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GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering you a startup idea that turns brand loyalty into something permanent, literally.

NTE Pro is where 6,500 startup ideas live, the ones you keep thinking about after you close the tab.

NTE Zero to One helps you take one of those 6,500 ideas and turn it into something real, fast.

EpisodeRecap turns podcasts into startup ideas, so you don’t have to listen to 10 hours to find one worth building.

Whofiled shows you what startups just raised, so you can spot patterns and ideas before everyone else does.

Check out all the past newsletters here

Here’s what we’ve got for you today.

• Daily Idea - Loyalty, Made Permanent

• Would you Tattoo This?

The Deepest Form of Brand Loyalty

The One Liner

Wear the brand. Permanently.

The 140 character tweet (or X) version

Some fans don’t want hoodies or stickers. They want to tattoo the brand they love - officially, tastefully, and without it being cringe.

The Longer Story Version

The Problem

There’s a tier of brand loyalty that merch doesn’t reach.

You can buy the hoodie.
You can wear the hat.
You can repost the launch.

But if you look closely, the deepest fans already do something else.

They tattoo bands.
They tattoo sports teams.
They tattoo slogans, mascots, inside jokes.

Not because they’re paid.
Because it’s identity.

Meanwhile, brands spend millions chasing attention that disappears in 24 hours.

Ads get skipped.
Influencers rent trust.
Merch ends up in a drawer.

The strongest signal of loyalty imaginable already exists and it’s completely unmanaged, unofficial, and sometimes bad for the brand.

That’s the disconnect.

The Solution

Official, licensed tattoo designs done right.

Not logos slapped on skin.
Not marketing cosplay.

Real tattoo art, designed with the brand and respected artists, meant to last forever.

A brand collaborates with a small group of artists to create a limited set of designs:
• subtle
• minimal
• culturally fluent
• something a fan would actually want

Fans don’t just download an image.
They book through approved tattoo studios.

That solves everything at once.

Quality control.
Brand safety.
Artist integrity.
No weird knockoffs.

Some brands make it evergreen.
Some tie it to moments like championships, tours, anniversaries, product drops.

It’s merch for people who don’t want stuff.
It’s advertising that never turns off.
And it’s completely opt-in.

How We’d Build It

Phase 1 — Proof
Start narrow.

One category (music, sports, cult consumer brands).
A few brands.
A few artists.
A few studios.

Manual curation.
Simple booking flow.
No scale theater.

Tools:
• lightweight marketplace builder
• AI-assisted design exploration to iterate styles fast
• basic approval + rights tracking
• Stripe + scheduling

Goal: prove fans want this to be official.

Phase 2 — Repeatability
Add more brands and cities.
Standardize artist onboarding.
Introduce limited runs:
• only 300 tattoos
• only for 30 days

Tools:
• internal review workflows
• artist dashboards
• brand analytics that measure participation, not impressions

Goal: show this is a repeatable channel, not a PR stunt.

Phase 3 — Scale
Brands budget for tattoos like merch or experiential.
Studios compete to participate.
Artists get distribution without selling out.

This becomes a new surface area for brand identity - physical, permanent, and earned.

Why This Needs to Exist

People already do this.
Brands already benefit from it — accidentally.

This just makes it intentional.

In a world full of disposable marketing, permanence stands out.
Identity matters more than reach.
And real fans don’t want ads, they want to belong.

This is what that looks like.

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Would You Tattoo This?

Let’s argue this out.

The Brand Strategist:
This is the strongest loyalty signal imaginable. Not a follow. Not a purchase. Not even a tattoo you happen to get. A tattoo that’s official, intentional, and chosen. There’s no churn. You don’t unsubscribe from ink. Brands spend billions trying to get people to say they care. This is people proving it with skin in the game. Literally.

The Cultural Anthropologist:
Slow down. This only works if it doesn’t feel like marketing. The second this looks like “Brand™ Presents: Tattoos,” it’s dead. Tattoos are identity, not media. People don’t tattoo logos. They tattoo meaning. The brand has to step back and let artists lead. Subtlety isn’t a nice-to-have here. It’s survival.

The Liability Lawyer (Uninvited):
You’re both ignoring the obvious. Permanence changes the rules. What happens when the brand screws up? Rebrands? Gets canceled? Someone’s walking around with a mistake on their body forever. You think refund policies cover that? They don’t. And don’t get me started on consent, age verification, and regret.

