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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

#101

Post by gist »

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…

> 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.

I think this varies per person. It's like saying that having a real luxury product is no different than a imitation. There is a certain psychic benefit you get from knowing that you have something that is real (specifically that you paid more money for) vs. machine created (or cheaper). This ironically would even extend to having a good local artist produce the painting vs. having it sent off to China (at a discount rate through a service like instapainting). Hard to put into words this concept but I am sure there is an official name for it. That doesn't mean that there isn't a huge market for knockoffs but it's a different market.

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

#102

Post by jfoutz »

qwrusz wrote: post #96

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 t…

Reminds me of one of my favorite "jokes" about scale. If you're a one in a million, there are 1357 of you in china.

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

#103

Post by dkrich »

gm-conspiracy wrote: post #99
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.

No, never. I just asked about it because I heard the term once a long time ago, but to be honest I'm note even sure what an oil painting is. Is it like the same thing they put in engines to make them run smoothly?

This was actually a question for the OP, since he has experience in it, but I'll bite.

If you use high quality paper and printing, you can make extremely high quality prints that imitate all kinds of effects like oil, watercolor, colored pencil, and sketching. I actually have quite a bit of experience in producing them, which is why I asked this question in the first place.

There are many other factors besides texture to consider. Cost, color, consistency, etc.

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

#104

Post by gist »

qwrusz wrote: post #96

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 t…

> Your prices felt too inexpensive. Knowing something was handmade I would have paid more than I did.

Interesting if you read my comment elsewhere here that is a point that I made as well in a different way.

That said perhaps there is a way to tweak the pricing so that they have different perceptions of quality for the price paid. Don't lose the low end market but give an option for those that want to pay more.

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

#105

Post by chrischen »

qwrusz wrote: post #96

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 t…

Hi! Thanks for the comment!

All I can say is that the reason I don't charge more is it'd just be lining my pockets since the artists set their prices at a pretty consistent rate. I don't get lower rates from the artists than my competitors, so I just undercut them in final retail price instead.

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

#106

Post by amenod »

gm-conspiracy wrote: post #99
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.

Given that he already has the robot which can paint, wouldn't it be easy (well, doable at least :) to really paint the picture instead of printing it? There is no reason why this kind of painting should be any different from the manually produced.

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

#107

Post by greendragon »

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…

I'm more curious about what's so hard about it to convey. Wouldn't a simple time-lapse video of one of the paintings being created suffice?

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

#108

Post by cdelsolar »

dbancajas wrote: post #52
hiou wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He literally listed SEO as the most important part of the business. Which means he seized control of a location(Google ranking) and then sold it back to those who could not compete with his Google rank. No sure where "Everybody wins" in that situation.

how did he sell it back? elaborate? For me the world is zero sum game. at least most of it. My gain is your loss when we are competing in the same space. It's not like he forced someone to work for him at pennies on the dollar. He created a portal to drive additional revenue (people who can go to instapainting.com but not buy on etsy/ebay).

economic bartering/trading/etc is definitely not zero sum.

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

#109

Post by alexbeloi »

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…

You can get photos printed on canvas very easily already, most online photo printing services will offer this option.

The hand-made one-of-a-kind aspect is pretty much the sole distinguishing feature and selling point of instapainter.

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

#110

Post by linkregister »

pierrebai wrote: post #78
googletazer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait a second, so how do you imagine it working? Millions of artists each with their own individual pages connected to Stripe? Out of these, some will still be top 10, the rest will be behind. Every artist who uses his platform wins since thats what connects them to consumers and work orders.

The connected economy does have aspects that can be concerning: * Many see bartering as a grey business. Profiting from a disparity in pricing between buyers and sellers is always a touchy subject. The usual justification is the service of connecting sellers and buyers. One can honestly wonders if buyers and sellers really would not have found each other otherwise. * How much is the match-making worth. One person doe…

> the profit appears to be un-earned

The ability to make profit off of investment is fundamental to capitalism. Do you think that it's unethical for your 401k to accumulate compound interest? Should you have to do some work for the companies your 401k holds shares in, in order for your fund to make a trade?

So far Chris Chen has put in a ton of work and only now is realizing the gains from it. His risk and work are only now paying off. This is equally as egregious as your employer hiring you to write C++ code, and reaping the benefits of your code long after you have written it.

I don't see how competition is closed. The only competition I see suppressed is that of the "order a painting from a website" category, because Instapainting has the superior network. In time, this could potentially get so huge as to be a violation of anti-trust laws, but I don't see that happening. Competition between painters is untouched. Other applications remain. If one wants a higher or lower quality painting, the buyer would want to use existing networks instead of this service. If someone wants an abstract painting, or a sculpture, they have to use a service that is less commoditized, such as word-of-mouth or an art company (interesting aside, North Korea fulfills many sculpture orders for national monuments internationally).

Within the realm of medium-quality portraits, if Instapainting secures a monopoly, then yes, competition will be closed. However, this applies to almost anything that can be commoditized. In American/Canadian history, 19th century painters decried a commoditization of their work; they couldn't get commissions for impressionist or surreal work. Just portraits.

I wrote this blob of text because I naturally want to defend developers who expose details about their businesses to HN. I don't want stories of how they built their businesses to be suppressed or discouraged. Especially since I see nothing unethical in this product; on the contrary, Chris Chen is giving these artists opportunity. They don't have to spend unpaid hours on Etsy or eBay, they can just focus on their work. Customers also get the opportunity to get a hand-painted portrait.

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