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 pals 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 staff, and the corporate was struggling exhausting to ascertain 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, studying to code, dealing with threat evaluation, dabbling in advertising and progress… his managers had been always respiration down his neck to “JUST FOCUS” on “his predominant position.” Neither of us had been proud of these profession trajectories.
Sick of the archaic legacy manufacturers that dominated the hair styling house with low-cost, chemical-based formulations and wasteful packaging, and unsuccessful in my seek for a model that was disrupting the trade, I stumbled into an thought that will remedy my very own shopper want. I had a hunch this drawback 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 would exchange 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.
Thankfully I’ve at all times 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 peculiar 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 assets which were particularly useful for you in beginning and operating this enterprise?
Medalie: Some tech standouts embody: 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 appear and feel like Rembrandt.
Whiteside: Ben lined a lot of the paid ones. Free of charge, the perfect useful resource we tapped into was our well mannered persistence in demanding assist from different enterprise builders. Individuals typically wish to assist, however you may’t be afraid to ask. We not too long ago 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.
When you might return in your corporation journey and alter one course of or strategy, what wouldn’t it be, and the way do you would like you’d performed it in another way?
Whiteside: I feel Highland will get excessive marks for doing this early, however I want we would performed it even earlier. Get very severe about your unit economics from day one. Be taught what your gross margins are. Make a plan for a way you’ll convey down COGs over time, and know that each penny counts. Get severe about your funds, and work out how and when you may make your corporation worthwhile. For now, the times of elevating capital and determining develop into worthwhile later are gone, as are a lot of the companies that took this route.
Probably the most magical days of Highland was when the June 2023 books closed, and we had $113 in revenue. We might found out make the enterprise self-sustaining, and that meant our runway was limitless. Develop into worthwhile, do not die, then work out successfully scale.
But additionally, no regrets. The journey was the journey, and it formed us. Let yours form you.
Relating to this particular enterprise, what’s one thing you have discovered significantly difficult and/or stunning that individuals who get into any such work ought to be ready for, however doubtless aren’t?
Medalie: Formulations (of any type, however particularly in magnificence) which can be really pure are extremely exhausting to get proper. We discovered quick why all of those that got here earlier than us lower 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 elements are unstable and misbehaving; early batches would fluctuate tremendously, they usually had a a lot shorter shelf life than the merchandise we had been going up towards. A number of occasions, we misplaced 1000’s of models to failed batches, went out of inventory in consequence and questioned if it was all price it. Ultimately, 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 selected occasion when one thing went very flawed? How did you repair it?
Whiteside: We have by no means raised a multi-million-dollar spherical — not less than, not but — however that hasn’t spared us from dealing with severe 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 decreasing our losses and slowly ramped up our advertising spend. Nonetheless, we weren’t too apprehensive. We had three months of runway and what felt like the right investor lined up — somebody prepared to jot down the complete test and convey trade 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 finally fell by. We needed to cease paying ourselves, lower bills to the bone, delay progress plans and pressure relationships with our manufacturing companions. It was the primary time we actually confronted the opportunity of dropping the corporate, and it was a intestine test.
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 traders, received lean and stayed scrappy. Wanting again, it was among the best issues that would’ve occurred. It compelled us to show our path to changing into cash-flow constructive 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 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 progress and income seem like now?
Whitside and Medalie: We did not begin incomes constant month-to-month income ($10,000-$20,000 per thirty days) till mid-2023. The aspect hustle kicked off all the best way again in 2021, when Ben and I had been making the batches of our Glacial Clay Pomade in our KitchenAid mixer, packing the models by hand and promoting them on our Shopify storefront and to a few salons and barbershops. The aspect hustle most likely 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 practically two years straight. It is not a race. Develop into an in a single day success in 5 to 10 years.
What do you get pleasure from most about operating this enterprise?
Medalie: Truthfully, scorching take… getting to do that entire factor with the folks we love and cherish most in life. Individuals at all times warn towards moving into enterprise with greatest pals or household, however this half has been probably 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 goal, fixing difficult issues with my greatest good friend and co-founder and selecting our personal journey in each aspect of what we do. Being your individual boss is NOT an overrated a part of being an entrepreneur. It is extremely exhausting, but it surely’s additionally the perfect.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Highland
What’s your greatest piece of particular, actionable enterprise recommendation?
Whiteside: Getting began is commonly the toughest half, but when somebody has, I might provide a bit of recommendation from my expensive good friend and Shopbop founder, Bob Lamey: “Beware the incoming name.” It means to be laser-focused on what you suppose the roadmap is for your corporation and striving towards these objectives with intention. Many emails, telephone calls, pitches and day-to-day duties develop into a distraction from what you recognize it’s good to be engaged on.
This doesn’t suggest 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 convey it to life. You realize what it’s good to be doing; do not let the noise distract you.