The Brand Strategist:
But that’s exactly why official matters. People already do this unofficially, with worse outcomes. Bad art. No quality control. No standards. If anything, this reduces risk. And let’s be honest, the people who want this aren’t casual fans. They’ve already decided.

The Cultural Anthropologist:
True, but intention cuts both ways. Making it official removes the outlaw energy. Part of tattoo culture is not asking permission. If brands over-engineer this, they’ll sterilize the very thing that makes it powerful. The best version feels like the brand quietly nodding yes, not throwing a parade.

The Liability Lawyer:
And who owns the meaning once it’s on someone’s body? The brand? The artist? The person? You’re turning identity into a contract. That’s new territory. Courts love new territory.

The Brand Strategist:
Every meaningful brand relationship is already emotional labor. This just admits it. Influencer marketing is way more exploitative, it just hides better. At least this is honest.

The Cultural Anthropologist:
I’ll concede this: if done right, this is more respectful than most modern advertising. It’s opt-in, irreversible, and deeply personal. That’s rare.

The Liability Lawyer:
And I’ll concede this: people are going to do it anyway. You might as well build guardrails before someone does it badly.

So… would you tattoo this?
If the brand earns it.
If the art stands alone.
If it feels like culture, not campaign.

That’s the line.

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EpisodeRecap: Two Economies, One Conversation

This idea is inspired by the All In Podcast:
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: Balancing the Fed, Inflation, Tariffs & 2026 Economic Plans

This podcast quietly exposes the most important economic idea of the year.

Scott Bessent says the numbers are improving, inflation is rolling over, deficits are shrinking, real incomes are rising. On paper, the economy is healing.

Jason Calacanis push on the contradiction:
Why does Main Street feel worse if the data says things are better?

Then the key line lands.

As Bessent puts it:

“There’s a difference between the inflation rate and the price level and people are furious about the second one.”

That’s the unlock.

We don’t have one economy anymore.
We have two.

David Sacks frames the tension clearly: asset holders experienced a historic boom, while wage earners absorbed permanent price resets like rent, insurance, cars, debt that never came back down.

The idea that falls out of this conversation:
A way to visualize two parallel economies side by side.

Not CPI headlines but:
• Asset inflation vs life costs
• Wages vs debt service
• Local reality vs national averages

Why now?
Because trust in official metrics is eroding, even among investors. And when data stops explaining lived experience, narratives fill the gap.

EpisodeRecap exists to catch moments like this, turning long conversations into the ideas hiding underneath.

WhoFiled: One Form D. A Whole Trend

Most people see a Form D filing as paperwork.

We see it as a signal.

Yesterday in WhoFiled, one company jumped out: Lovable.
They filed a Form D (raising $425mm!) and it tells you a lot about where software is going.

Lovable’s idea is simple but dangerous:
Build websites and apps by talking to AI.

No designers.
No developers.
No “we’ll need six weeks and a $20k budget.”

Just chat → ship.

That’s not a one-off. That’s a trend.

When a company like this raises, it’s not just about them. It’s about what investors are betting will become normal:
• Generative AI replacing setup work
• No-code becoming conversation-first
• Software creation shifting from tools to collaborators

The real question isn’t “Is Lovable big?”
It’s: What else gets rebuilt when creation costs go to near zero?

Landing pages
Internal tools
Client portals
Micro-apps
One-off software that was never worth hiring an agency for

WhoFiled exists for this exact moment.

We spot who just raised.
You spot the pattern.
Then you ask: What else should exist now?

Paperwork is boring.
Signals aren’t.

Want more of these in your inbox (for free)? Coming soon sign up at Whofiled.com

Three Tabs You’d Open Instantly

Be honest.

You’d open all three of these tabs.

Tab #1: A business that only makes money once a year and still wins
Tab #2: A product customers complain about… right before they pay
Tab #3: A market everyone avoids because it’s slightly uncomfortable

Those are three real ideas from NTE Pro.

Not trends.
Not motivation.
Ideas you could actually build.

NTE Pro has 6,500+ of them
and they all feel like tabs you “just want to peek at.”

Sign Up For NTE Pro Today

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