This Facet Hustle Highlight Q&A options Colorado-based entrepreneurs Boone Whiteside, 29, and Ben Medalie, 28. Whiteside and Medalie are the co-founders of Highland, a haircare model that began as a DIY ardour challenge in a Denver condominium and has grown into an eight-figure enterprise in three years. Responses have been edited for size and readability.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Highland. Boone Whiteside, left, and Ben Medalie, proper.
When did you begin your aspect hustle, and the place did you discover the inspiration for it?
Whiteside: When Ben and I grew to become greatest mates throughout our junior 12 months at CU Boulder, one of many issues that introduced us shut was our shared aspiration of constructing our personal factor — in not strolling a 9-5 path engaged on another person’s dream. This shared ardour would not manifest till a lot later, although.
After I first began dreaming of a hair product firm that went past styling one’s hair with poisonous sh*t, I used to be working at an ecommerce startup in a advertising and operations position. We had been a small crew, and the corporate was struggling onerous to determine itself. I discovered a ton about problem-solving by means of the early phases of enterprise, however I had one foot out the door, pulling me towards my calling of being my very own entrepreneur.
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Ben was working at a payroll tech firm in an analyst position, however the precise position modified a lot throughout his tenure as a result of he hated doing the identical factor each day. Juggling gross sales, studying to code, dealing with threat evaluation, dabbling in advertising and development… his managers had been continuously respiration down his neck to “JUST FOCUS” on “his primary position.” Neither of us had been pleased with these profession trajectories.
Sick of the archaic legacy manufacturers that dominated the hair styling area with low cost, chemical-based formulations and wasteful packaging, and unsuccessful in my seek for a model that was disrupting the business, I stumbled into an thought that may resolve my very own client want. I had a hunch this downside would resonate with folks like me.
What had been a number of the first steps you took to get the aspect hustle off the bottom?
Whiteside: The primary steps had been hitting the Google machine (BAI, or earlier than AI) to uncover naturally occurring, plant-based elements that might substitute plastic, endocrine-disrupting formulation. And not using a lick of chemistry or cooking expertise to my title, I started ordering waxes, clays, oils and different botanical elements and began mixing them on my stovetop.
Happily I’ve all the time been a weirdo, so I used to be bizarre sufficient to start out placing these failed concoctions into my hair, bizarre sufficient to make all of my mates do the identical and provides me suggestions and peculiar sufficient to be unbothered by my roommate, Ben telling me how bizarre I’m… quickly to turn out to be a hair weirdo himself.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Highland
Are there any free or paid sources which have been particularly useful for you in beginning and working this enterprise?
Medalie: Some tech standouts embrace: Klaviyo for e-mail advertising, Shopify (and all its superior plugins) to energy our web site, Triple Whale for attribution metrics, Amped (now Mailchimp) for lead seize, Adobe Premiere for content material creation and at last Figma for making the non-designer feel and appear like Rembrandt.
Whiteside: Ben lined a lot of the paid ones. At no cost, the most effective useful resource we tapped into was our well mannered persistence in demanding assist from different enterprise builders. Individuals usually need to assist, however you may’t be afraid to ask. We lately grabbed espresso with Justin Gold, founding father of Justin’s, the peanut butter model, and he summed it up properly: “Be unreasonable.” This mentality has been instrumental in constructing an unbelievably useful community of people that have helped us construct the Highland technique from the bottom up and in avoiding errors different founders have made. So go be unreasonable — simply be well mannered about it.
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In the event you might return in your enterprise journey and alter one course of or method, what wouldn’t it be, and the way do you would like you’d carried out it otherwise?
Whiteside: I feel Highland will get excessive marks for doing this early, however I want we would carried out it even earlier. Get very critical about your unit economics from day one. Study what your gross margins are. Make a plan for the way you’ll carry down COGs over time, and know that each penny counts. Get critical about your funds, and determine how and when you may make your enterprise worthwhile. For now, the times of elevating capital and determining turn out to be worthwhile later are gone, as are a lot of the companies that took this route.
One of the crucial magical days of Highland was when the June 2023 books closed, and we had $113 in revenue. We would discovered make the enterprise self-sustaining, and that meant our runway was limitless. Change into worthwhile, do not die, then determine successfully scale.
But in addition, no regrets. The journey was the journey, and it formed us. Let yours form you.
