This side Hustle Spotlight query query query with Colorado Boone Whoneside, 29) and Ben Medals, 28 years old. Whiteside and medals are co -founders HighlandThe hairstyle brand, which began as a DIY passion project in the Denver apartment and has developed for three years into an eight -digit company. The answers were edited in terms of length and clarity.
Picture Loan: Courtesy of Highland. Boone Whiteside, on the left and Ben Medalie, to the right.
When did you begin your side hustle and bustle and where did you discover inspiration for it?
Whiteside: When Ben and I became the best friends during our younger 12 months in Cu Boulder, one of the things that brought us brought us together was the pursuit of building our own things-not walking along the path 9-5 working on someone’s dream. However, this common passion wouldn’t be a manifest much later.
When for the first time I began to dream of a company about hair products that went beyond the sort of hair toxic SH*T, I worked in the E -commerce startup in the marketing and operational role. We were a small team, and the company fought hard to begin. I learned a lot of solving problems at the early stages of business, but I had one foot behind the door, attracting me to call my very own entrepreneur.
Ben worked in a technology company as a part of an analyst, but the actual role modified so much during its term because it hated making the same every day. Juggling in sales, coding learning, handling risk evaluation, marketing and development … His managers continually breathed him to “simply focus” on “his main role”. None of us were satisfied with these skilled trajectories.
The patient of archaic older brands that dominated the space for styling hair with low cost chemical preparations and prodigal packaging, and unsuccessful in search of a brand that disturbed the industry, I got here up with an idea that may solve my consumer needs. I had a feeling that this problem would resonate with people like me.
What were some of the first steps you took to get down from the side?
Whiteside: The first steps hit the Google (BAI or AI) machine to find naturally occurring, plants based on plants that might replace plastic, plundering endocrine formulas. Without licking chemistry or the impression of cooking in my name, I began ordering waxes, clays, oils and other botanical ingredients and began mixing them on my stove.
Fortunately, I used to be at all times a weirdo, so I used to be strange enough to begin putting these unsuccessful mixtures in my hair, strange enough for all my friends to do the same and give me an opinion and strange enough to be disordered by my roommate, Ben, who told me how strange I used to be … soon to turn into a freak.
Image loan: Courtesy of Highland
Are there any free or paid resources that were particularly helpful for you to begin and run this business?
Medals: Some outstanding technologies include: Klaviyo for e-mail marketing, Shopify (and all its amazing plugins) to provide our site, Triple Whale for ActiFction Metrics, Amped (currently mailchimim) for lead capture, the premiere of Adobe for creating content and finally a figure that got here out that I looked like in I feel at Rembrandt.
Whiteside: Ben covered most of the paid ones. For free, the best resource in which we used ourselves was our kind perseverance in the requirement of helping other business builders. People normally wish to help, but you may’t be afraid to ask. We recently grabbed coffee with Justin Gold, the founding father of Justin, the brand of peanut butter, and he summarized nicely: “Be unreasonable”. This mentality played a key role in building an incredibly helpful network of people that helped us build a Highland strategy from scratch and avoiding mistakes were committed by other founders. So be unjustified – just be kind.
If you might return to your online business trip and change one process or approach, what wouldn’t it be and how do you regret that you’re going to not do it in another way?
Whiteside: I think Highland has high rankings for doing it early, but I regret that we didn’t do it before. Very seriously, approach individual economics from the first day. Find out what your gross margins are. Turn the plan how you can bring COG over time and know that every penny counts. Consider your funds seriously and learn how and when you may make your organization profitable. For now, the days of raising capital have disappeared and determining how profitable are gaining, like most firms that may select this route.
One of the most magical Highland days was the closing of books at 2023 speed and we had USD 113 profit. We learned how you can make business self -sufficient, and this meant that our runway was unlimited. Become profitable, don’t die, and then come up with how you can scale effectively.
But don’t regret either. The journey was a journey and shaped us. Let your shape shape.
