We don’t think investing or monetizing hobbies are necessarily bad things. Many founders started their entrepreneurial journey doing side hustles. So this behavior doesn’t surprise us. 

But if you and your co-founder have a goal to build the next billion-dollar company, choosing to do business things unrelated to your big mission can be a red flag. 

Look, building a company is hard. You can probably get away with some day trading or starting a podcast if you plan to build a lifestyle business. But building a high-growth, rocketship company is INSANELY difficult. It requires your full focus for the next 10+ years to have any real shot of success. 

There are an endless amount of things to do to scale your startup. And the best founders are obsessive about the problem they’re solving, so there shouldn’t be much pull to do other things. 

Lastly, the highest leverage activities would be to work on the main business so you can one day reach a billion-dollar valuation. Earning a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars on the side might be nice but it doesn’t seem to fit in the bigger picture.

If you need to find creative ways to make money in order to extend your runway, we get it. The Airbnb founders sold cereal to fund the company in the early days… do what you need to do to survive.  

If you have enough funds to get by, there’s no reason your main business focus should be on anything but the startup.