It is the period of the aspect hustle, and in case you’ve ever thought of beginning one to earn some additional money exterior of your 9-5, you are in good firm. Today, greater than one-third of U.S. adults have aspect hustles, and their supplemental gigs make a median of $891 a month, in accordance with latest analysis from Bankrate. In fact, essentially the most profitable aspect hustlers see a lot increased earnings, particularly after they begin a enterprise that brings in almost as a lot as — or considerably greater than — their full-time sources of earnings.
Victor Guardiola, 27, of Austin, Texas, is one among 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 while you began your aspect hustle?
I used to be working at one other CPG (consumed packaged items) startup on the time, aiding 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.
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The place did you discover the inspiration to your aspect hustle turned full-time enterprise?
There have been two main the explanation why I began Bawi. First, the nostalgic Mexican drinks my neighborhood and I had been ingesting had been considerably impacting well being. I dove into the educational literature round sugar-sweetened drinks (SSBs) and located that they had been inflicting devastating metabolic well being points for thousands and thousands of Latinos. This lack of well being innovation was a powerful motivator to convey a novel better-for-you, culturally related product to market. The second motivator was the dearth of cultural illustration within the CPG trade.
Picture Credit score: Garnish Studios
The price to start out a bodily items firm may be very excessive, and this leads to much less participation from minority teams who discover it way more troublesome to fund their startup. Almost all startup funding comes from mates and households, and when you’ve 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 harm, the cultural innovators who’re in a position to scale their merchandise are hardly ever from the communities of the merchandise’ origin. Which means that you usually discover culturally obtuse merchandise created from a board room as numerous as a summer season within the Hamptons, competing towards minority teams who’re attempting 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 huge client 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 elements. After taking the idea by 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 among the first steps you took to get what you are promoting off the bottom?
Beginning a enterprise for anybody is tumultuous. The most important hurdle for many entrepreneurs in my class is fundraising. With the intention to have an investable enterprise, we needed to present indicators of traction. We shortly launched into farmers markets to check the product-market match. Nick Mares from Kettle & Fireplace truly gave us a grant to purchase our preliminary farmers market setup. We needed to know {that a} better-for-you agua fresca was a big sufficient providing to be progressive inside the beverage class. We spent about six months within the farmers markets tweaking the system, attempting to generate money to fund the enterprise, then the pandemic reared its head and on-site consumption was not allowed.
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We needed to pivot as I used to be starting my position on the startup that may in the end change my life. I realized to fundraise from my former boss, and in a few 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 give up my job and pursue this full-time. After Patrick, many different traders bought 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 consultants and notable names within the trade. I had adopted up with my preliminary batch of traders not less than a dozen occasions earlier than I acquired a response — and that was a tough ability to be taught. I realized so as to add worth to every observe up, nurture relationships and create win-win outcomes for all stakeholders.
Are there any free or paid assets which have been particularly useful for you in beginning and operating this enterprise?
I’m a bit jaded with most incubators, as most of those packages and pitch competitions do not converse to the precise wants of most entrepreneurs. Becoming a member of a neighborhood to community is one factor, however I might not relaxation your laurels on an accelerator altering the trajectory of what you are promoting. Many of those packages supply accounting or finance workshops, and after they’re genuinely useful to you, use them. Many 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 aren’t in a position to get to the following threshold with out exterior funding.
Essentially the most compelling piece of recommendation I might give is to community genuinely and deliberately. Attain out to anybody and everybody out of real curiosity and make it as straightforward as potential for somebody to select up the cellphone or reply your e-mail. You could 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 way more efficient to achieve out to somebody who has scaled their enterprise and ask for recommendation, versus main together 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 troublesome for first-generation immigrants, but when I can do it…anybody actually can. Fundraising and networking are expertise identical to the rest.
If you happen to may return in what you are promoting journey and alter one course of or strategy, what wouldn’t it be, and the way do you want you’d executed it in a different way?
I want that I might have employed the suitable individuals sooner, even when they had been a bit costlier. These early-stage hires have an incredible impression on the trajectory of the enterprise, and having the unsuitable individuals concerned can hamstring you in such profound methods. Each entrepreneur ought to consider the following rent sooner. The price of having the unsuitable individuals concerned in your crew is very excessive at an early stage. If anybody is inflicting friction within the enterprise and never including worth, you should transfer on. The price of letting somebody go solely compounds with time.
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In the case of this particular enterprise, what’s one thing you’ve got discovered significantly difficult and/or shocking that individuals who get into the sort of work needs to be ready for, however seemingly 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 seemingly 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 usually lack the community and context to deal with the problem.
How lengthy did it take you to see constant month-to-month income? How a lot did the aspect hustle earn?
My aspect hustle grew to become a full-time place in 2022. That was once we had been beginning to go from farmer’s markets doing about $1,000 to $2,000 monthly to our canned beverage enterprise that started doing $10,000 monthly in our first yr. This was sufficient traction to understand that we had been onto one thing.
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What does development and income appear to be now?
Development is considerably extra aggressive now that we raised our sequence 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 what you are promoting 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 contains assembly with my crew members of their respective departments, doing enterprise growth (pitching us for brand new gross sales alternatives) and caring for miscellaneous administrative duties throughout the corporate. Each week, I’m centered on getting one to a few 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 element of my position, as all our traders in the end attain out to me for any alternatives or questions.
My traditional Monday by 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. – fitness center, sauna, meditate
- 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Bawi HQ
I’m often pulled into occasions on the weekend and have one or two calls with traders or crew members. Small groups are efficient however require extra administration and that is merely the stage we’re at proper now.
I additionally wish to be aware that I’m vehemently towards extreme hustle tradition. You may work onerous and handle your self on the identical time. In truth, caring for your self makes you higher at your job. This schedule works for me, after attempting each amalgamation of a morning routine and work day potential. That is all topic to alter with time; it is vital to work onerous however not be so inflexible in your life-style. Every little thing carefully, even moderation.
What do you get pleasure from most about operating this enterprise?
Each can of Bawi is a vessel of tradition. We’re reshaping attitudes round Hispanicity, cultural innovation and illustration. I really get pleasure from being on the forefront of shaping the panorama of how my neighborhood interacts with our delicacies. It has been fantastic to obtain messages from my hispanic shoppers who really feel seen by our bundle design and heard by our dietary profiles. We’re inflicting the trade to alter for the higher, one Bawi at a time.
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What’s your greatest piece of particular, actionable enterprise recommendation?
Decide the suitable alternative to pursue. Many entrepreneurs embark on their journey with grandiose ambitions of scaling a seven-figure firm into an enormous exit. These alternatives solely exist if there may be distinctive product-market match and best-in-class execution. The TAM (whole addressable market) for the chance must be sufficiently big to draw a big market. Earlier than even starting the fundraising dialog, you should make sure that your innovation matches 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 progressive sufficient to be price pursuing.
This is not to remove from the fervour behind an entrepreneurial concept that captivates somebody; that is simply vital context and perspective earlier than embarking on this journey. As quickly as you elevate capital to your idea, it’s important to do proper by your backers and pursue the chance aggressively. For example, if I had been pitched an Ashwaganda-infused probiotic Zebra milk, I might take pause. The beverage marketplace for Zebra milk would not appear compelling sufficient to pursue. Suppose lengthy and onerous about how progressive 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® sequence highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of being a younger enterprise proprietor.
