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Drawing or painting like a master artist isn’t a skill that comes naturally to most people. There are occasional savants, but you usually need years of practice to be good. Still, in a world where artists are selling AI art on Etsy, Samuel Gherman wanted to give everyone the skills to make art. His company, Da Vinci Eye, offers an augmented-reality app that launched in 2016 called Da Vinci Eye: AR Art Projector, available on Android and iOS devices. Gherman got to showcase his app on “Shark Tank’s” 16th episode in season 15.
Da Vinci Eye aims to keep budding visual artists going and give those who gave up on their artistic aspirations too soon a chance to revitalize their passion. With the app, you can aim your mobile device at your canvas — much easier to do if you have a phone stand — and it superimposes the image of your choice onto it, using Apple Vision’s passthrough technology. Then you can draw what you see there. It’s essentially a more advanced method of tracing, but you can use it on any surface, including paper or a painter’s canvas.
With other apps Da Vinci Eye makes, you could even paint a mural on the side of a building. That might be difficult with a phone or tablet, but Da Vinci Eye is available with the great tech of the Apple Vision Pro headset, which would make you look like a futuristic artist out of “Cyberpunk 2077.”
What happened to Da Vinci Eye on Shark Tank?
Sam Gherman came to “Shark Tank” looking for $350,000 in exchange for 5% equity. While Da Vinci Eye: AR Art Projector was the highlight of the pitch, Gherman also showed off Mural Maker, which lets users paint large murals on walls. To give the sharks a better look at the app, Gherman called shark Daniel Lubetzky up to trace a picture of Mark Cuban, and Lubetzky drew a passable portrait of his colleague, even adding a mustache.
But none of the sharks was happy with what they heard from Gherman. He said he didn’t make any sales until June 2020 and went on to earn $450,000 by the end of the year. He decided to make Da Vinci Eye his full-time job the following year when he made $200,000 in sales in a single month. Da Vinci Eye became the second-ranked paid app in the Apple app store after that. By the end of that year he made $820,000. In 2022 his company made $860,000. After a switch to a subscription model in 2023, at the time of the episode’s filming annual sales were at $1.2 million.
Daymond John wasn’t happy Gherman was answering questions indirectly, so he backed out of further negotiations. Mark Cuban felt like the numbers weren’t adding up and there should have been more subscribers. The sharks backed out one by one, resulting in Gherman exiting the stage without a deal.
Da Vinci Eye after Shark Tank
None of the sharks solidified a deal with Gherman, but he didn’t let that discourage him. His company was already seeing steady growth before going on the show. An investor could have helped that growth, but it wasn’t necessary. However, Da Vinci Eye caught the eye of “Shark Tank’s” audience, opening up a new market for Gherman, because he had primarily relied on social media to publicize his app.
Shortly after the episode was filmed, Da Vinci Eye was able to launch Mural Maker and another app called Doodle Grid that lets aspiring visual artists easily scale their projects. Both are exclusively available in the Apple App Store. And because Gherman realized users don’t want to keep using coffee mugs or other household objects as a makeshift phone stand, Da Vinci Eye offers its own branded phone stand. The website sells a Classic Mode and an A.R. Mode stand , with the former being one you place on a flat surface to overlook a sheet of paper. The latter can be secured to a desk and comes with more points of articulation so you can aim your phone at a canvas on an easel.
Da Vinci Eye also sells MagSafe versions of its stands that use Apple’s magnetic technology to easily attach to late-model iPhones. And since no consumer-facing business would be complete without branded merchandise, Da Vinci Eye has a branded coffee mug loyal subscribers can buy from its website.
Is Da Vinci Eye still in business?
Da Vinci Eye is very much still in business. In 2023 Gherman turned Da Vinci Eye into a subscription service costing customers $19.99 yearly. This continues to be the way the business operates. There are two subscription options for users today, ranging from $7.99 a month to $29.99 a year, according to the Apple App Store. As for the company’s user base, its Facebook account boasts 14,000 followers, while its YouTube channel has 22,200 subscribers, and its Instagram page has even more with 162,000 followers.
Apple promised over 600 apps for the Vision Pro and Da Vinci Eye was one of them, in the number one slot of the New and Noteworthy section during the first week of the Vision Pro’s launch. The app is undoubtedly easier to use in conjunction with a Vision Pro. As of March 2025, the app has an average rating of 4.6 stars out of 5 in the App Store with 6,600 ratings, indicating customers are overwhelmingly happy with it.
What’s next for Da Vinci Eye?
Gherman has lofty aspirations for Da Vinci Eye, just as any business owner would have for their company. He hopes to launch more apps, but more interestingly, he’s working on collaborating with local artists. In its Featured Artist section, the Da Vinci Eye website is currently spotlighting SarahdaArt, the product of an artist who always dreamed of being a professional and was able to reinvigorate that passion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gherman also wants to partner with school districts around the country. He hasn’t laid out any specifics for this yet, but there’s a feature in the app that gives a step-by-step walkthrough for drawing, and art teachers could have Da Vinci Eye downloaded on school iPads, letting students use it for drawing lessons. This might boost a student’s confidence in their artistic ability. And tracing has more benefits for aspiring visual artists than most people believe.
Source: http://www.slashgear.com/1814892/what-happened-da-vinci-eye-ar-drawing-shark-tank-season-15/
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