10 Startups Helping People Launch Their Own Side-Hustles

Starting side hustles is becoming more and more popular among UK workers, so that they can generate multiple streams of income due to the rising cost of living, and the pursuit of personal passions. There are so many different side hustles to try out, for creating these revenue streams. Luckily, side hustlers can be supported by startups that are making it easier than ever for individuals to take on these entrepreneurial paths.
 

1. GreenPal – The Uber for Lawn Care

At GreenPal, our core mission is to empower individuals to kickstart their own side hustle in the lawn mowing and landscaping business.

Through our platform, we’ve seen many of our service providers rake in over $100 an hour, making it not just a side hustle, but a lucrative full-time gig for many.

GreenPal bridges the gap between homeowners looking for reliable lawn care services and local professionals seeking to expand their client base.

We provide the digital tools and marketplace necessary for lawn care pros to connect with customers in their area, manage their schedules, and receive payments, all in one user-friendly app. This enables anyone with the drive and work ethic to start and grow their lawn care business with minimal upfront investment.

Our platform is designed to remove the traditional barriers to entry in the lawn care industry, such as marketing and customer acquisition costs, by providing a steady stream of clients right to your digital doorstep.

With GreenPal, launching a side hustle in lawn care has never been easier, offering a flexible schedule that fits around your life, whether you’re looking to supplement your income or build a lawn care empire.

2. Gruuvv

Gruuvv is a pioneering platform designed to bridge the gap between event organisers and DJs, transforming the way DJ services are discovered, booked, and managed.

At its core, Gruuvv is about empowering up-and-coming DJs, helping them turn their passion for music into a thriving career. Historically, DJs were among the original gig workers, heavily relying on word-of-mouth referrals to secure bookings. This traditional method, while effective to some extent, limits their exposure and growth potential.

Gruuvv aims to revolutionise this by providing DJs with a digital stage to showcase their talent to a wider audience. By creating a profile on Gruuvv, DJs gain access to a vast network of event organisers actively seeking their services. Our platform matches DJs with events that fit their style and preferences, ensuring a seamless fit for both parties. Additionally, Gruuvv offers tools for DJs to manage bookings, receive feedback, and understand market rates, helping them professionalise their service offerings.

For DJs looking to transition from a side hustle to a full-time career, Gruuvv is a game-changer. It opens up opportunities beyond their immediate network, allowing for increased bookings, greater income stability, and the chance to build a reputable brand in the DJing community. By moving away from solely word-of-mouth referrals, Gruuvv is setting a new standard in the industry, making it easier for DJs to succeed and grow on their terms.

3. GoStudent

GoStudent is an education company that is committed to reimagining learning. Amongst its other offerings, the company facilitates 1:1 video-based tuition, with lessons taking place within the company’s custom-made virtual classroom, GoClass. Aimed at students aged 6-18, GoStudent offers personalised support for more than 30 school subjects.

Believing the right student-tutor match is crucial to academic success, GoStudent pairs tutors with students based on their learning style and needs.

Currently, more than 23,000 self-employed tutors offer their services via GoStudent. By choosing GoStudent, tutors can ensure a steady supply of students and can flex their tutoring schedule to their needs.

In order to offer their services via the GoStudent platform, tutors undergo a rigorous selection process, involving a subject matter test, demonstration of teaching ability and background check.

4. hampr

hampr is a great side hustle – especially for caretakers looking to earn income from home. We are a mom-founded and owned peer-to-peer laundry company – matching up people who want to outsource their laundry with people in the community looking to generate additional income.

The great part about hampr is that there is no opportunity cost for childcare and your schedule is as flexible at you choose. You can pick-up loads of laundry when it makes sense for you and your schedule. hampr pays on a per load basis and our most active washr made over $60k last year.

hampr is the industry-leader for customer service and support for on-demand laundry and our washrs often comment on how supportive and responsive we are to our users – both members and washrs alike.

All you need is a washer and dryer and reliable transportation. We are live in 18 states and growing.

