30 Real Side Hustle Examples and How They Started
Stories of how simple insights turned into global businesses
Coming up with a side hustle idea often feels like guesswork, but in reality most successful projects start from a clear spark: a personal problem, an inefficiency spotted in daily life, or an experiment launched with minimal resources. In our guide on how to find side hustle ideas that actually work, we explored frameworks to find inspiration.
Here, we make things practical. We’ve gathered 30 real stories of side hustles that grew into meaningful businesses. Each example explains where the idea came from, how it was validated at the start, and where it is today.
💡 This article is part of Side Hustles & Businesses — a series of practical guides to help you start and grow your next project.
If you’re reading this, you might also want to check out:
The Most Profitable Side Hustles Depend on This Math (Not Just Ideas)
The 13 Most Common Side Hustle Categories (and How They Compare)
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Gig & Asset-Based Starts
Airbnb
Description: Global home-sharing platform.
How the idea was born: In 2007, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia couldn’t pay rent in San Francisco. During a design conference, hotels were sold out, so they offered air mattresses in their apartment to attendees. This revealed a huge unmet need for flexible lodging.
MVP / Early traction: Created “Air Bed & Breakfast,” a simple site with photos of their apartment. First guests paid $80 each.
Where they are today: Millions of listings in 190+ countries, IPO in 2020.
Initial capital: Funded early days with credit cards and novelty cereal sales before raising VC.
Turo
Description: Peer-to-peer car rentals.
How the idea was born: Founder Shelby Clark realized cars are unused 95% of the time but still cost money. The insight: people might rent out personal vehicles if given a safe platform.
MVP / Early traction: Early listings tested in Boston showed willingness from both owners and renters.
Where they are today: Largest peer-to-peer car-sharing platform in the US.
Initial capital: Early angel funding supported platform growth.
TaskRabbit
Description: Platform for outsourcing errands.
How the idea was born: Leah Busque ran out of dog food one night and wished she could pay someone nearby to help. This frustration became the basis for outsourcing small tasks.
MVP / Early traction: Started in Boston by connecting neighbors for errands.
Where they are today: Acquired by IKEA in 2017, integrated with its services.
Initial capital: Bootstrapped before raising seed funding.
Lime
Description: Shared electric scooters.
How the idea was born: Founders noticed short urban trips were too long for walking but too short for cars. The idea: dockless scooters that people could rent for minutes.
MVP / Early traction: Launched with a small fleet in San Mateo to measure usage and vandalism risk.
Where they are today: Operating in 100+ cities worldwide.
Initial capital: Raised $12M Series A after pilot traction.
Spinlister
Description: Peer-to-peer bike rentals.
How the idea was born: Inspired by unused bikes in urban areas, the founders envisioned a sharing economy for cyclists.
MVP / Early traction: First listings tested in cycling communities.
Where they are today: Grew internationally but shut down after acquisitions, still validated the niche.
Initial capital: Early seed funding supported rollout.
Freelancing & Services
Fiverr
Description: Freelance services marketplace.
How the idea was born: Founders saw how negotiations slowed down small jobs online. Their bold idea: make all services $5, treating them like products.
MVP / Early traction: At launch, every gig was $5, which generated buzz and rapid adoption.
Where they are today: Public company with millions of users.
Initial capital: Raised $1M seed after early growth.
Upwork (Elance/oDesk)
Description: Global freelance platform.
How the idea was born: Born from the need to outsource small projects remotely, enabling access to global talent.
MVP / Early traction: Simple project postings matched with freelancers worldwide.
Where they are today: One of the largest freelance marketplaces.
Initial capital: Venture funding helped scale operations.
Flexport
Description: Digital freight forwarding.
How the idea was born: Founder Ryan Petersen worked as a consultant for small importers and realized logistics was inefficient, opaque, and paperwork-heavy.
MVP / Early traction: Offered services as a consultant before building software.
Where they are today: Unicorn with billions in valuation.
