University friends turn side hustle into $1m business in just two years | Personal Finance | Finance
Two friends from university were able to transform their side hustle into a successful $1million in just two years.
While on their exchange program at UC Berkeley in California, David Chevalier and Romain Ginestou co-founded Surfe, a tech company currently based in France.
Surfe helps businesses find new contacts through a close integration with LinkedIn and Sales Navigator. The idea for Surfe came when the entrepreneurial duo realised how “daunting” it was for businesses to find the right people to talk to.
Speaking exclusively to The Daily Express US, the duo discussed the trials and tribulations they have faced along the way.
Mr Chevalier said: “It’s difficult to say exactly how much Surfe was earning as a side hustle as the figure changed quickly and the company soon became their main focus.
“But we both remember the moment we realised we had reached €1,000 (£860) monthly recurring revenue.
“When we saw the revenue more than double in their first quarter, we decided to invest fully into it. Soon we hired our first employee, a product manager to help identify the needs of their customers and really build a product that provided value.”
Within the two years of the company’s launch, it was raking in €1million (around £860k) annually without a sales team in place.
However, the company’s journey was not all smooth surfing. Mr Ginestou opened up about some of the difficulties they faced: “The biggest difficulty we faced in growing their business was expanding the team and hiring the right people, in the right structure, to execute fast.
“At a certain stage, we realised that the size of the team was out-growing the concept of self-management.”
According to the pros, the best tip for those looking to transition a side hustle into a career is to not overthink all of the potential possibilities and to just get started somewhere.
Mr Chevalier said: “You’re always building your product with your customers. Stay close to them. The business idea you have is less important – many people have had similar ideas to businesses like Uber and AirBnB.”
He also believes businesses should bill customers from day one if they are “truly building something of value”.
