A kit to create a paint-by-numbers template of a pet photo on Oprah Winfrey's annual holiday gift list comes from a Columbus startup founded by veterans of Root Inc.
Paintable Pictures LLC's Pets Edition kit appears in the "engaging gifts" section of Oprah's Favorite Things, released Wednesday. That section also includes a Winfrey-designed book lover's journal and tickets to the upcoming remake of The Color Purple.
“Speaking as a mother of fur babies, ... I think this DIY project is so neat," Winfrey said in her blurb. "Turn your pet’s photo into a paint-by-number template, then print it on the enclosed canvas, and finish with the brushes and acrylics.”
Pat Carroll and co-founder Peter Schrock started creating the kit as a side project three years ago, after Carroll was frustrated with the slow delivery and poor quality of a mail-order kit for painting a photo that he'd ordered as a gift.
"It was woefully disappointing," Carroll said. "I knew there had to be a better way to do this. It's such a personal thing."
Carroll and Schrock met at Columbus digital insurance unicorn Root in 2018, and both left in 2020, a few months after its IPO. Carroll went to Path Robotics and then Lower.com, the New Albany digital mortgage startup. Schrock went to Upstart.
"Peter and I used to talk about business and product ideas all the time," Carroll said. "We found a shared interest, in really not just entrepreneurship but big new ideas, and chewing on them."
With Schrock as the coder, the friends developed tech that can instantly translate a photo into a printable paint-by-numbers template. Refined over the years, the latest version specialized for pets was released a few months ago. (Before that, about a third of photos uploaded for the kits were animals anyway.)
Bailey, Carroll's grayish shorthair cat, was the test subject.
Schrock has worked full time on the startup since 2021. Carroll left his job at Lower to focus on the business this September.
Ordered via their website or on Amazon, the $40 kit includes a set of paints, a custom 8-by-11 canvas that fits in a regular inkjet printer and a QR code to access the software and upload a photo. The kits are made in China.
"We've created something a user can create at their table," Carroll said.
So far the startup has not raised outside capital, growing by revenue, which is not disclosed.
"That's been smart for us," Carroll said.
In anticipation of the Oprah plug, they built up the supply chain. The list is on OprahDaily.com, with links to a custom Amazon store, and will appear in the winter issue of O Quarterly magazine.
Paintable Pictures is in talks with retailers to carry the kit in stores, Carroll said. Upcoming editions include paintings of humans, requiring a different way of capturing pixels and different color palette.
"We want to build the next generation of painting products you can find in any gift or craft store," Carroll said. "If you were to walk through a craft store today or a gift store looking for something like this, you wouldn’t find it."
Carroll said he's always wanted to be an entrepreneur. He's not surprised that the idea he landed on combines software with a physical product.
"I really want to build a great product that we're proud of," he said. "We've put a lot of energy into making something new and fresh and a different take on painting."