Initial capital: Bootstrapped consulting evolved into venture-backed startup.
Teachable
Description: Platform for online courses.
How the idea was born: Ankur Nagpal built a site for a single instructor and realized many teachers lacked tools to monetize courses.
MVP / Early traction: Prototype platform where instructors could upload lessons and sell.
Where they are today: Acquired by Hotmart, leading in online education.
Initial capital: Raised $1.5M early seed.
Duolingo
Description: Gamified language learning.
How the idea was born: Co-founder Luis von Ahn wanted to teach languages while crowdsourcing translations for websites, merging two needs.
MVP / Early traction: Beta version tested gamified lessons with real users.
Where they are today: Public company, 500M+ downloads.
Initial capital: Backed early by investors including Union Square Ventures.
Content & Media
YouTube
Description: Video-sharing platform.
How the idea was born: The founders were frustrated that sharing home videos via email or existing sites was nearly impossible. They set out to make it easy.
MVP / Early traction: First uploads were personal clips shared with friends.
Where they are today: 2B+ monthly users, acquired by Google.
Initial capital: Seeded with $11.5M from Sequoia early on.
The Hustle
Description: Business media newsletter.
How the idea was born: Sam Parr organized events and realized attendees wanted business news in a similar casual tone. The idea: deliver it by email.
MVP / Early traction: A daily email list, tested on event attendees.
Where they are today: Acquired by HubSpot in 2021.
Initial capital: Bootstrapped from event profits.
Morning Brew
Description: Daily business newsletter.
How the idea was born: Two college students started summarizing business news for peers at university, proving that young professionals craved digestible formats.
MVP / Early traction: Sent free newsletters via email to classmates.
Where they are today: 4M+ subscribers, acquired by Insider.
Initial capital: Self-funded at first.
Reddit
Description: Online community forum.
How the idea was born: Founders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian saw a gap for simple online discussions. They seeded early threads with fake accounts to show activity.
MVP / Early traction: Basic link-sharing site where users could upvote/downvote.
Where they are today: Hundreds of millions of users, IPO pending.
Initial capital: Y Combinator seed funded.
Product Hunt
Description: Platform for discovering new tools.
How the idea was born: Ryan Hoover was constantly asked about cool tools, so he started curating them in a daily email to friends.
MVP / Early traction: The email list became popular enough to evolve into a website.
Where they are today: Major launch platform for startups.
Initial capital: Funded by AngelList before acquisition.
Digital Products & Tools
Gumroad
Description: Creator marketplace for digital goods.
How the idea was born: Sahil Lavingia wanted to sell a Photoshop brush online and realized no easy tool existed. He built Gumroad in a weekend.
MVP / Early traction: First $1K came from small creators selling digital files.
Where they are today: Tens of thousands of creators selling worldwide.
Initial capital: Raised $1.1M after MVP success.
Substack
Description: Paid newsletter platform.
How the idea was born: Founders saw journalists frustrated with ad-driven media and wondered if readers would pay directly for writers they trusted.
MVP / Early traction: Ran a pilot with a few journalists to test payments.
Where they are today: Tens of thousands of writers monetize via Substack.
Initial capital: Y Combinator seed-funded.
Notion
Description: Productivity and collaboration tool.
How the idea was born: Co-founders built it for themselves, frustrated by rigid note-taking and documentation tools.
MVP / Early traction: Early no-code templates shared with small groups.
Where they are today: Valued $10B+, global adoption.
Initial capital: Venture-backed after initial traction.
Figma
Description: Collaborative design software.
How the idea was born: Founder Dylan Field believed design would move to the browser, making collaboration easier.
MVP / Early traction: Prototype showed real-time collaboration in design.
Where they are today: Acquired by Adobe for $20B (pending).
Initial capital: Seeded by early-stage VC.
Roam Research
Description: Note-taking app with networked thinking.
How the idea was born: Conor White-Sullivan built it to solve his own problem with academic note-taking and linking concepts.
MVP / Early traction: Early adopters in knowledge management built a cult following.
