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Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

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Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#91

Post by chrischen »

hiou wrote: post #42
chrischen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We operate almost exactly like Etsy or Ebay in this regard, we just don't expose the marketplace to the front end because we offer only a single product type (photo to painting) at the moment. Many of our sellers are listed on Ebay or Etsy too (at higher prices).

So what is your percentage per work?

I currently put out a fixed price, and then the artists dynamically price based on the actual piece. It ranges from 5%-40% depending on the actual picture and subject matter.

The plan is to fix to a fixed commission once the new marketplace is rolled out to the user facing portion of the site.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#92

Post by sleepyhead »

themagician wrote: post #55

Do you think people know they are paying for cheap Chinese labor when they purchase? If not, do you think they would care? When I read something like,"100% free-hand painted onto a canvas by a master artist," my impression isn't, "we outsource the painting to cheap Chinese labor." My impression is clearly wrong. I suspect others have this impression though. I think the concept is cool, but I'm not sure people would b…

Easy now Donald.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#93

Post by csallen »

antarrah wrote: post #68

I find it amusing how HN readers just believe anything they read about how much people are making. For all we know this might be a guy who's making very little and wanted coverage on indiehackers.com.

Chris is a personal friend of mine I've known since 2011 when we went through Y Combinator together. I can vouch for his integrity.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#94

Post by dkrich »

The hardest part was actually conveying that it wasn't just some print or photo filter, and this is something I still have difficulty with today.

Curious about whether people care about this. As somebody who takes a lot of pictures, if somebody could produce one of my photos as a painting using Photoshop that was indistinguishable (or close to it) from a person, I really don't think I'd care. From a business perspective, this seems like it would also carry the benefits of scaling better and having better quality control. You could also give the person multiple options (watercolor, oil, impressionist, etc.).

I'm sure the OP knows the market much better than I do, I'm just curious whether going with simulated paintings was ever considered and whether customers really do care about having a person paint it?

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#95

Post by paulddraper »

OJFord wrote: post #62

> micro-services, which is crucial in allowing me (the > only developer) to migrate the site to new technologies. I know it's 5 years old, but I still don't see why it's been so crucial to have kept migrating to "new technologies"?

"Build one to throw away"? As the business evolves, the needs evolve, and it may be appropriate for the tech to evolve.

It's less a fault of choosing the wrong tech stack to begin with and more a virtue of prototyping quickly.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#96

Post by qwrusz »

Congrats on the success. Thanks for sharing the business story too.

Disclaimer: this is not a paid endorsement. I don't know Chris. But I happen to be a customer - having bought a painting as a gift. It is framed on the wall at this moment.

My only feedback. Your prices felt too inexpensive. Knowing something was handmade I would have paid more than I did. I'm sure you have researched the market and margins and all that, just letting you know my experience.

Also the artist being from China aspect that other comments are mentioning, almost everything we own is made in China, and the location or nationality of an artist shouldn't be any different than other types of work. Also there are some darn good artists in China, check Youtube for examples.

Congrats again.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#97

Post by antaviana »

chrischen wrote: post #25
csallen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a question! (Even though I could've just asked you this during the interview itself.) You say that you've automated most of the process of running the business: "I've gradually adapted the software over time to automate every process, and generally I only have to step in in rare instances of high-level disputes." How much time do you spend working nowadays? And on what? What's your typical day look like?

It's passive income in the sense that if I just dropped everything and played video games all day, the income would sustain itself. However that's far from what I actually do :). It simply means I can free myself up to work on new features or increase revenue. So I'm still working about on average 5-8 hours per day, 6-7 days a week. I like to travel a bit, and work while traveling. Since I have no employees, this mak…

Do you ever take several days off? Like a two-three week vacation without being online at all. This is what I find most difficult to do for a 1-employee operation that offers a 24/7 service.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#98

Post by ska »

chrischen wrote: post #25
csallen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a question! (Even though I could've just asked you this during the interview itself.) You say that you've automated most of the process of running the business: "I've gradually adapted the software over time to automate every process, and generally I only have to step in in rare instances of high-level disputes." How much time do you spend working nowadays? And on what? What's your typical day look like?

It's passive income in the sense that if I just dropped everything and played video games all day, the income would sustain itself. However that's far from what I actually do :). It simply means I can free myself up to work on new features or increase revenue. So I'm still working about on average 5-8 hours per day, 6-7 days a week. I like to travel a bit, and work while traveling. Since I have no employees, this mak…

So it is not passive. That's ok, almost all "passive income" isn't, and the term has been abused into near uselessness.

Sounds like the term you are actually looking for is "lifestyle business"

Nothing wrong than that, and it's a more sensible (i.e. well defined) goal that passive income.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#99

Post by gm-conspiracy »

dkrich wrote: post #94

The hardest part was actually conveying that it wasn't just some print or photo filter, and this is something I still have difficulty with today. Curious about whether people care about this. As somebody who takes a lot of pictures, if somebody could produce one of my photos as a painting using Photoshop that was indistinguishable (or close to it) from a person, I really don't think I'd care. From a business perspect…

Have you ever seen an oil painting up close?

There was an article awhile ago about using a 3d printer and scanner to make a "copy" of an oil painting.

http://www.designboom.com/art/oce-3d-printer-creates-identic...

Until Photoshop filters output STL files and color 3d printers come down in price, humans win.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#100

Post by jpindar »

themagician wrote: post #55

Do you think people know they are paying for cheap Chinese labor when they purchase? If not, do you think they would care? When I read something like,"100% free-hand painted onto a canvas by a master artist," my impression isn't, "we outsource the painting to cheap Chinese labor." My impression is clearly wrong. I suspect others have this impression though. I think the concept is cool, but I'm not sure people would b…

So Chinese people can't be master artists? Which nationalities can be?
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