On the subject of this particular enterprise, what’s one thing you’ve got discovered notably difficult and/or stunning that individuals who get into such a work ought to be ready for, however doubtless aren’t?
Medalie: Formulations (of any sort, however particularly in magnificence) which are actually pure are extremely onerous to get proper. We discovered quick why all of those that got here earlier than us minimize the corners they did, and we had been provided the identical formulation shortcuts that guarantee consistency and so-called “efficiency.”
In being adamant that our merchandise can be totally different, we bumped into points left and proper. Our elements are unstable and misbehaving; early batches would fluctuate enormously, they usually had a a lot shorter shelf life than the merchandise we had been going up towards. A number of instances, we misplaced 1000’s of items to failed batches, went out of inventory in consequence and questioned if it was all value it. Ultimately, we broke by means of on the opposite aspect of this problem, now redefining what innovation is feasible inside “higher for you, higher for the planet” formulation.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Highland
Are you able to recall a particular occasion when one thing went very fallacious? How did you repair it?
Whiteside: We have by no means raised a multi-million-dollar spherical — at the very least, not but — however that hasn’t spared us from dealing with critical money stream challenges. Proper after our family and friends spherical, we hit a tough patch. We had been burning about $10,000 a month as we labored towards lowering our losses and slowly ramped up our advertising spend. Nonetheless, we weren’t too fearful. We had three months of runway and what felt like the right investor lined up — somebody prepared to write down the total verify and convey business experience and mentorship that Ben and I had solely ever hoped for. We had been set. Till, instantly, we weren’t.
The method dragged on for months. Our checking account drained. The deal finally fell by means of. We needed to cease paying ourselves, minimize bills to the bone, delay development plans and pressure relationships with our manufacturing companions. It was the primary time we actually confronted the potential of dropping the corporate, and it was a intestine verify.
Medalie: So, we scrambled. We raised much less capital than we had deliberate, however we made it work. We saved a assured entrance for our buyers, obtained lean and stayed scrappy. Trying again, it was the most effective issues that might’ve occurred. It pressured us to show our path to turning into cash-flow optimistic and helped us retain extra possession. But it surely was a hard-earned lesson: Fundraising is not actual till the cash hits the financial institution. And irrespective of how promising a deal appears, you may’t construct a enterprise on potential alone.
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How lengthy did it take you to see constant month-to-month income? How a lot did the aspect hustle earn? What does development and income appear like now?
Whitside and Medalie: We did not begin incomes constant month-to-month income ($10,000-$20,000 monthly) till mid-2023. The aspect hustle kicked off all the way in which again in 2021, when Ben and I had been making the batches of our Glacial Clay Pomade in our KitchenAid mixer, packing the items by hand and promoting them on our Shopify storefront and to a few salons and barbershops. The aspect hustle in all probability generated a median of $1,000-$3,000 a month between 2021 and 2023.
Now in 2025, after launching our third-ever SKU, we hit our first million-dollar month and have been worthwhile for almost two years straight. It isn’t a race. Change into an in a single day success in 5 to 10 years.
What do you get pleasure from most about working this enterprise?
Medalie: Truthfully, sizzling take… getting to do that entire factor with the folks we love and cherish most in life. Individuals all the time warn towards stepping into enterprise with greatest mates or household, however this half has been essentially the most enjoyable. Each single day is totally different, and attending to see your self and mates develop, thrive and even fail in entrance of one another is extremely highly effective and motivating.
Whiteside: What I get pleasure from most is waking up every day with a objective, fixing difficult issues with my greatest pal and co-founder and selecting our personal journey in each side of what we do. Being your personal boss is NOT an overrated a part of being an entrepreneur. It is extremely onerous, however it’s additionally the most effective.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Highland
What’s your greatest piece of particular, actionable enterprise recommendation?
Whiteside: Getting began is usually the toughest half, but when somebody has, I would supply a chunk of recommendation from my pricey pal and Shopbop founder, Bob Lamey: “Beware the incoming name.” It means to be laser-focused on what you suppose the roadmap is for your enterprise and striving towards these objectives with intention. Many emails, telephone calls, pitches and day-to-day duties turn out to be a distraction from what you’ll want to be engaged on.
This does not imply to disregard alternatives as they come up — it’s a name to outline your imaginative and prescient and maintain your self accountable in working to carry it to life. You recognize what you’ll want to be doing; do not let the noise distract you.
