This Aspect 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 mission in a Denver house 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 finest pals throughout our junior yr 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.
Once 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 marketing 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 the early phases of enterprise, however I had one foot out the door, pulling me towards my calling of being my very own entrepreneur.
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, learning to code, dealing with threat evaluation, dabbling in advertising and marketing and development… his managers had been always respiratory down his neck to “JUST FOCUS” on “his principal position.” Neither of us had been proud of 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 might resolve my very own shopper want. I had a hunch this downside would resonate with individuals like me.
What had been among 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 substances that would exchange plastic, endocrine-disrupting formulation. With out a lick of chemistry or cooking expertise to my identify, I started ordering waxes, clays, oils and different botanical substances and began mixing them on my stovetop.
Luckily 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 pals do the identical and provides me suggestions and bizarre sufficient to be unbothered by my roommate, Ben telling me how bizarre I’m… quickly to develop into 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 embody: Klaviyo for e mail advertising and marketing, 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 look like Rembrandt.
Whiteside: Ben lined a lot of the paid ones. Without cost, the very best useful resource we tapped into was our well mannered persistence in demanding assist from different enterprise builders. Individuals usually wish 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.
In case you may return in your online business journey and alter one course of or method, what wouldn’t it be, and the way do you want you’d finished it otherwise?
Whiteside: I believe Highland will get excessive marks for doing this early, however I want we might finished it even earlier. Get very critical about your unit economics from day one. Be taught what your gross margins are. Make a plan for the way you’ll convey down COGs over time, and know that each penny counts. Get critical about your funds, and determine how and when you may make your online business worthwhile. For now, the times of elevating capital and determining tips on how to develop into worthwhile later are gone, as are a lot of the companies that took this route.
Some of the magical days of Highland was when the June 2023 books closed, and we had $113 in revenue. We would discovered tips on how to make the enterprise self-sustaining, and that meant our runway was limitless. Become profitable, do not die, then determine tips on how to 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 have discovered significantly difficult and/or shocking that individuals who get into this sort of work must be ready for, however probably aren’t?
Medalie: Formulations (of any form, 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 could be completely different, we bumped into points left and proper. Our substances are unstable and misbehaving; early batches would differ vastly, they usually had a a lot shorter shelf life than the merchandise we had been going up towards. A number of occasions, we misplaced hundreds of items to failed batches, went out of inventory consequently and questioned if it was all value it. In the long run, we broke by 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 improper? How did you repair it?
Whiteside: We have by no means raised a multi-million-dollar spherical — at the 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 marketing spend. Nonetheless, we weren’t too fearful. We had three months of runway and what felt like the proper investor lined up — somebody prepared to jot down the complete examine and convey business experience and mentorship that Ben and I had solely ever hoped for. We had been set. Till, out of the blue, we weren’t.
The method dragged on for months. Our checking account drained. The deal in the end fell by. 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 for dropping the corporate, and it was a intestine examine.
Medalie: So, we scrambled. We raised much less capital than we had deliberate, however we made it work. We stored a assured entrance for our buyers, bought lean and stayed scrappy. Trying again, it was among the best issues that would’ve occurred. It pressured us to show our path to changing into cash-flow optimistic and helped us retain extra possession. However it was a hard-earned lesson: Fundraising is not actual till the cash hits the financial institution. And irrespective of how promising a deal seems to be, you may’t construct a enterprise on potential alone.
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 per 30 days) 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 side hustle in all probability generated a mean 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 practically two years straight. It isn’t a race. Grow to be an in a single day success in 5 to 10 years.
What do you get pleasure from most about working this enterprise?
Medalie: Actually, scorching take… getting to do that entire factor with the individuals we love and cherish most in life. Individuals all the time warn towards moving into enterprise with finest pals or household, however this half has been essentially the most enjoyable. Each single day is completely different, and attending to see your self and pals 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 function, fixing difficult issues with my finest good friend and co-founder and selecting our personal journey in each side of what we do. Being your own boss is NOT an overrated a part of being an entrepreneur. It is extremely onerous, but it surely’s additionally the very best.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Highland
What’s your finest piece of particular, actionable enterprise recommendation?
Whiteside: Getting began is commonly the toughest half, but when somebody has, I might supply a chunk of recommendation from my pricey good friend and Shopbop founder, Bob Lamey: “Beware the incoming name.” It means to be laser-focused on what you assume the roadmap is for your online business and striving towards these targets with intention. Many emails, cellphone calls, pitches and day-to-day duties develop into a distraction from what it’s worthwhile to be engaged on.
This doesn’t suggest to disregard alternatives as they come up — it’s a name to define your vision and maintain your self accountable in working to convey it to life. You realize what it’s worthwhile to be doing; do not let the noise distract you.
