the world is using: banana sap. What makes it special isn’t just that it’s natural; it works on a cellular level. It increases collagen production more than four times higher than retinol, strengthens the skin barrier, and calms inflammation, all without irritation.

We built Tano to fill a gap that has been ignored for too long. People want visible results, but they are tired of harsh, synthetic actives that damage their skin barrier in the process. Our formulas give them a different path: clean, clinically proven, and gentle enough for daily use. We are seeing incredible responses from people dealing with everything from sensitivity and eczema to acne and early signs of aging.

Our current line includes three facial products, the Age Well Face Cream, Reformulate Serum, and Banana Balance Cleanser, all designed to support collagen, hydration, and healthy, well-aging skin. We also have two body products, the Everyday Body Lotion for daily hydration and barrier support, and the Balbisiana Body Butter for a more luxurious, targeted treatment. Every product follows EU clean standards and is backed by independent lab and clinical data.

What I am most proud of is how we are helping people heal, not just their skin but how they feel about themselves. Many of our customers have struggled for years with eczema, chronic acne, or irritation from products that never delivered on their promises. They were frustrated and ready to give up on finding a solution. Seeing those same people now find relief and confidence in their skin, without needing harsh treatments or expensive routines, is what this is all about.

We look at skincare as part of wellness, not beauty. That shift changes everything about how we operate. We focus on how skin functions, how it recovers, and how it protects you, not just how it looks in the mirror. When you treat skin as part of your overall health, the entire approach changes—formulation, testing, messaging, and even how we define results. That is what sets Tano apart, and it is the reason I believe we are building something that can truly change the industry.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Our biggest pivot came early on, and it completely changed the course of the company.

When we started, Tano wasn’t a skincare brand at all. We were developing a medical product focused on wound care and trauma treatment. We were looking at things like diabetic ulcers, battlefield medicine, and burn recovery. The science behind banana sap made sense in that world — it stops bleeding, speeds up wound healing, and has strong antibacterial properties. That was the original vision.

But the deeper we got into the medical space, the more we realized how tough that path was. FDA approval, clinical trials, massive capital requirements — it was all a very long and expensive road. Around that same time, we started seeing indications that banana sap wasn’t just powerful for healing wounds, but also for improving healthy skin. It supported collagen production, hydration, and barrier function in a way we hadn’t seen before.

So we made the decision to pivot from medical to skincare. It wasn’t easy. We had to rebuild almost everything — our strategy, our messaging, even how we talked about the product itself. But it also opened the door for us to help people faster. We could take the same science that started in wound care and bring it directly to consumers in a form that supported long-term skin health.

It was a hard pivot, but it was the right one. Looking back, I’m grateful for it. It taught me that sometimes the best way to stay true to your mission is to change the path — not the purpose.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Honestly, I think it comes down to authenticity and science. We’re outsiders in this industry. I don’t come from a skincare background, and neither does my wife and co-founder, Annie. We started from scratch, which meant we had to earn every bit of credibility we’ve built.

From day one, we decided we were going to do things the right way. We weren’t going to white-label formulas or chase trends. We focused on proving what we had. We invested heavily in research, testing, and validation because we wanted to know, without a doubt, that our products worked.

We also made a conscious decision not to dramatize what we were building. We’re not natural marketers. We had to learn that side of the business over time. But our strength has always been honesty. Every claim we make is backed by data. Every result we talk about is grounded in real testing. That transparency built trust with our customers, with our lab partners, and with other businesses we work with.

I think that’s what has helped us build our reputation. People can sense when a brand is authentic and when it’s not. For us, it’s always been about doing the work, telling the truth, and letting the results speak for themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tanoskincare.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanoskincare
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanoskincare/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TanoSkincare