Bootstrapping to $27 Million from Arizona: Jeremy Young, CEO of Tanga (Part 5)

Jeremy Young: The second company was called Uberplay. That was a company that was going to take the best games out of Europe and trying to get the license for English-speaking markets, produce these games in China or Europe, and distribute them in the United States. We went over there and signed a lot of contracts. We produced 50 different SKUs. Some of these games were in Game of the Year in Germany. It sold millions of copies over there and we had the rights for the American market.

I went to Toy Fair and tried to get distribution. When you go to a Walmart and say, “This game has sold two million copies in the past year in Germany. We want you to put it on your shelf.” They’ll say, “That’s great, but you’re going to bring in 5,000 copies of this game. It’s going to sell for 10% through in one week or you’re going to take them all back. We want a million dollars worth of advertising expense to put towards this.”

I was being a little naive thinking that I had this great product that would resonate with everyone because it resonated well with Europe. With our distribution channels, they were not open for new products. You had to pay to play. I decided to try through online and social media. We were growing and it was selling, but it was super hard to make any money.

The creative aspect was really fun but  it just grew tiring. I ended up shutting down the business and I started Tanga as a one-deal-a-day website focused on family entertainment products. I used that website to actually liquidate the inventory I had sitting on my warehouse. I had lots of friends in the business. I couldn’t get distribution. I became the outlet for Euro strategic games and other types of products that didn’t fit with other normal distribution channels. That was how Tanga started and that was about nine years ago.

Sramana Mitra: I think the story that you really want to tell is the Tanga story. Let’s go to the very beginning of Tanga. How did you get it started? Who else was involved? Was it a bootstrapped business? It sounds like you did that in Utah?

Jeremy Young: Kind of. I was living in Utah when I started Tanga, but I quickly moved to Arizona. It was bootstrapped. The only company I ever raised money for when I was involved with it was Simply Fun. Everything else I’ve done has been bootstrapped 100%. I tried to find the right partners to help me grow the business. I reached out to friends of mine in the board game business. Scott Alden owns a company called boardgamegeek.com. BoardGameGeek is a very popular website. If you look at the Alexa ranking, I think you’ll be shocked. I gave him a little bit of equity and he advertised Tanga on his website for three years. That’s how I got traffic to the website.

Sramana Mitra: When you started Tanga, what was on the website? What would that traffic come to do to Tanga?

Jeremy Young: To buy a product. One deal every single day.

Sramana Mitra: For board games?

Jeremy Young: Yes, board games, puppets, or puzzles. Sometimes, we’d throw in some other products just to test it but mostly board games.

Sramana Mitra: Essentially, it’s the Zulily of board games.

Jeremy Young: I guess. Zulily does thousands of products a day. We were just focused on one deal a day.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Bootstrapping to $27 Million from Arizona: Jeremy Young, CEO of Tanga
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