As for this specific business, what you think is particularly difficult and/or surprising that individuals who enter this sort of work ought to be prepared, but probably are not?
Medals: preparations (any kind, but especially in beautiful), which are really natural, are extremely difficult to do. We quickly learned why everyone who got here before us, cut the corners they did, and we were offered the same shortcuts of preparations that ensure consistency and the so -called “performance”.
Being adamant that our products shall be different, we encountered problems from the left and right. Our ingredients are unstable and behave badly; Early parties could be significantly different and have a much shorter durability period than the products you face. We have lost hundreds of units for unsuccessful parties many times, as a result we left the warehouse and asked if every part was price it. Ultimately, we broke through the other side of this challenge, now defining what innovations are possible in the wording “better for you, better for the planet”.
Image loan: Courtesy of Highland
Do you remember a specific case when something went very improper? How did you fix it?
Whiteside: We have never raised a round of many thousands and thousands of dollars-at least not yet-but it didn’t spare us from serious challenges regarding money flow. Immediately after the round of our friends and family, we hit a rough patch. We were burning about USD 10,000 per month, when we worked on reducing our losses and slowly increased our marketing expenses. Still, we didn’t worry too much. We had three months of the runway and what appeared to be an ideal investor in the queue – someone ready to jot down a full check and introduce industry knowledge and mentoring, which Ben and I just expected. We were arrange. Until we weren’t suddenly.
The trial has been going on for months. Our checking account was emptied. The contract finally collapsed. We needed to stop paying, reduce bone expenses, delay development plans and relations with our production partners. It was the first time we actually confronted the possibility of losing a company and it was intestinal control.
Medals: So we got here up. We collected less capital than planned, but we made it work. We kept a confident front for our investors, leaning down and remained catchy. Looking back, it was one of the best things that might have happened. This forced us to prove our path to obtaining a positive money flow and helped us to stay more owned. But it was a difficult lesson: collecting funds is not real until the money goes to the bank. And regardless of how promising the contract looks, you may’t build a business of the potential itself.
How long did it take you with a coherent monthly revenues? How much did the lateral hustle and bustle earn? What does growth and revenues appear to be now?
Whitside and medals: We didn’t start earning consistent monthly revenues (USD 10,000–20,000 per month) until mid -2023. The lateral hustle and bustle began in 2021, when Ben and I made the parties of our glacial clay pomade in our Kitchenaid mix, packing units manually and selling them in our Shopify store and several salons and hairdressers. The side of Hustle probably generated an average of $ 1000–3000 per month between 2021 and 2023.
Currently, in 2025, after launching our third in SKU history, we reached the first million dollars and were profitable for almost two years in a row. This is not a race. Become a success from day to 5 to 10 years.
What do you want best about running this business?
Medals: Honestly, also also … doing it with the people we love and cultivate the most in life. People at all times warn against going into business with best friends or family, but this part was the most funny. Each day is different, and seeing yourself and friends grows, develops and even fail in front of you, it is extremely powerful and motivating.
Whiteside: I prefer to get up with the goal every day, solve difficult problems with my best friend and co -founder and selecting your individual adventure in every aspect of what we do. Being your individual boss is not an overrated a part of being an entrepreneur. It’s extremely difficult, but it is also the best.
(*1*)
Image loan: Courtesy of Highland
What is your best, useful business advice?
Whiteside: The first steps are often the most difficult part, but if someone, I might offer the advice of my dear friend and founder Shopbop, Bob Lamey: “Watch out for an incoming connection.” This implies that the road map for your organization and the pursuit of those goals with intention focused on the laser about what you think is. Many e-mails, telephone connections, fields and on a regular basis tasks turn into distracted from what you know what you have to work on.
This does not mean ignoring the possibilities in which they may appear – this is a call to define your vision and get responsible for conducting her revival. You know what you have to do; Don’t let the noise disperse you.