We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mark Taniguchi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea for paintr and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

One day as I was pulling into my garage, I noticed that I had a bunch of paint cans and leftover material from doing work around my home sitting in my garage. I thought about how bad it is to dump paint and if there are options available for people to buy and sell used paint. Since I am always doing work around my home, I always find myself buying more supplies than what I actually need, resulting in a bunch of leftovers. Along with that, I have my tools that sit unless I’m using them.

As I was sitting in my car thinking about the concept of Paintr my garage closed, and I end up sitting in my car in darkness for about 30 minutes thinking about marketplaces that exist, problems with those marketplaces, and ways that the home improvement industry can be improved.

I knew that DIY home improvement became popular since more people were working from home and with the pandemic, a lot of people caught on to doing a lot of work to their homes themselves.

I knew building another software product would be costly and I didn’t want to invest in something without doing research. So I spent a few months researching the industry and I would park in the Home Depot parking lot and talk to customers about my idea to get some feedback and validation. After gathering enough feedback from talking to customers who were leaving Home Depot and also feedback my next step was building a team.

Fortunately, I have friends who also created their own products in the past, and we all have experience building software products so we came together to build Paintr. Usually, I don’t recommend people getting their friends or family members involved with their business unless they have experience but most of my friends are product creators themselves so it was easy to bring us together.

We did a beta launch in the San Francisco, Bay Area and are going to roll out to more areas around the US in the upcoming year. To date we have bootstrapped to create and launch Paintr which I am proud of; however, at the same time, scaling a P2P marketplace without raising a ton of money is a challenge. We do have to be more creative in what we do and how we do things but overall it’s been a fun experience and we’ll keep pushing forward.

Mark, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have developed and launched products that have reached customers globally since 2007. Prior to that, I toggled with business ideas but nothing too serious. It wasn’t until around 2015 when I got into eCommerce that things started to pick up. My wife and I launched a baby brand and became one of the top-selling products on Amazon for some time.

A couple of years later, I was sitting in traffic on the freeway in San Francisco and I was thinking about how I needed a new diaper bag because the Minnie Mouse diaper bag that my wife was using was too bulky and it didn’t look good when I carried it around! I had a vision of what kind of diaper bag I would want to have, and on the whole drive home, I created the whole design of the Daddy Bag in my head. By the time I got home, I went straight onto Skype and called one of my manufacturers, and told them what I want to create. Within 3 weeks I had the prototype which actually ended up being the official product in hand. My friend who was supposed to be on the project with me had to leave the project due to some family issues, so my younger brother joined the project with me. We launched a Kickstarter campaign and met our crowdfunding goal in 24 hours. Following that, we ended up gaining interest from big box retailers and publications.

During this time (2017) I developed a product that never launched called The Buoy. I lost my wedding ring back in 2009, and I learned that a lot of other people end up losing their rings which can be devastating. Replacing the ring is possible but the sentimental value is gone. My friend and I (who is now one of my partners in Paintr) developed a device that goes on your wedding ring anytime you’re near or around water. If your ring happens to fall off, the Buoy will float it to the surface of the water and you can use the app to track it. We set up a booth to showcase the Buoy at a wedding expo at Levi stadium and the line we had was insane. The reception was great and people were signing up to pre-order it. We were happy that people wanted the Buoy but at the time we were a little ahead of the technology that was out. The Buoy was a little big and we wanted to make it smaller, but with technology, at the time we were not able to do so. We still talk about it regularly, who knows maybe we’ll bring it to the market in the future.

In 2018 I partnered with a few friends to create a post-acute care marketplace. This was the first time I got fully into software. We developed a pretty solid product and were able to build a lot of attention in the healthcare space out here in the bay area. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities loved the product but it’s a very political space and things have to be done correctly from the first step otherwise it can lead you down the wrong path. During this time I learned a lot, not just about software, but most importantly about myself. On the software side, if I knew then what I know today, that business/product would’ve been a lot different. On the other hand, during that time my daughter was getting bigger and I saw things that didn’t really align with who I am at my core. I realized that I need to be true to myself and not force things, and the universe will pave my way. Things can’t be forced, and back then, I felt that I was forcing things that I knew weren’t going to work.

I took some time off and started consulting for SMB and enterprise companies and started to put more time into my landscape photography and graphic design work to keep my mind off things. Since then we launched Paintr and besides working on Paintr, I also began focusing and studying heavily on the human mind, the subconscious, and universal energy and how it all works. That’s a deep topic that will make this interview way too long!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn everything that I was taught growing up. I was taught to get good grades or try to get good grades and then get a job and work for some company until I retire. I also had to unlearn how to think, how to act, and how to carry myself as a person. It was hard.

I knew that I wasn’t going to work my whole life for a company only to be given a retirement plaque and watch when I’m 65 with a letter thanking me for all of the time I put into the company.

I see a lot of my peers who are working jobs that they despise, but they’re doing it because their parents wanted them to have that career. I see and hear from some of them who are commuting long ways to a job because they were taught that it’s the right thing to do for money. They don’t realize that time is more valuable than money.

Back then pursuing your dream wasn’t talked about. Getting a job and trading time for money is what we were taught. That’s a generational mindset that has to be broken, and I’m thankful that I caught on and learned from my life coaches that life doesn’t have to be that way.

In order to make the change and unlearn things it really starts with the mind and if you can conquer your mind you can do anything.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I read a lot of books regularly. A lot of the books that I read were introduced to me by other successful product creators, founders, and entrepreneurs so I know if they brought me value, they would help anyone that’s looking to go down this path.

Some of my favorite books are Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. It’s a simple concept but something we often overlook.

Hyper Performance by Dr. George Pratt. George is a Coach of mine. I learned about him through professional skateboarder and entrepreneur, Rob Dyrdek. George helped me a lot. I spent time with him down in San Diego, and since then things have been great. He gave me his book personally and it’s packed with a bunch of things that anyone who is looking for success in life or business needs to read.

You2 by Price Pritchett. This is a small but powerful book. I talk about this book frequently and I read it regularly

Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. If you’re launching a product this is a must to understand product positioning.

Fundraising by Ryan Breslow. Ryan is the founder of a few highly successful startups. He published a book about fundraising and it’s a great book if you’re in the startup world and you’re planning on raising funds.

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. I open this book up all the time to keep me on track.

I have more books that I can recommend, but these ones have been my go-to books lately.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.marktaniguchi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marktaniguchi_/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marktaniguchi/

Image Credits
Mark Taniguchi