Introduction
Since I was a teenager I've been keen at tattooing. 4 years ago, a friend and I found out that, despite the number of quality tattooers on the market, people were struggling to access the ones that truly match their needs. Also no entrepreneurs truly understood the culture and they were all failing at digitizing the industry.
In 2017, we took our chances at fixing the problem by prototyping the app that would revolutionize the industry : Coal was born. By testing the product, we soon managed to convince a large number of global renowned artists to join and we then recruited a team of talents to build the product with us.
In 2018, an MVP was launched allowing tattoo enthusiasts to request artists with whom they would like to be tattooed to the city of their choice. The success exceeded our expectations.
In 2019, we were close to getting funded but internal disagreements and our incapacity at finding a common ground on our monetization strategy, led me to quit Coal at the end of the year.
What happened worldwide in 2020 sadly dealt a very hard blow to the team and put the project "on hold".
I've spent 3 years of hard work and passion on this thrilling project that I now humbly want to share with you all.
Here is the story of Coal.
I wish you all a very pleasant read.
Thibault Choquel.
Co-founder, Head of Design
Credits
In alphabetical order
Co-founders
Laurent Berthelot
Co-Founder, CTO
Dec. 2017 - Nov. 2018
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Thibault Choquel
Co-Founder, Head of Design
Apr. 2017 - Dec. 2019
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Matildad De Souza
Co-Founder, Head of Outreach
Aug. 2018 - May 2020
-
Laurent Flechoux
Co-Founder, CEO
Apr. 2017 - Current
Team
Tom Angell
Copywriter / Outreach Assistant
Sept. 2018 - Mar. 2019
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Laura CastillazueloUX Designer
Jun. 2019 - Nov. 2019
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Emma Davidson
Digital Advisor
Aug. 2019 - Dec. 2019
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Pauline Gehot
Finance & Administration Manager
Mar. 2019 - Sept. 2019
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G.H
Product Manager
Jul. 2018 - Sept. 2019
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Ambre Heitzmann
Senior Web Engineer
Dec. 2018 - May 2019
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Arthur Laurent
Lead Backend Architect
Oct. 2018 - Jun. 2019
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Pinja Naamanka
Outreach Assistant
Jan. 2020 - May 2020
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Jeff Reiner
Lead Frontend Architect
June. 2019 - Current
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Marie Astrid Roussel
Legal Counsel
Oct. 2017 - Current
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Hugo Imré Franco Takacs
Operations / Copywriter
Dec. 2018 - Feb. 2020
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Guillemette Violot
Project Manager
Dec. 2017 - Nov. 2018
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Miranda Wiley
Copywriter / Outreach Assistant
Jan. 2020 - May 2020
Special thanks to:
Adrien Havet & Jesse Daubertes (AKA Fortifem) for their help on our brand identity. Anaïs Boileau for her gorgeous illustrations. Nicolas Brulez & Mylène Ebrard (AKA The Tattoorialist) for providing us some of their amazing tattoo pictures when we started. Loic Sattler for his unconditional support throughout the whole journey. And s/o to all the people and tattooers who invested time, trust and/or money on Coal and believed in the project for such a long time. Your help has been and still is precious to us.