Where they are today: Small but dedicated user base, profitable niche.
Initial capital: Bootstrapped.
E-commerce & Product Brands
Shopify
Description: E-commerce infrastructure platform.
How the idea was born: Founder Tobias Lütke wanted to sell snowboards online but existing tools were terrible, so he built his own store software.
MVP / Early traction: The snowboard shop pivoted to software after others asked to use it.
Where they are today: Powers millions of stores, $100B+ market cap.
Initial capital: Bootstrapped before VC.
Gymshark
Description: Fitness apparel brand.
How the idea was born: Ben Francis sewed fitness apparel in his garage and promoted it through YouTube influencers before influencer marketing was mainstream.
MVP / Early traction: First sales came from small creator shoutouts.
Where they are today: Global sportswear company valued over $1B.
Initial capital: Self-funded at the start.
Warby Parker
Description: Affordable glasses brand.
How the idea was born: Four Wharton students were frustrated by the $700 price tag for glasses and saw an opportunity for affordable, stylish alternatives online.
MVP / Early traction: “Home Try-On” of five frames proved trust and demand.
Where they are today: Public company, hundreds of stores.
Initial capital: Seed funded before launch.
Glossier
Description: Beauty brand built from community.
How the idea was born: Emily Weiss grew a blog community (IntoTheGloss) and realized readers wanted products shaped by their input, not dictated by big brands.
MVP / Early traction: Launched with four community-chosen products.
Where they are today: Valued over $1B, major DTC player.
Initial capital: Raised $2M early on.
Beardbrand
Description: Grooming products brand.
How the idea was born: Founder Eric Bandholz built a community around beard care via YouTube and blogs, then realized followers would buy branded products.
MVP / Early traction: First grooming kits sold through the community.
Where they are today: Multi-million revenue brand.
Initial capital: Bootstrapped.
Communities & Membership
Patreon
Description: Membership platform for creators.
How the idea was born: Musician Jack Conte was frustrated by low YouTube ad revenue and thought: what if fans could pay a monthly fee directly to artists?
MVP / Early traction: Simple site where his own fans subscribed.
Where they are today: Millions of patrons support hundreds of thousands of creators.
Initial capital: Angel-funded.
Circle
Description: Paid community platform.
How the idea was born: Founders saw Slack groups being hacked into paid communities and thought: build a tool designed for this use case.
MVP / Early traction: Piloted with creator communities migrating from Slack.
Where they are today: Growing SaaS for memberships.
Initial capital: Raised seed after early traction.
Indie Hackers
Description: Community for bootstrapped founders.
How the idea was born: Courtland Allen began interviewing indie founders and realized transparency resonated deeply, building trust and traffic.
MVP / Early traction: Blog of interviews turned into community discussions.
Where they are today: Acquired by Stripe, active community hub.
Initial capital: Bootstrapped.
Khan Academy
Description: Free online education nonprofit.
How the idea was born: Salman Khan started making YouTube math tutorials for his cousin, and strangers began watching them. The unexpected demand showed a need for free education.
MVP / Early traction: Early YouTube videos gained millions of views.
Where they are today: Nonprofit serving millions of students globally.
Initial capital: Supported by donations and the Gates Foundation.
Stack Overflow
Description: Developer Q&A community.
How the idea was born: Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood, frustrated with poor programming forums, built a better Q&A system.
MVP / Early traction: Launched as a free site where developers could upvote answers.
Where they are today: The go-to platform for developers, acquired by Prosus.
Initial capital: Seed funded.
FAQs
How do side hustle ideas usually start?Most come from solving a personal problem, spotting inefficiency, or testing a quick experiment.
Do I need capital to start? Not always. Many cases here (Airbnb, Gumroad, Khan Academy) started with little or no money.
Which side hustles scale best? Digital products, communities, and content/media scale fastest because they’re not tied to hours worked.
What’s the biggest mistake? Copying hype without solving a real need, or skipping small tests before scaling.