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 known as Stakt, an adaptable exercise equipment model.
Blumka was a director of brand 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 observe 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 concept for Stakt again in 2020 when house exercises grew to become the norm and our previous yoga mats simply weren’t reducing it. We would have liked extra assist and flexibility for the number of exercises we have been doing like sculpt and pilates, and we could not discover a mat that might sustain. We discovered inspiration by means of our personal private want and noticing many trainers we seemed as much as have been rolling their mat in half to get additional assist…we knew there needed to be a greater method.
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What have 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 a number of networking. We spoke with buddies of buddies to attempt to perceive the way you even go about making a product. We additionally did a number of surveying to grasp if this was an “us” downside or if different folks have been scuffling with this, too. We every invested $25,000 of our personal financial savings to get the enterprise off the bottom and have invested income ever since.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Stakt
Should you might return in your small business journey and alter one course of or strategy, what would it not be, and the way do you want you’d executed it in a different way?
Blumka: If I might return, I would in all probability set up our lanes a lot earlier. At first, we each tried to the touch every thing and be arms on for each facet of the enterprise. As soon as we outlined who owned what, issues grew to become a lot smoother. Having these roles in place earlier would have saved us a number of time.
Borenstein: I in all probability would have employed customer support assist sooner, as we spent a number of our time on buyer expertise after we might 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 shocking that individuals who get into this kind of work ought to be ready for, however possible aren’t?
Borenstein: Earlier than beginning a shopper model, I had all the time thought, How laborious might it’s when you have a great product? It seems the product is simply step one: Rising a enterprise takes a ton of self-discipline, laborious work, networking and efforts throughout all verticals to essentially make it profitable.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Stakt
Are you able to recall a selected occasion when one thing went very flawed — how did you repair it?
Blumka: We as soon as had a complete container of stock arrive broken, and we did not really feel comfy promoting it. As an alternative, 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 and marketing 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 a substitute of only a facet hustle.
Borenstein: It took a couple of yr earlier than issues leveled out and we noticed constant month-to-month income. For the primary yr, there have been good months, nice months and dangerous months — finally it grew to become extra constant and simpler to foretell.
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What does progress and income seem like now?
Blumka and Borenstein: We’re on observe to do $10 million in income this yr — doubling what we did in 2024.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Stakt
What do you take pleasure in most about working your small business?
Blumka: The mixture of creativity and group. I like taking an concept and turning it into one thing folks genuinely join with. That mentioned, the actual 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 finest good friend is the most important bonus.
Borenstein: In some unspecified time in the future, this actually stopped feeling like work. Stakt is an extension of me and my household, and daily I get to work with my finest good friend and my husband (whom we employed final yr). I like that I could make my very own schedule, my laborious 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 to this point, what’s your finest recommendation for aspiring founders?
Blumka: There’ll by no means be an ideal time, good product or good plan, however you need to begin someplace. There’ll all the time be a purpose to attend, however the actual progress begins when you launch. That is when you’ll be able to adapt, be taught and develop.
Borenstein: Everybody may have recommendation, however belief your intestine — there isn’t any single playbook. And bear in mind, nobody has all of it discovered; the chaos is a part of the journey.
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 known as Stakt, an adaptable exercise equipment model.
Blumka was a director of brand 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 observe 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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