When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it? Whiteside: When Ben and I became best friends during our junior year at CU Boulder, one of the things that brought us close was our shared aspiration of building our own thing, not walking a 9-5 path working on someone else’s dream. This shared passion wouldn’t manifest until much later, though.
When I first started dreaming of a hair product company that went beyond styling one’s hair with toxic sh*t, I was working at an ecommerce startup in a marketing and operations role. We were a small team, and the company was struggling hard to establish itself. I learned a ton about problem-solving through the early stages of business, but I had one foot out the door, pulling me toward my calling of being my own entrepreneur.
Dispatches From The Front 