How this couple turned $1,500 into $5 million in annual sales in just two years

Meet Ashley and Brittany Silfies. They are the founders of Pink Picasso. The couple started the company in 2019 after exploring ways to make money to cater to the home and their three children.

The founding of the company was influenced by Ashley’s skills in photography and manufacturing. The company based in Birmingham turns photos taken by photographers, including Ashley, into paint-by-numbers kits, according to CNBC Make It. The paint-by-numbers kits are each packaged in a cardboard tube that holds a rolled-up canvas, paintbrushes and a set of acrylic paints, the outlet added.

The couple noted that they spent $1,500 to establish the company. In 2021, the couple said in a Shark Tank episode that they were on course to bring in more than $5 million in gross revenue. Also, their kits are now in more than 2,000 boutique stores nationwide as well as on the Pink Picasso website. 

Ashley and Brittany Silfies in November 2021 also landed a Shark Tank deal worth $400,000. Two Shark Tank investors, Lori Greiner and Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky, invested in the company for a 15% stake in Pink Picasso.

They impressed the Shark Tank investors with how “Pink Picasso could produce a 16-inch by 20-inch canvas painting kit for roughly $4, then sell it at wholesale for $19 and have it resell to individual customers for $42,” according to CNBC Make It.

The two investors initially offered $400,000 in exchange for a 20% stake in Pink Picasso with a promise to get their painting kits into big-box stores like Michaels. However, the couple negotiated their stake to 15 percent while keeping the original price offer.

According to CNBC’s calculation, the deal valued the company at nearly $2.7 million. In its first year of operation, the company made $1.5 million in gross revenue after being on Oprah Winfrey’s “Favorite Things” list. In 2020 when the company landed on Oprah Winfrey’s “Favorite Things” list again, it posted a profit of $900,000, according to Ashley.

The couple said the company became successful thanks to the pandemic. They observed that people were largely indoors and were forced to find more ways to entertain themselves at home.

“Everybody needs self-care, and this is something that anybody can do,” Ashley told the Sharks.

Ashley and Brittany were just friends with husbands and children when they first met. They became a couple when their “feelings just evolved.” The founding of Pink Picasso helped the couple to rebuild their lives and take care of their family.