This Aspect Hustle Highlight Q&A options New York Metropolis-based buddies and co-founders Millie Blumka, 31, and Taylor Borenstein, 31. The pair began a facet hustle in 2021 referred to as Stakt, an adaptable exercise equipment model.
Blumka was a director of name partnerships at Showfields and Borenstein was a product implementation supervisor at Bloomberg after they invested about $50,000 of their private financial savings into the enterprise. The co-founders have since grown it from a two-person operation to a profitable enterprise on monitor for $10 million in income in 2025 because it scales throughout Amazon, DTC and B2B.
Learn precisely how they did it, right here.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Stakt. Taylor Borenstein, left, and Millie Blumka, proper.
Responses have been edited for size and readability.
When did you begin your facet hustle, and the place did you discover the inspiration for it?
Blumka and Borenstein: We had the thought for Stakt again in 2020 when house exercises turned the norm and our outdated yoga mats simply weren’t slicing it. We would have liked extra help and flexibility for the number of exercises we had been doing like sculpt and pilates, and we could not discover a mat that would sustain. We discovered inspiration by our personal private want and noticing many trainers we seemed as much as had been rolling their mat in half to get additional help…we knew there needed to be a greater approach.
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What had been a few of the first steps you took to get your facet hustle off the bottom? How a lot cash/funding did it take to launch?
Blumka and Borenstein: Neither of us had began a enterprise earlier than, not to mention created a product, so step one was lots of networking. We spoke with buddies of buddies to attempt to perceive the way you even go about making a product. We additionally did lots of surveying to grasp if this was an “us” drawback or if different folks had been battling this, too. We every invested $25,000 of our personal financial savings to get the enterprise off the bottom and have invested earnings ever since.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Stakt
In the event you may return in your enterprise journey and alter one course of or method, what would it not be, and the way do you would like you’d finished it otherwise?
Blumka: If I may return, I would most likely set up our lanes a lot earlier. At first, we each tried to the touch all the things and be palms on for each facet of the enterprise. As soon as we outlined who owned what, issues turned a lot smoother. Having these roles in place earlier would have saved us lots of time.
Borenstein: I most likely would have employed customer support help sooner, as we spent lots of our time on buyer expertise once we may have spent it constructing the enterprise.
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In relation to this particular enterprise, what’s one thing you have discovered notably difficult and/or stunning that individuals who get into one of these work must be ready for, however doubtless aren’t?
Borenstein: Earlier than beginning a client model, I had all the time thought, How exhausting may or not it’s if in case you have an excellent product? It seems the product is simply step one: Rising a enterprise takes a ton of self-discipline, exhausting work, networking and efforts throughout all verticals to actually make it profitable.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Stakt
Are you able to recall a particular occasion when one thing went very mistaken — how did you repair it?
Blumka: We as soon as had a whole container of stock arrive broken, and we did not really feel snug promoting it. As a substitute, we donated the mats to native organizations and used them for group occasions. It left us out of inventory for some time, so we leaned on pre-orders and reframed the problem as a advertising alternative.
How lengthy did it take you to see constant month-to-month income? How a lot did the facet hustle earn?
Blumka: We did not pay ourselves till we determined it was time to make Stakt our full-time jobs as an alternative of only a facet hustle.
Borenstein: It took a couple of 12 months earlier than issues leveled out and we noticed constant month-to-month income. For the primary 12 months, there have been good months, nice months and dangerous months — ultimately it turned extra constant and simpler to foretell.
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What does progress and income seem like now?
Blumka and Borenstein: We’re on monitor to do $10 million in income this 12 months — doubling what we did in 2024.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Stakt
What do you take pleasure in most about operating your enterprise?
Blumka: The mix of creativity and group. I like taking an concept and turning it into one thing folks genuinely join with. That mentioned, the true reward is seeing our merchandise out within the wild, with folks truly utilizing and loving them. Constructing group round motion and wellness has been probably the most fulfilling half. Plus, doing it alongside my greatest buddy is the largest bonus.
Borenstein: Sooner or later, this actually stopped feeling like work. Stakt is an extension of me and my household, and each day I get to work with my greatest buddy and my husband (whom we employed final 12 months). I like that I could make my very own schedule, my exhausting work is rewarded with the expansion of my very own enterprise, I meet superior folks, and I get the chance to design new merchandise and see them come to life.
“Chaos is a part of the journey.”
Primarily based in your journey up to now, what’s your greatest recommendation for aspiring founders?
Blumka: There’ll by no means be an ideal time, excellent product or excellent plan, however you must begin someplace. There’ll all the time be a motive to attend, however the true progress begins when you launch. That is when you may adapt, be taught and develop.
Borenstein: Everybody can have recommendation, however belief your intestine — there isn’t any single playbook. And keep in mind, nobody has all of it found out; the chaos is a part of the journey.
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This Aspect Hustle Highlight Q&A options New York Metropolis-based buddies and co-founders Millie Blumka, 31, and Taylor Borenstein, 31. The pair began a facet hustle in 2021 referred to as Stakt, an adaptable exercise equipment model.
Blumka was a director of name partnerships at Showfields and Borenstein was a product implementation supervisor at Bloomberg after they invested about $50,000 of their private financial savings into the enterprise. The co-founders have since grown it from a two-person operation to a profitable enterprise on monitor for $10 million in income in 2025 because it scales throughout Amazon, DTC and B2B.
Learn precisely how they did it, right here.
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