Advertisement

From No-Where To Now Here: PortraitFlip, A Young Startup With A Revenue Of 6 Crores

PortraitFlip is an E-Commerce business that turns photos into handmade paintings. Besides a variety of mediums namely Oil, Acrylic, Charcoal, Pencil, Watercolor, and Color Pencil, this startup has to offer emotions wrapped in a canvas.

From No-Where To Now Here: PortraitFlip, A Young Startup With A Revenue Of 6 Crores
(From top left: Adithya Krishnan, Anmol Ramgiri, Sunny Choudhary, Dhruti Sharma, Umesh Kokare; From bottom left: Ritik Rajgire, Dylan Dias, Ajinkya Balapure)
SHARES

With a vision of making a better place for the artists and adding to the intimacy of gifting, PortraitFlip was spawned in the dorm room of Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai. September of 2017 saw a young boy, Sunny Choudhary, become a bridge between the artists and the world.

PortraitFlip is an E-Commerce business that turns photos into handmade paintings. Besides a variety of mediums namely Oil, Acrylic, Charcoal, Pencil, Watercolor, and Color Pencil, this startup has to offer emotions wrapped in a canvas.

The idea was brought about when one of Sunny’s friends was archly looking for a handmade painting to gift his girlfriend. Finding nothing of likes in India, Sunny decided to fill the gap. While the initial investment was of a bare INR 23,000, today it is creating big pictures with revenue of INR 6 Crores.

Sunny with his two best friends laid the entire foundation to go about the operations of the business. From publishing the website to contacting artists and delivery partners, everything was spotlessly set up by the trio.

Despite all efforts put, PortraitFlip did not receive a single order up until the third month from inception.

“They say a business without marketing is an absent business. With this thought, I and my initial partners decided to run Google Ads. Although we were majorly focusing on India, astonishingly we received our first order from the USA,” recalls Sunny.

With no intentions of crossing boundaries, PortraitFlip slowly became one of the top companies to provide such a service across the USA.

Although Google Ads did increase their sales two-folded, it was the great lockdown that saw a major spike in their conversions. While most of the startups saw a leaden collapse, Sunny chose this opportunity to invest in growth.

A worldwide lockdown forced most of the consumers to turn towards e-commerce businesses. PortraitFlip doubled its digital ads for the course and saw the ultimate retention during the crisis. Despite a surge in online orders, the cross-border limitation delayed the maximum of the orders. However, the team as one knot was successful in damage control.

“It’s a part and parcel of any business. A boom always comes with a buzz”, said Sunny.

The startup saw an incredible sale during the last few months of 2020 and started the New Year with a blast. Since then there has been no looking back for PortraitFlip.

Besides, the team spent a lot of time learning all the possible aspects of digital marketing. They utilized this time to strengthen the brand’s online presence and creating a space for future conversions. 

A young business that started with 3 now has a team of 10 offshoots with a target of achieving a revenue of 16 crores by the end of 2021. Besides, PortraitFlip houses more than 190 artists across the globe including Indian artists.

“It doesn’t feel right to see art being compromised to a corporate job. Artists deserve much more than what is thrown at them. I, personally, want them to thrive with the utmost respect; they form the backbone of PortraitFlip”, Sunny believes.

PortraitFlip is devising on expanding its team of artists as well as the in-office squad epidemically by 2022. Although a bootstrap business, the startup is also looking forward to funding by the next two financial years.

“While my core vision remains to create a happy business – for my customers, my team, and my artists”, says Sunny.

RELATED TOPICS
Advertisement
MumbaiLive would like to send you latest news updates