It is the period of the aspect hustle, and when you’ve ever thought of beginning one to earn some additional money exterior of your 9-5, you are in good firm. As of late, greater than one-third of U.S. adults have aspect hustles, and their supplemental gigs make a median of $891 a month, in line with latest analysis from Bankrate. After all, probably the most profitable aspect hustlers see a lot greater earnings, particularly once they begin a enterprise that brings in almost as a lot as — or considerably greater than — their full-time sources of revenue.
Victor Guardiola, 27, of Austin, Texas, is one in all them. Study extra about Guardiola’s work trip, right here. Responses have been edited for size and readability.
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What was your day job or main occupation whenever you began your aspect hustle?
I used to be working at one other CPG (consumed packaged items) startup on the time, helping the founder with fundraising and dealing on the advertising and marketing crew. I labored as his proper hand in fundraising primarily, and that helped me develop the skillset to fundraise for my model.
The place did you discover the inspiration on your aspect hustle turned full-time enterprise?
There have been two main the reason why I began Bawi. First, the nostalgic Mexican drinks my group and I had been consuming had been considerably impacting well being. I dove into the tutorial literature round sugar-sweetened drinks (SSBs) and located that they had been inflicting devastating metabolic well being points for hundreds of thousands of Latinos. This lack of well being innovation was a robust motivator to carry a novel better-for-you, culturally related product to market. The second motivator was the dearth of cultural illustration within the CPG business.
Picture Credit score: Garnish Studios
The fee to start out a bodily items firm could be very excessive, and this leads to much less participation from minority teams who discover it far more tough to fund their startup. Practically all startup funding comes from mates and households, and when you have got a socioeconomic group with 5x much less wealth than a median white family, you get much less cultural innovation. So as to add insult to damage, the cultural innovators who’re capable of scale their merchandise are hardly ever from the communities of the merchandise’ origin. Which means that you typically discover culturally obtuse merchandise constructed from a board room as various as a summer time within the Hamptons, competing in opposition to minority teams who’re making an attempt to characterize their tradition’s flavors on shelf.
Secondly, agua fresca is a ubiquitous product that has but to be efficiently commercialized for a mass market. This felt like an enormous alternative because the agua fresca class has extensive shopper recognition and is culturally salient for a lot of Latinos and non-Latinos alike. We started experimenting with a lower-sugar agua fresca that was fruit juice ahead and used minimal substances. After taking the idea via an entrepreneurship practicum at The College of Texas at Austin, I spotted {that a} better-for-you, culturally important product like Bawi has legs to face on. Well being innovation and cultural illustration had been the 2 flagship motivations for beginning Bawi.
What had been a number of the first steps you took to get your online business off the bottom?
Beginning a enterprise for anybody is tumultuous. The biggest hurdle for many entrepreneurs in my class is fundraising. With a view to have an investable enterprise, we needed to present indicators of traction. We rapidly launched into farmers markets to take a look at the product-market match. Nick Mares from Kettle & Hearth truly gave us a grant to purchase our preliminary farmers market setup. We wished to know {that a} better-for-you agua fresca was a big sufficient providing to be modern inside the beverage class. We spent about six months within the farmers markets tweaking the method, making an attempt to generate money to fund the enterprise, then the pandemic reared its head and on-site consumption was not allowed.
We needed to pivot as I used to be starting my position on the startup that might finally change my life. I realized to fundraise from my former boss, and in a couple of yr, I landed my first investor. That investor was Patrick Terry from P. Terry’s Burger Stand, an Austin icon and restaurateur. That was sufficient capital for 20-year-old me to stop my job and pursue this full-time. After Patrick, many different buyers received concerned, together with Michael Rypka from Torchy’s Tacos, and lots of former CPG executives.
Picture Credit score: Garnish Studios
I aggressively cold-emailed for years to successfully elevate capital for Bawi and add extra important subject-matter specialists and notable names within the business. I had adopted up with my preliminary batch of buyers a minimum of a dozen occasions earlier than I obtained a response — and that was a tough ability to study. I realized so as to add worth to each observe up, nurture relationships and create win-win outcomes for all stakeholders.
Are there any free or paid assets which were particularly useful for you in beginning and working this enterprise?
I’m a bit jaded with most incubators, as most of those packages and pitch competitions do not communicate to the precise wants of most entrepreneurs. Becoming a member of a group to community is one factor, however I’d not relaxation your laurels on an accelerator altering the trajectory of your online business. Many of those packages provide accounting or finance workshops, and once they’re genuinely useful to you, use them. A lot of the entrepreneurs I mentor and coach who’ve already established some semblance of product-market-fit battle with fundraising squarely, as their core constraint. They don’t seem to be capable of get to the subsequent threshold with out exterior funding.
Essentially the most compelling piece of recommendation I’d give is to community genuinely and deliberately. Attain out to anybody and everybody out of real curiosity and make it as straightforward as attainable for somebody to select up the telephone or reply your electronic mail. You want to construct a golden bridge for others to stroll throughout, and also you do this by having a small ask (quarter-hour of your time) and being direct and concise. It’s far more efficient to achieve out to somebody who has scaled their enterprise and ask for recommendation, versus main along with your funding deck and asking for funding. If somebody needs to be useful and is worked up about what you are doing, they will talk it. Ship extra chilly emails — they’re all additive. Constructing a community from zero is remarkably tough for first-generation immigrants, but when I can do it…anybody actually can. Fundraising and networking are abilities similar to the rest.
