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Founder Mark King is a good business chef \u2013 his Bellingham company has sold approximately a half-million unique, metallic wallets to outdoor recreation, industrial, and military customers around the world since the company launched.<\/p>\noriginally published March 2017 in Business Pulse magazine–<\/p>\n
By Dave Brumbaugh<\/p>\n
Trayvax Enterprises has a distinctly specific recipe for success: an innovative product, solid values proven over time, and a modern financing technique.<\/p>\n
Founder Mark King is a good business chef \u2013 his Bellingham company has sold approximately a half-million unique, metallic wallets to outdoor recreation, industrial, and military customers around the world since the company launched.<\/p>\n
Unlike the proverbial mousetrap, King didn\u2019t set out to build a better wallet.<\/p>\n
In fact, the wallet wasn\u2019t his first invention. That was an electric car. He designed and built in as a teenager growing up on Bainbridge Island. \u201cI created it to drive to school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His first dip into entrepreneurial ventures came when he was a student at Bellingham Technical College pursuing a degree in machining, after he had started and dropped out of Western Washington University. He developed an organilectic (food texture) analyzer. \u201cIt would analyze the ingredients in a granola bar,\u201d he said. \u201cI sold it to General Mills and it paid for my schooling. Then I dropped out at BTC, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
His next dip was literal \u2013 a snorkeling outing in the waters of Hawaii. \u201cI saw plastic bags floating around under water, and got the idea to make something that could be reused and not thrown away as often\u2026a product to replace the use of plastic bags,\u201d King said. \u201cI ended up designing a wallet that carries things securely and sleekly.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t that easy. He moved to Bellingham at age 20 \u2013 six years ago \u2013 and he described how he spent half a year building his first office after first working out of his apartment. \u201cAt first I kept developing prototype after prototype, and I would forget them (when going out). I knew I wouldn\u2019t forget my wallet.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople kept telling me it wouldn\u2019t sell, it was not a good idea. But I was dedicated to making it work. I finally came out with a metal wallet with spikes on the side that made a bottle opener. With a huge stroke of luck it sold a lot on the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
A wide variety of extraordinary wallet styles evolved from there. \u201cWe sell innovative metal\/leather wallets to people who are sick of their wallets falling apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Designed to withstand the toughest conditions \u2013 and offer the most utility of any wallet, metal or otherwise, on the market \u2013 Trayvax wallets are built from the highest quality materials and assembled by hand in their Irongate light-industrial area facility. Their metal enclosures also offer radio frequency identification, or RFID resistance for credit and debit cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want our products to be handed down through generations and to last long enough to take on the stories, adventures, and sentimentality that make a product worth hanging on to,\u201d King said. \u201cIn an age where products are made to fail, we are making products that are guaranteed to last at least 65 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like with many startup businesses, financing was a huge challenge for Trayvax Enterprises. However, King succeeded without taking a single loan or incurring any debt \u2013 and he still hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent my last $80 on launching an online, crowdfunding campaign,\u201d he said. Until then he was machining every Trayvax wallet by hand and powder-coating the aluminum faceplates with a small counter-top oven.<\/p>\n
\u201cI turned my studio apartment into a manufacturing line, hired four people, and put my bed in my loft. After seven months, we were able to move into a larger facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, 32 employees work in two buildings assembling, packaging, and shipping several hundred wallets a day. In developing a cutting-edge product, King said those 32 employees are the most important part of Trayvax Enterprises.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a culture-centric company that is only as good as the people that we hire,\u201d he said. \u201cWe take good care of our teams.\u201d He cited the provision of healthcare, snacks, a paid book program, camping once a year, a pay-to-quit program, \u201c\u2026and many other perks. Our teams are the company, and it\u2019s very important to me that they are taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like its signature wallets, King believes Trayvax Enterprises will operate for many years to come. The company currently offers five different wallets, plus accessories. King said they have a variety of camping innovations, outdoor gear, and industrial gear in developmental stages to expand the product line.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe company isn\u2019t about you \u2013 it\u2019s about the people that work there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an entrepreneur, you are assigning yourself to a life of serving and it won\u2019t be easy. Find high-level mentors who understand you very well and listen to their guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to help make the world a better place through technology, and I love the outdoors. I\u2019m grateful that I can put the two together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trayvax has drawn attention as widely as an article in The New York Times and a TED Talk. His themes consistently lean to his philosophy about entrepreneurship. \u201cIt is about philanthropic endeavors as much as it is about innovating,\u201d he said. \u201cSatisfaction comes from doing for others and creating change that\u2019s bigger than you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
originally published March 2017 in Business Pulse magazine– Made To Last Innovative wallet \u2013 King\u2019s 3rd invention \u2013 takes off from crowdfunding start By Dave Brumbaugh Trayvax Enterprises has a distinctly specific recipe for success: an innovative product, solid values proven over time, and a modern financing technique. Founder Mark King is a good business…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wba-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.neoninspire.com\/whatcombusinessalliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}