It is the period of the facet hustle, and in the event you’ve ever thought of beginning one to earn some additional money outdoors of your 9-5, you are in good firm. Nowadays, greater than one-third of U.S. adults have facet hustles, and their supplemental gigs make a median of $891 a month, in accordance with latest analysis from Bankrate. After all, probably the most profitable facet hustlers see a lot greater 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. Be taught extra about Guardiola’s business trip, right here. Responses have been edited for size and readability.
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What was your day job or main occupation if you began your facet 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 workforce. 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 facet 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 thousands and thousands of Latinos. This lack of well being innovation was a robust 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 price to begin a bodily items firm may be very excessive, and this ends in much less participation from minority teams who discover it way more tough to fund their startup. Practically all startup funding comes from buddies and households, and when you’ve gotten 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 in a position to scale their merchandise are not often from the communities of the merchandise’ origin. Which means you typically discover culturally obtuse merchandise created from a board room as various 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 broad 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 components. After taking the idea by 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 among the first steps you took to get your corporation off the bottom?
Beginning a enterprise for anybody is tumultuous. The most important hurdle for many entrepreneurs in my class is fundraising. So as to have an investable enterprise, we needed to present indicators of traction. We rapidly launched into farmers markets to check the product-market match. Nick Mares from Kettle & Hearth 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 revolutionary inside 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.
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We needed to pivot as I used to be starting my position on the startup that will in the end change my life. I discovered 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 give up my job and pursue this full-time. After Patrick, many different buyers 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 increase capital for Bawi and add extra vital subject-matter specialists and notable names within the trade. I had adopted up with my preliminary batch of buyers at the least a dozen occasions earlier than I obtained a response — and that was a tough talent to be taught. I discovered so as to add worth to every comply with up, nurture relationships and create win-win outcomes for all stakeholders.
Are there any free or paid sources 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 applications and pitch competitions do not converse 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 corporation. Many of those applications 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 outdoors 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 simple as attainable for somebody to choose up the telephone or reply your electronic mail. You should construct a golden bridge for others to stroll throughout, and also you try this by having a small ask (quarter-hour of your time) and being direct and concise. It’s way more efficient to succeed in 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 happy 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 expertise similar to the rest.
In case you may return in your corporation journey and alter one course of or strategy, what would it not be, and the way do you would like you’d achieved it in a different way?
I want that I’d have employed the proper folks sooner, even when they had been a bit dearer. These early-stage hires have an incredible influence on the trajectory of the enterprise, and having the incorrect folks concerned can hamstring you in such profound methods. Each entrepreneur ought to consider the following rent sooner. The price of having the incorrect folks concerned in your workforce is awfully excessive at an early stage. If anybody is inflicting friction within the enterprise and never including worth, you’ll want to transfer on. The price of letting somebody go solely compounds with time.
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On the subject of this particular enterprise, what’s one thing you have discovered notably difficult and/or shocking that individuals who get into one of these work ought to be ready for, however possible 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 possible do not have the workforce 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 difficulty.
How lengthy did it take you to see constant month-to-month income? How a lot did the facet hustle earn?
My facet 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 appreciate that we had been onto one thing.
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What does development and income appear like now?
Progress is considerably extra aggressive now that we raised our sequence seed final yr and added just a few necessary workforce 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 corporation 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 workforce 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 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 element of my position, as all our buyers in the end attain out to me for any alternatives or questions.
My common 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. – health club, 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 buyers or workforce 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 towards extreme hustle tradition. You possibly can work onerous and deal with your self on the similar time. In truth, 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 vary with time; it is important to work onerous however not be so inflexible in your way of life. All the pieces carefully, even moderation.
What do you take pleasure in 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 actually take pleasure in 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 vary for the higher, one Bawi at a time.
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What’s your greatest piece of particular, actionable enterprise recommendation?
Choose the proper 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 may be distinctive product-market match and best-in-class execution. The TAM (whole addressable market) for the chance must be large enough to draw a big market. Earlier than even starting the fundraising dialog, you’ll want to be certain that your innovation matches a big sufficient alternative to be value pursuing. I began formally internet hosting workplace hours for minority entrepreneurs final yr, and I would say lower than 5% have a enterprise revolutionary sufficient to be value pursuing.
This is not to remove from the eagerness behind an entrepreneurial concept that captivates somebody; that is simply crucial context and perspective earlier than embarking on this journey. As quickly as you increase 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 would take pause. The beverage marketplace for Zebra milk does not appear compelling sufficient to pursue. Suppose lengthy and onerous about how revolutionary 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.