5. Bucephalus

Bucephalus (a Techstars portfolio company) democratises cutting-edge AI supply chain technology, empowering both large enterprises and side hustlers alike. Our platform provides the intelligence and actionable insights needed to automate and optimise their operations, akin to the resources of major retailers.

For those managing side hustles, Bucephalus is a game-changer, offering precise demand forecasting, vendor management, inventory & cash flow planning that prevent common pitfalls like overstocking or understocking. This ensures that even the smallest online retailers can meet customer demand efficiently, without unnecessary capital tied up in unsold inventory.

Founded by a former Amazon AI researcher, Bucephalus utilises deep attention networks, reinforcement learning, and Large Action Models to enhance forecast accuracy and risk management, offering a comprehensive suite for supply and demand planning.

Simplifying supply chain complexities, Bucephalus allows entrepreneurs to focus on growth and go beyond predictive planning to and take action towards goals. By making sophisticated supply chain intelligence accessible to all, Bucephalus ensures that every business, regardless of size, is equipped to thrive in today’s market.
 

6. FrontHouz

FrontHouz is the highest paying gig platform, revolutionising the hospitality industry by addressing the persistent staffing challenges. The vision behind FrontHouz is simple: connect hospitality venues with a pool of pre-trained, on-demand workers.

Amidst historic understaffing, FrontHouz provides a lifeline to venues, saving thousands in lost revenue per shift and streamlining hiring and training processes. In addition, workers utilising FrontHouz can make up to or over $5000 a month depending on their time commitment and earned tips. FrontHouz is transforming the future of work in the hospitality industry, benefiting both restaurants and skilled professionals alike.

7. Airtasker

Airtasker is a local services marketplace that connects people who need tasks completed with people who want to work. With its mission of empowering people to realse the full value of their skills, Airtasker aims to have a positive impact on the future of work by creating truly flexible opportunities to earn income.

Unlike other platforms that have fairly rigid rules, price minimums, and limited task categories, Airtasker is infinitely horizontal – meaning the variety of tasks its users can post and taskers can complete are virtually endless. Airtasker believes that people all have skills they can monetise.

Besides regular household jobs such as cleaning, home repairing, and gardening, the platform also has a lot of unique tasks including beauty services, translation/transcription, baking, recreating famous desserts, etc.

The wide breadth of jobs encourages people to maximise their skills. With the platform, people can easily start a side hustle using their unique skills.

Since launching in Australia in 2012, Airtasker has grown its global community to over 4.7 million members across Australia, the UK, and the United States. Following its acquisition of Zaarly in May 2021, Airtasker launched in the U.S. with Los Angeles as its priority market.

8. Customer IQ

Customer IQ is a market research consultancy that focuses on helping startup founders and their teams. For those who are contemplating starting a side hustle we can help them in a number of ways – eg. to assess their market size, review their competition through to providing affordable online training to give them the knowledge and – more crucially the confidence – to carry out their own market research projects.

More often than not, those who are considering launching a side hustle need to sound out their idea with someone else in order to gain some confidence that their idea might work. We happily provide some free time to chat with them to give them some objective feedback.

Honest feedback is what is most needed and we can also suggest ideas to help them validate their idea before they commit too much time and money into it. Our philosophy is that reducing as much risk as possible in the very risky world of starting a business is your best shot at success.

9. Salesfolks

Salesfolks is the leading platform for building and managing your sales career. More than 40,000 sales professionals across the U.S. use Salesfolks to find interest sales roles, receiving training, and get paid as a sales professional. Ranked #1 organically in Google and Bing for “hire salespeople” and “find sales reps.”

10. The Portfolio Collective (TPC)

Founded during lockdown, The Portfolio Collective (TPC) is a global community of 10,000+ portfolio professionals. Members are a diverse mix of independent experts working in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

They include ex-founders, scaleup functional leaders, strategy consultants, mentors, coaches, NEDs, angel investors, authors, creatives and academics. TPC helps members understand, launch, manage and grow their portfolio careers – from the first side hustle through to ‘ditching the day job’ and going all-in for full independence.