It is the period of the side 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, based on latest analysis from Bankrate. After all, probably the most profitable aspect hustlers see a lot larger earnings, particularly after they start a business that brings in practically as a lot as — or considerably greater than — their full-time sources of earnings.
Victor Guardiola, 27, of Austin, Texas, is one in every of them. Be taught 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 once 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 staff. 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 in your aspect hustle turned full-time enterprise?
There have been two main the explanation why I began Bawi. First, the nostalgic Mexican drinks my group and I had been ingesting 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 tens of millions of Latinos. This lack of well being innovation was a powerful motivator to deliver a novel better-for-you, culturally related product to market. The second motivator was the shortage of cultural illustration within the CPG trade.
Picture Credit score: Garnish Studios
The fee to begin a bodily items firm could be very excessive, and this ends in much less participation from minority teams who discover it way more troublesome to fund their startup. Almost all startup funding comes from associates and households, and when you might have 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. Because of this you typically discover culturally obtuse merchandise created from a board room as various as a summer time within the Hamptons, competing in opposition to minority teams who’re attempting to symbolize 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 vital 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 few of the first steps you took to get your small business off the bottom?
Beginning a enterprise for anybody is tumultuous. The most important hurdle for many entrepreneurs in my class is fundraising. In an effort to have an investable enterprise, we needed to present indicators of traction. We shortly launched into farmers markets to test the product-market fit. Nick Mares from Kettle & Fireplace really 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 throughout the beverage class. We spent about six months within the farmers markets tweaking the components, attempting to generate money to fund the enterprise, then the pandemic reared its head and on-site consumption was now not allowed.
We needed to pivot as I used to be starting my function on the startup that might in the end change my life. I discovered 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 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 vital subject-matter consultants and notable names within the trade. I had adopted up with my preliminary batch of buyers not less than a dozen occasions earlier than I acquired a response — and that was a tough ability to study. I discovered so as to add worth to each comply with 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 network is one factor, however I might not relaxation your laurels on an accelerator altering the trajectory of your small business. Many of those packages supply accounting or finance workshops, and after 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 in a position to get to the following threshold with out exterior funding.
Probably 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 attainable for somebody to select up the telephone or reply your electronic mail. You must 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 desires 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 network from zero is remarkably troublesome for first-generation immigrants, but when I can do it…anybody definitely can. Fundraising and networking are abilities identical to the rest.
In case you might return in your small business journey and alter one course of or method, what would it not be, and the way do you want you’d executed it in another way?
I want that I might have employed the suitable individuals sooner, even when they had been a bit dearer. These early-stage hires have an amazing impression on the trajectory of the enterprise, and having the improper individuals concerned can hamstring you in such profound methods. Each entrepreneur ought to consider the following rent sooner. The price of having the improper individuals concerned in your staff is very excessive at an early stage. If anybody is inflicting friction within the enterprise and never including worth, you want to transfer on. The price of letting somebody go solely compounds with time.
On the subject of this particular enterprise, what’s one thing you’ve got discovered notably difficult and/or shocking that individuals who get into any such work must be ready for, however probably aren’t?
The sheer quantity of relationships to handle within the CPG business is immense. Scaling a enterprise requires you to level your consideration on the proper issues, as you probably do not have the staff 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 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 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 progress and income appear like now?
Development is considerably extra aggressive now that we raised our collection seed final yr and added a couple of essential staff members. We had our greatest month in March 2025, broke that document once more in Might and are on observe to surpass seven figures this yr.
Picture Credit score: Garnish Studios
How a lot time do you spend engaged on your small business on a every day, weekly or month-to-month foundation? How do you construction that point; what does a typical day or week of labor appear like for you?
At a minimal, I’m engaged on Bawi roughly 50 hours per week. My typical day consists of assembly with my staff members of their respective departments, doing enterprise improvement (pitching us for brand new gross sales alternatives) and taking good care of 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 part of my function, as all our buyers in the end attain out to me for any alternatives or questions.
My normal 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. – gymnasium, 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 staff members. Small groups are efficient however require extra administration and that is merely the stage we’re at proper now.
I additionally need to be aware that I’m vehemently in opposition to extreme hustle tradition. You may work exhausting 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 attempting each amalgamation of a morning routine and work day attainable. That is all topic to alter with time; it is vital to work exhausting however not be so inflexible in your life-style. Every little thing moderately, even moderation.
What do you get pleasure from 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 really get pleasure from being on the forefront of shaping the panorama of how my group interacts with our delicacies. It has been fantastic to obtain messages from my hispanic customers who really feel seen by our package deal design and heard by our dietary profiles. We’re inflicting the trade to alter for the higher, one Bawi at a time.
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’s distinctive product-market match and best-in-class execution. The TAM (complete addressable market) for the chance must be large enough to draw a big market. Earlier than even starting the fundraising dialog, you want to be 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 would 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 obligatory context and perspective earlier than embarking on this journey. As quickly as you raise capital in 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 would take pause. The beverage marketplace for Zebra milk would not appear compelling sufficient to pursue. Suppose lengthy and exhausting 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.
