Roadmap: Enabling entrepreneurship in the creator economy

Law 3: Side hustle to main hustle

We are excited about technology platforms and products that democratize the CEO by reducing the friction of starting and scaling a small business.

The most successful sub-categories we’ve observed are those that start as “side hustles” but can eventually evolve into lucrative careers. A great example of this is Substack, a platform that makes it easy to start an email newsletter subscription.

1. Regulation - Navigating local and federal regulations can be incredibly complex, requiring trips to city hall and reams of paperwork. There is also often substantial effort required to procure necessary licenses, insurance, and approvals. This is all, of course, before a business even gets up and running!

Reducing the friction for individuals is key. But as outlined in Law #1, churn is inevitable, so it is critical to retain the most successful customers, even and especially as they grow to require enterprise level features and support. This means progressively building functionality to support the upmarket opportunity without distracting from the s... See more

Three major forces creating headwinds for aspiring small business owners

3. Access to capital - Despite explosive growth in early stage venture funding, many SMBs and solopreneurs are unable to secure the funding they need to operate.

There are also promising cultural and macro shifts supporting a resurgence of entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small businesses.

2. The big get bigger - The antithesis of greenfield, today’s big box retailers and large tech incumbents often suck the air out of the room and capture disproportionate share of consumer spend.

Although startup culture sometimes feels more like pop culture in mainstream media, the number of new businesses formed each year is decreasing. Over the past 30 years, new business creation has declined almost 50%.