The archive · Small Business & Money · Product decision · 2020–2025
Legit Kits: a nurse's one-day-a-week quilting side hustle tops $1.4 million a year
Mike O'Dell turned beginner-friendly art quilts into kits, kept his anesthesia job, and built a $1.4M-a-year business that runs without him.
Legit Kits
What it had to solve
Mike O'Dell, an Oklahoma City nurse anesthetist, drew a Star Wars stormtrooper pattern on a 5-by-6.5-foot sheet of graph paper spread across his kitchen floor in 2018 and finished the quilt 18 months later, discovering that foundation paper piecing was surprisingly easy for a beginner. In 2020 he launched Legit Kits, selling kits with nature scenes, animals and characters at $89 to $599 across more than 60 designs.
How it works
Mike O'Dell, an Oklahoma City nurse anesthetist, made his first quilt for his sons: a Star Wars stormtrooper he drew pixel-by-pixel on a 5-by-6.5-foot sheet of kitchen-floor graph paper, cut into pieces, sewn, and finished 18 months later. The technique — foundation paper piecing — proved easy enough for a beginner, and the quilt kits he found on the market felt tedious and dull. In 2020 he started Legit Kits to sell art-forward, beginner-friendly kits featuring licensed nature, animal and character designs, priced from $89 to $599.
O'Dell stayed a nurse four days a week and worked the business one day — a constraint he credits with forcing him to build a company that runs without him: seven full-time employees and four freelance designers now handle the work while he spends his business day promoting it on Facebook and in professional crafting groups. The unit economics helped: large kits cost about $125 to produce and sold for $399, and customer acquisition cost roughly $17.
Revenue climbed from about $30,000 in 2020 to $140,000, $400,000 and $1 million in the following three years, reaching roughly $1.4 million in 2024, with margins of about 8.7% in 2023. A January 2025 Shark Tank pitch drew Kevin O'Leary's offer of $150,000 for 5% plus a royalty on every kit; the deal later fell apart, and O'Dell, who said he loved the experience, kept his hospital job.
Why it lands
- One-day-a-week ownership was the forcing function: unable to be present, O'Dell had to hire people he could trust, so the business learned to run without its founder.
- He sold the emotional payoff — bold art quilts a beginner can actually finish — instead of competing with craft giants on price or nostalgia.
- A nurse's salary took the survival pressure off the venture, so it grew only when paying customers, not borrowed runway, said yes.
- A strong unit margin — $125 of materials against a $399 kit — gave the whole model a cushion most craft businesses never see.
What it did
Sales climbed from roughly $30,000 in 2020 to $140,000, $400,000 and $1 million over the next three years, then about $1.4 million in 2024 — more than $1.25 million through Shopify plus an estimated $150,000 via Joann — with 8.7% margins in 2023 and breakeven in 2024 after moving to a larger facility.
What you can take
Keep the side hustle a side hustle: a one-day-a-week constraint forced O'Dell to hire people he could trust and build a company that ran without him.
Since then
By early 2025 Legit Kits ran from a 4,500-square-foot facility with seven employees and four freelance designers. O'Dell planned to pay himself $50,000 from the company on top of his roughly $240,000 nursing salary, and to reinvest in marketing — a $10,000-a-month Facebook budget whose first $900 produced about $6,300 in direct sales. His stated goal was 'World Quilt Domination': push past 60 designs toward 100, reach boutique quilt shops, and finally turn the seven-figure side hustle into a profitable full-time business.
Sources
- Nurse anesthetist's side hustle brings in $1.4 million a year—he works on it 1 day a week
- Legit Kits – Shark Tank Season 16
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card