These Friends Launched Their College Side Hustle in Just 1 Hour — Then It Hit 6 Figures a Month: 'It Was a No-Brainer' The duo had a major revelation while studying abroad — and it led to millions of dollars in sales.
By Amanda Breen Edited by Jessica Thomas
Key Takeaways
- Hyla Nayeri and Adrien Bettio wanted to bring a European trend to North America.
- A significant pivot would ultimately open up cash flow and lead to serious revenue.
It's the era of the side hustle, and if you've ever considered starting one to earn some extra cash outside of your 9-5, you're in good company. These days, more than one-third of U.S. adults have side hustles, and their supplemental gigs make an average of $891 a month, according to recent research from Bankrate. Of course, the most successful side hustlers see much higher earnings, especially when they start a business that brings in nearly as much as — or significantly more than — their full-time sources of income.
Image Credit: Courtesy of 437. Hyla Nayeri, left, and Adrien Bettio, right.
Hyla Nayeri and Adrien Bettio, who met as full-time students at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, are two of those side hustlers. Learn how Nayeri and Bettio started and grew their side hustle to millions in sales here.
When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
Adrien: Hyla and I started 437 as a side hustle in summer 2016. We were about to head back to school to finish our final years and hadn't found careers we were passionate about pursuing yet. I had spent the summer interning at the corporate office of a fashion house in Toronto, and Hyla had spent the summer interning at a startup incubator. Neither of us was excited by the work we had been doing, and we got to talking about what careers we were actually interested in.
We both loved the idea of combining our interests in fashion with our business backgrounds, so we decided to start a business. As part of our school's study abroad program, we had been living in Europe the previous year and were obsessed with traveling to every hot beach destination we could get to. During these travels, we realized how many styles were missing from our dream bikini wardrobes and joked about starting a business to bring more bikini styles to North America. Fast forward to the day we decided to start a company: It was a no-brainer to launch a swim brand to create amazing designs we hadn't seen on the market in North America. The brand eventually evolved into the active and studio wear brand we are today.
What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground?
Adrien: We didn't waste any time. Within the hour, we had decided on the name (437 after the number of the house we lived in at university), built a website and created social pages. We figured that getting started would be the hardest part, so we agreed that "done" was more important than "done perfectly." We used the first year in business to test our product and marketing and slowly refine it until we got it to a place we were happy with. The logo we launched with was a basic Canva font on a simple background, our first photoshoot was shot on Hyla with me as the photographer, the first few years we submitted our design tech packs ourselves with no design experience, etc. We chose to look at everything as a work in progress and let the learnings from going to market help determine how we should refine our product and branding.
Image Credit: Courtesy of 437
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while building your side hustle, and how did you navigate them?
Adrien: The biggest challenge we continue to face is managing cash flow. We're a bootstrapped brand, so cash has always been tight for us. About six years into being a swimwear brand, we launched into activewear. Our customers loved the attention to detail we brought them with our designs, and we felt that we could deliver an active product that was missing in the market: a line that blended classic, functional styles with feminine detailing. As our activewear gained traction, we reached a crossroads where our cash flow wouldn't allow us to buy enough active inventory to fulfill demand while also continuing to design and produce new swim collections. This cash flow challenge prompted us to pivot to activewear exclusively. Sometimes, your biggest challenges force you to make tough decisions and take risks you wouldn't normally make. In this case, it has been a blessing for us.
Hyla: Burnout was also a huge challenge. 437 easily became my entire identity for the first few years of the business, so you can only imagine what would happen to my mental health as the business went up and down. After almost hitting rock bottom, I realized the importance of 437 not becoming my "everything" and making sure I was watering my relationships, passions and hobbies, too.
How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
Adrien: It took two full years before we saw consistent monthly revenue with 437. In the first year, we ran the business while doing school full-time. The second year in business, Hyla and I worked on 437 full-time. We were both living at our parents' houses, trying to grow the company, and our families supported us as we weren't getting paid. In mid-2018, after three months of consistently making $20,000 in revenue, we moved into a condo/office in downtown Toronto, where we both lived and stored all our inventory. Later that same year, once the company reached a consistent six-figure monthly revenue, we took our first paychecks.
Image Credit: Courtesy of 437
What does growth and revenue look like now?
Adrien: Since becoming an activewear brand, we've been excited to see how different revenue performance is. We have much more consistent monthly revenue without the extreme seasonal fluctuations that we were accustomed to with swim. Our activewear has grown at a multiple of 3.5x per year on average since it launched in 2022. Without the cash constraints of producing both swimwear and activewear, we'll finally be able to produce the amount of inventory needed to meet demand, with a goal of having fewer stockouts than in prior years. With a focus on maintaining profitability, we feel that targeting a 300% growth in EBITDA from last year is well within our ability, given how strong this year has started off.
What do you enjoy most about running this business?
Adrien: I love that the company gets to grow and evolve with me. The person I was at 21 when Hyla and I started the company is so different from who I am now at 29. I'm very proud of all the work we have done on ourselves and on the company to create a dream workplace. We employ an amazing team of women (our whole team is between the ages of 24 and 43) who oversee everything from design to supply chain and customer service. Our team is small (with only seven of us!), which we love, and it makes it possible for us to get feedback on what everyone values and use that information to inform decisions. For example, last summer, we introduced a four-day workweek, and we've decided to make it permanent because everyone loved the balance it helped bring to their lives.
Image Credit: Courtesy of 437
What's your advice for others hoping to start successful side hustles or full-time businesses of their own?
Adrien: Just start. A million things are going to get in the way, and the inaction that comes from feeling like everything needs to be perfectly planned is what kills most business ideas before they even get off the ground. If Hyla and I hadn't started when the idea first came to us, I'm sure life would have gotten in the way, so I'm very grateful we launched without overthinking it.
Hyla: As you embark on starting and growing your business, be sure not to jeopardize your health, peace and relationships. It's easy to get distracted by your business and ignore other priorities. At the end of it all, no one says, "I wish I had worked more." Starting a business is so rewarding and beautiful, but continue to take inventory of the other integral areas of your life along the way.