When you may return in your online business journey and alter one course of or strategy, what wouldn’t it be, and the way do you want you’d accomplished it in a different way?
I want that I’d have employed the correct folks sooner, even when they had been a bit costlier. These early-stage hires have an incredible affect on the trajectory of the enterprise, and having the fallacious folks concerned can hamstring you in such profound methods. Each entrepreneur ought to consider the subsequent rent sooner. The price of having the fallacious folks concerned in your crew is awfully excessive at an early stage. If anybody is inflicting friction within the enterprise and never including worth, that you must transfer on. The price of letting somebody go solely compounds with time.
With regards to this particular enterprise, what’s one thing you’ve got discovered significantly difficult and/or stunning that individuals who get into the sort of work ought to be ready for, however doubtless aren’t?
The sheer quantity of relationships to handle within the CPG enterprise is immense. Scaling a enterprise requires you to level your consideration on the proper issues, as you doubtless do not have the crew to take care of any and each alternative. This goes to my earlier level of networking, too. The entrepreneurs in my circles who fall flat when confronted with a steep problem typically lack the community and context to handle the difficulty.
How lengthy did it take you to see constant month-to-month income? How a lot did the aspect hustle earn?
My aspect hustle turned a full-time place in 2022. That was after we had been beginning to go from farmer’s markets doing about $1,000 to $2,000 per 30 days to our canned beverage enterprise that started doing $10,000 per 30 days in our first yr. This was sufficient traction to understand that we had been onto one thing.
What does development and income appear to be now?
Development is considerably extra aggressive now that we raised our collection seed final yr and added a number of necessary crew members. We had our greatest month in March 2025, broke that report once more in Could and are on monitor to surpass seven figures this yr.
Picture Credit score: Garnish Studios
How a lot time do you spend engaged on your online business on a day by day, weekly or month-to-month foundation? How do you construction that point; what does a typical day or week of labor appear to be for you?
At a minimal, I’m engaged on Bawi roughly 50 hours per week. My typical day consists of assembly with my crew members of their respective departments, doing enterprise growth (pitching us for brand spanking new gross sales alternatives) and taking good care of miscellaneous administrative duties throughout the corporate. Each week, I’m targeted on getting one to 3 main tasks throughout the end line, and I discover that specializing in any greater than that reduces the standard of my output. Investor relations are a key part of my position, as all our buyers finally attain out to me for any alternatives or questions.
My ordinary Monday via Friday schedule follows:
- 5:30 a.m. – 7:00 a.m. – Get up, hydrate, tidy up, emails
- 7:00 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. – health club, sauna, meditate
- 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Bawi HQ
I’m normally pulled into occasions on the weekend and have one or two calls with buyers or crew members. Small groups are efficient however require extra administration and that is merely the stage we’re at proper now.
I additionally need to observe that I’m vehemently in opposition to extreme hustle tradition. You possibly can work arduous and care for your self on the identical time. In reality, taking good care of your self makes you higher at your job. This schedule works for me, after making an attempt each amalgamation of a morning routine and work day attainable. That is all topic to vary with time; it is important to work arduous however not be so inflexible in your way of life. All the pieces moderately, even moderation.
What do you take pleasure in most about working this enterprise?
Each can of Bawi is a vessel of tradition. We’re reshaping attitudes round Hispanicity, cultural innovation and illustration. I actually take pleasure in being on the forefront of shaping the panorama of how my group interacts with our delicacies. It has been great to obtain messages from my hispanic customers who really feel seen by our bundle design and heard by our dietary profiles. We’re inflicting the business to vary for the higher, one Bawi at a time.
What’s your greatest piece of particular, actionable enterprise recommendation?
Decide the correct alternative to pursue. Many entrepreneurs embark on their journey with grandiose ambitions of scaling a seven-figure firm into a large exit. These alternatives solely exist if there’s distinctive product-market match and best-in-class execution. The TAM (complete addressable market) for the chance needs to be sufficiently big to draw a big market. Earlier than even starting the fundraising dialog, that you must make sure that your innovation suits a big sufficient alternative to be price pursuing. I began formally internet hosting workplace hours for minority entrepreneurs final yr, and I might say lower than 5% have a enterprise modern sufficient to be price pursuing.
This is not to remove from the fervour behind an entrepreneurial concept that captivates somebody; that is simply mandatory context and perspective earlier than embarking on this journey. As quickly as you elevate capital on your idea, you need to do proper by your backers and pursue the chance aggressively. For instance, if I had been pitched an Ashwaganda-infused probiotic Zebra milk, I might take pause. The beverage marketplace for Zebra milk does not appear compelling sufficient to pursue. Assume lengthy and arduous about how modern your product actually is inside its class and set up traction earlier than placing actual time or vitality behind something.
This text is a part of our ongoing Younger Entrepreneur® collection highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of being a younger enterprise proprietor.
