Tarkle exits Renlar to build infrastructure for agencies

Today marks a major transition in my journey as a founder. After four years of building and scaling Renlar to millions in revenue, I'm stepping back from running the agency to focus entirely on building infrastructure products for agencies at Tarkle.

Renlar is joining forces with ARBO Marketing, led by Luke Traina—a four-time founder who scaled his previous agency to a $17M exit. Luke will take Renlar forward while Gerald and I focus on building Bripes, Sharebrand, and Kontrable.

How Renlar started

We started Renlar in September 2021, days after I received the wire transfer from exiting my previous startup, a Caribbean job board network. The moment the funds hit my account, I knew what I wanted to build next: an unlimited design service that actually worked.

At the time, I was using another design subscription for my design needs. The designs were acceptable, but the turnaround was terrible. As a designer myself, I focused on platform and product design while outsourcing branding and marketing materials. I was generally happy with what I received, but the concept never quite matched what I actually wanted. The "unlimited" promise felt limited in practice.

So I built it myself.

I assembled a team and launched Reel Unlimited (later renamed Renlar) in November 2021 with a simple mission: provide true unlimited design with fast turnarounds and quality that matched what clients envisioned. No artificial limits. No caps on requests. Just reliable, high-quality design work when agencies and startups needed it.

Building infrastructure while running an agency

Over four years, Renlar grew beyond what I imagined. We served 500+ clients, managed 300+ staff and contractors across multiple countries, reached millions in revenue, and delivered over 3,000 projects.

But something more important happened along the way.

As we scaled Renlar, we kept hitting operational problems. Client management platforms didn't fit design workflows. File sharing services looked unprofessional. Contractor management tools were either too expensive or too limited. Every time we hit a problem, we searched for a solution—and when we couldn't find one, we built it.

That's how Bripes, Sharebrand, and Kontrable were born.

We built them to run Renlar and our other ventures. They weren't side projects—they were the infrastructure that powered our operations. And once they existed, other agencies started asking if they could use them too.

The conflict of interest problem

Here's the thing about building software for agencies when you're also running an agency: it creates a massive conflict of interest.

Agencies don't want to buy software from someone competing with them. They worry about client theft. They're concerned about their data. They wonder if you're building features that help your agency more than theirs.

The conflict is real, and it was holding back our ability to grow Bripes, Sharebrand, and Kontrable.

Gerald (my co-founder) and I faced a choice: keep running Renlar, or focus on building infrastructure products for the hundreds of agencies that need them. We couldn't do both well. We couldn't ask agencies to trust us while competing with them.

The decision became clear. We had to exit Renlar.

Why this matters for Tarkle

Now Gerald and I can focus entirely on building Bripes, Sharebrand, and Kontrable for agencies without any conflict of interest. Agencies can trust us because we're not competing with them anymore.

We're building infrastructure based on years of running agencies—managing 500+ clients, coordinating 300+ contractors, delivering 3,000+ projects, and reaching millions in revenue. But we're no longer agency owners ourselves.

This is what Tarkle was always meant to be: infrastructure products built by people who've actually run agencies, for agencies trying to scale.

• Bripes provides client portals and project management built specifically for creative workflows—not enterprise teams.
• Sharebrand delivers professional file sharing under your brand—not Dropbox links with third-party logos.
• Kontrable coordinates contractor payments and management at $99/month—not EOR's $500/month.

Each product solves a problem we lived through at Renlar. Each product is something we wish had existed when we were scaling.

What's next

Renlar will continue under Luke's leadership at ARBO Marketing. The team remains the same. The quality remains the same. The service remains the same.

Bripes, Sharebrand, and Kontrable will continue under my leadership at Tarkle—now with 100% focus and no conflict of interest.

I'm incredibly grateful to every client who trusted us, every designer who delivered exceptional work, every team member who helped us scale, and Gerald for building this journey with me.

And I'm grateful to Luke for giving Renlar the next chapter it deserves while I focus on building infrastructure for the agencies that need it.

This is what Tarkle was always meant to become.

Onwards!

— Santhia