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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

#241

Post by galfarragem »

Kiro wrote: post #239
galfarragem wrote: post #238

Risking to be downvoted, what do SF artists (if you know any) think about this? I suspect if the founder had a background in art (as me) he would never launch something like this. I would feel ashamed by exploiting already a struggling market (art) and yet being 'painted' as an hero. Despite believing in capitalism, limits should exist.

How is this exploitation? Just asking, I have no opinion.

Art is a weak market that lives already of crumbs from society and this scheme vacuums most of them without adding any value to society in the long term. You could argue that Instapainting doesn't hurt relevant american artists once they live from a diferent market (patrons and benefactors), but by reducing the artists pool, the chances of having important ones reduces also. Why doesn't Instapainting hire american artists?

A developed society needs a developed culture. Adopting European artists and scientists during early XX century helped US affirming themselves.

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

#242

Post by chairmanwow »

I actually met Chris a couple of years ago when I was in San Francisco for an internship. We got lunch with a mutual friend. He was excited about the success he was experiencing and inspired me with his confidence about the future.

I'm sure glad to know that he's actually made it.

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

#243

Post by chairmanwow »

galfarragem wrote: post #241
Kiro wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this exploitation? Just asking, I have no opinion.

Art is a weak market that lives already of crumbs from society and this scheme vacuums most of them without adding any value to society in the long term. You could argue that Instapainting doesn't hurt relevant american artists once they live from a diferent market (patrons and benefactors), but by reducing the artists pool, the chances of having important ones reduces also. Why doesn't Instapainting hire american ar…

So American artists (I'm assuming you mean creative people who paint things) want to be paid a lot of money to make something beautiful, and so art made by American artists is expensive and pushed even further to the fringes of society by the economics of it. Thus, it seems to be that people who are buy art are at the intersection of the set of people who can afford it (few) and those that appreciate it (a lot).

This scheme as you so vehemently put it, is really aimed at getting more pretty things on people's walls. To do that, you need cheap and hopefully somewhat unique. Instapainting allows people to have both because they employ non-creative people who paint. I simply can't entertain the idea that the Chinese artists are being exploited by Instapainting by the very notion that they are being paid less than an artist would be in the US.

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

#244

Post by throwaway1892 »

chrischen wrote: post #16
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... the author was saying the opposite. "far from the hardest" = "not the hardest" and you can see it in context: > Shortly after the launch I was contacted by many artists, mostly from China (they already saturate other marketplaces like eBay, Alibaba, and Etsy). The initial batch of orders were break even, but once the market-rate artists contacted us, I knew it was going to be profitable. Sounds like the difficult…

That's true, the difficulty wasn't finding the artists. It was finding customers, and growing the customer base, if any thing. That being said, the OP is correct also in that the tech wasn't the hardest part either. The tech was always something I had to worry about after the fact of acquiring more customers. You can always find customers first and support them manually, and then revise the tech later to reduce costs…

Reminds me of "Do things that don't scale" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6041765) by Paul Graham.

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

#245

Post by adventured »

galfarragem wrote: post #238

Risking to be downvoted, what do SF artists (if you know any) think about this? I suspect if the founder had a background in art (as me) he would never launch something like this. I would feel ashamed by exploiting already a struggling market (art) and yet being 'painted' as an hero. Despite believing in capitalism, limits should exist.

I can't find a good argument in favor of SF artists somehow being more worthy of that income than Chinese artists. You could use the same premise to segment in any other arbitrary manner and eg claim that older struggling artists are more worthy of that income than younger newer artists, and so on. How is it anything but a strictly subjective argument that will inherently vary from person to person as to what criteria is most important?

Fortunately what he's doing isn't exploiting, he's providing a valuable service in which the artists set their pricing and choose whether to accept the work. SF artists have no right to anything over an artist from an other city or country.

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

#246

Post by galfarragem »

adventured wrote: post #245
galfarragem wrote: post #238

Risking to be downvoted, what do SF artists (if you know any) think about this? I suspect if the founder had a background in art (as me) he would never launch something like this. I would feel ashamed by exploiting already a struggling market (art) and yet being 'painted' as an hero. Despite believing in capitalism, limits should exist.

I can't find a good argument in favor of SF artists somehow being more worthy of that income than Chinese artists. You could use the same premise to segment in any other arbitrary manner and eg claim that older struggling artists are more worthy of that income than younger newer artists, and so on. How is it anything but a strictly subjective argument that will inherently vary from person to person as to what criteri…

Try to read your comment changing the word artist by developer. Is your opinion still so strong? And don't forget that IT is one of the most abundant markets not a perpetually struggling one.

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

#247

Post by galfarragem »

GarrisonPrime wrote: post #77
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…

He's creating work for Chinese workers. Who are we to say what kind of pay the Chinese "should" be requesting? It's rather elitist of us to be telling them they are being taken advantage of. This is a job they've sought out and want to keep! It's the best option available to them.

> He's creating work for Chinese workers.

I would award him a medal.

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

#248

Post by Kiro »

galfarragem wrote: post #241
Kiro wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this exploitation? Just asking, I have no opinion.

Art is a weak market that lives already of crumbs from society and this scheme vacuums most of them without adding any value to society in the long term. You could argue that Instapainting doesn't hurt relevant american artists once they live from a diferent market (patrons and benefactors), but by reducing the artists pool, the chances of having important ones reduces also. Why doesn't Instapainting hire american ar…

> Why doesn't Instapainting hire american artists?

Give me one argument why they should. You speak like it's an axiom but I don't see any reason to be a protectionist in this matter. Especially when the customer base is as global as it is (I'm a customer and I'm much closer to China than the US).

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

#249

Post by vacri »

qwrusz wrote: post #202
b2600 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how business works. Unless you want transitory success.

That is how business works. It's the definition of business. He is not running a charity. It is a for profit business. Also, the intent of my question wasn't greedy-capitalism-gouge-the-customer...I meant if a business can charge more for their service and have better margins without pricing out would-be customers or losing them to lower priced competition (neither were his reasons) then why not charge more? That ext…

"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

#250

Post by dilemma »

pdog wrote: post #34
chrischen wrote: post #2

I can answer any questions, whether about how to get a great Christmas present, or questions about the article!

I have a question about the concept of hiring artists and sourcing from factories in China. What does Instapainting do—in terms of due diligence—to ensure safe working conditions and fair labor practices for workers in the factories that make the product?

Did you also ask Tesla and SpaceX about what they do to ensure humane working conditions?

I've worked in a studio/factory in China and visited plenty; from what I've read, they're far better than SpaceX.

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